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Ex-Staff A Bristol City Fan - U's Thoughts On Liam Manning

H

Headington hillbilly

Bristol City fan
I’m a Bristol City supporter that lived in Headington for many years and went to both the Manor and The Kasam on many occasions.

I need some help here. Manning seems to be completely clueless and is replacing the most popular manager that we have had in 50 years.

Other than the fact he’s a snake, what are the thoughts on this bloke. Supporters in Bristol are already singing songs to fire him after four games and the Lansdowns to get out. I’m at a loss to see what anyone sees/saw in him! He seems like a poor man’s Lee Johnson on steroids!
 
Headington hillbilly said:
I’m a Bristol City supporter that lived in Headington for many years and went to both the Manor and The Kasam on many occasions.

I need some help here. Manning seems to be completely clueless and is replacing the most popular manager that we have had in 50 years.

Other than the fact he’s a snake, what are the thoughts on this bloke. Supporters in Bristol are already singing songs to fire him after four games and the Lansdowns to get out. I’m at a loss to see what anyone sees/saw in him! He seems like a poor man’s Lee Johnson on steroids!
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Well you’ll get lots of responses! He did very well for us, kept us up, recruited well in the summer and got us to second. But he played a quite dull unadventurous style that was I imagine ‘advanced’ and has a really boring voice and manner. There’s a suspicion that he wouldn’t do so well if things were going wrong, he needs to be in control the whole time and isn’t one for fiery passion.
 
Has a style of football that takes time to implement, but proved effective for us after a full pre-season when he was given a chance to bring in players that suited. Starts with the defensive fundamentals of keeping things tight and playing a coordinated high pressing style. Eventually from doing so can create more opportunities from chances from opponents mistakes, or by retaining possession until the chance to pass quickly and break into an attack.

Hard to go into many more details as was a fairly short spell.

Think he'll do fine for you - either because you give him time or you sack him and pay him a decent amount of compensation.
 
The way he left us will lead to revisionism from some on here.

He did enough to keep us up when it looked likely we would be in a massive relegation scrap. We didn’t exactly become world beaters and some of it was down to four teams below us barely picking up any points at all but staying up was sufficient. We simply stayed ahead of those who could have caught us. We became hard to beat at first and then won two key matches in our final three games. Mission accomplished in his first couple of months for Manning.

With the recruitment team in the summer, Manning got it 80% there. Short of a couple positions which we know we need to fill in January, he got us playing a decent, possession-based, high press style. On occasions, it’s been impressive. On others, we’ve been found out in physical battles. In the main, it’s worked though.

As for the person, we’ve gone from an exhausting motormouth in Karl Robinson to an automated robot in Manning. It’s a hell of a gear switch and took some getting used to. Every pre and post match interview was identical to the point of becoming boring. Still, you judge him in results and he got them here. Who cares what ManningGPT has to say after a win, draw or defeat?

His sneaky exit left a sour taste after the club has made a number of adjustments for him to come here. Not many wish him much luck or well in his role when he could have stayed to actually achieve something in his short career. I can’t say for certain whether he’ll succeed at Bristol City. I don’t think anyone will care here if he does. I can see plenty enjoying the schadenfreude if he doesn’t though.
 
Headington hillbilly said:
I’m a Bristol City supporter that lived in Headington for many years and went to both the Manor and The Kasam on many occasions.

I need some help here. Manning seems to be completely clueless and is replacing the most popular manager that we have had in 50 years.

Other than the fact he’s a snake, what are the thoughts on this bloke. Supporters in Bristol are already singing songs to fire him after four games and the Lansdowns to get out. I’m at a loss to see what anyone sees/saw in him! He seems like a poor man’s Lee Johnson on steroids!
Click to expand...

He's had one goodseason in his entire career and made the play-offs at MK Dons but was sacked the following season and that team, his team, ultimately went down to league two.

He was on the footballing scrapheap until we gave him another shot at league one level. When he was appointed I said it was a reward for failure. He did well for us considering out position when he joined compared to when he left.

His historical connections to The City Group clearly continues to seduce boards and undeservingly opens doors for him.
 
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Thanks fellas. Some of that helps. Defensively we didn’t concede many. He comes in and now we do.

His possession tip tapping is boring enough, but you have to have the players. From what I’m reading, the t**t has one way to play, his way, regardless of the skill set he has at his disposal.

This is Lee Johnson all over again and the club ownership are preparing to shower him with the money Pearson brought in for Scott and Semenyo that they denied Pearson.

As I said I was a towny for many years and have decent knowledge of Oxford United and the problems with dumb ass ownership but this bloke may not even make January if he doesn’t get some results. I have never known a crowd starting to get hostile toward a manager after four games, but if you fancy some schadenfreude go on OTIB City fans forum. And don’t be scared to say what you think!
 
Basically plays a low block in defence which means you surrender possession of the ball but its actually hard to break down, not everyones cup of tea.

You can have 1 half where you totally dominate a side without scoring more than 1 goal which then puts any team in with a chance of beating you when your 1 half of dominance is over.

For Manning i think he likes to have control over a team in and out of possession more than actually winning a game of football by scoring plenty of goals.
 
Orkney Islands Yellow said:
He's had one goodseason in his entire career and made the play-offs at MK Dons but was sacked the following season and that team, his team, ultimately went down to league two.

He was on the footballing scrapheap until we gave him another shot at league one level. When he was appointed said it was a reward for failure. He did well for us considering out position when he joined compared to when he left.

His historical connections to The City Group clearly continues to seduce boards and undeservingly opens doors for him.
Click to expand...
The City Group? Fill me in. Who are they?
 
His start was effective, he kept us up, just. If we’d kept Robinson, we’d have gone down.
He was backed massively during the summer by the Oxford board and has managed to bring in some real class. As has been said we still need more firepower up front, but as a team we’ve scored plenty. His style of play though involves plenty of tippy-tappy building from the back. Get a goal and he’s happy to sit back and soak up pressure.
I think one of the major gripes has been that he was able to bring in players to the club with promises of how we will play and what we hope to achieve. The team start to play cohesively then he gets a sniff of the Championship and he’s off like junkie with a bag of smack. No goodbyes to his players, who came in based on his promises. He cleared his s**t and fucked off like a coward. I personally was amazed that an established Championship side would go for him based on the results we’ve had this season, he has nothing of note on his CV. If he gets the push, I think a lot of people here will be thinking it’s karma.
 
I've got to be honest. Having Manning as a manager was like having a robot in charge. Bloody boring and while his football was excellent at times it soon turned into a snore fest of passing sideways and backwards at snails pace.
 
His career he has won nothing, got the sack , jumped ship. Boring robot ,new manager text book speak. Tippy tappy football going nowhere, no oomph to attack, when in control. Interested about him self , if a bigger club comes he'll be gone . No loyalty or integrity, just perfect bad behaviours....
BYE👋👋
 
Headington hillbilly said:
Thanks fellas. Some of that helps. Defensively we didn’t concede many. He comes in and now we do.

His possession tip tapping is boring enough, but you have to have the players. From what I’m reading, the t**t has one way to play, his way, regardless of the skill set he has at his disposal.

This is Lee Johnson all over again and the club ownership are preparing to shower him with the money Pearson brought in for Scott and Semenyo that they denied Pearson.

As I said I was a towny for many years and have decent knowledge of Oxford United and the problems with dumb ass ownership but this bloke may not even make January if he doesn’t get some results. I have never known a crowd starting to get hostile toward a manager after four games, but if you fancy some schadenfreude go on OTIB City fans forum. And don’t be scared to say what you think!
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Hang on, he’s not started that badly - a win and a draw plus the two narrow defeats. And Bristol City always seem to be stuck in 14th, I’m not sure what you’re expecting?
 
Berliner said:
Thanks for the cash for him, we used it to appoint someone who is both more tactically exciting and also devilishly handsome to boot.
Watch out for the coming interviews with Manning, if he says "trusssssst in me" while looking hard at the camera then for God's sake look away.
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Can we please stop pretending he isn't a very mid looking fella. Compared to most football managers maybe he is up there but in general terms...
 
He came to Oxford towards the end of last season and kept us up. ✅
He was given a good budget in the summer and spent it well on the whole. ✅
He did well to get us to second in the table. ✅
Despite the fact we gave him a chance to resurrect his career and would possibly have been given further budget in January to complete the squad building he jumped ship at the first opportunity. He obviously doesn't believe he can achieve promotion from League 1 never mind prosper in the Championship! 🐍❌
 
Worth noting that on paper things went well for him here. But….

1. He inherited a high quality squad who had a number of good seasons that just happened to have been poorly managed and were low on morale and form last season
2. He was substantially backed financially and his summer was supported by a very good recruitment set up for this level (see our pipeline last few years - eg sykes Atkinson dickie ). As such he had a big advantage in terms of the quality of players and depth of squad compared to most league one competitors. He won’t have that at city unless I’m short on knowledge of your finances relative to other championship clubs
3. He’s clearly not an idiot but I’d be interested to see how he goes on a team that isn’t winning (see mk dons referenced above )

Thanks for coming on here and posting reasonably.
 
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He speaks management speak a lot
 
He kept us up (which was a huge positive of course) but as many of us said, he had a decent squad to work with that had been shamefully neglected by Robinson, who sometime gave the appearance of actually wanting to get sacked he was so useless last season. So, thankful we stayed up, but not convinced any competent manager wouldn't have had a fighting chance of doing so.

He did well this season - not sure how much input he had into some of the signings, but many of them have worked out OK. There is at least one (McEachran) who looks like a LM signing as he had him at MK who has been a bit underwhelming, but the recruitment in general was a plus. He's not an 'exciting' personality (although after KR that was seen as a good thing!), and his brand of football is very possession based, keep the ball at all costs. Depending on your viewpoint that can be a bit dull - I suspect, like all things managerial, if you are winning it's OK but if you are losing it is incredibly frustrating to watch.

The way he left was pretty whiffy - again, you might call it 'professional' or 'ambitious' in modern football terms. It certainly showed (IMO) an indecent haste to climb the slippery managerial pole. If he does OK for you he will be off to a higher club if he gets the chance - if not, you'll be stuck with him!

I don't have much feeling towards him either way - here for too short a time, did his job competently, left. Don't think he'd be welcome back any time soon though.

Edit - as Oxford57 above says, you'll soon get bored of 'behaviours'!
 
LM was the perfect antidote for me from KR. KR spoke utter tosh and often left me feeling embarrassed. By the end of his tenure I was probably more "out of love" with OUFC than ever before.

Then came in LM, and we started looking like the OUFC I thought we should be, reflecting our very decent playing budget. There was a clear "style" with the high press. Recruitment was very good, albeit I'm not sure how much of that was down to Waldron and how much to LM. We missed out on signing a true number 9 which may cost us at the end of the season, but it was a good recruitment.

In game tactically Manning is leagues above Robinson, but I don't think that is really saying much.

Manning going to Brizzle just didn't make sense to me. He had the chance to actually get something positive on his managerial CV and he blew it. We are a forward thinking club, hopefully moving into a new stadium. A mid-table Championship club and leaving at the first opportunity speaks volumes about the man to me. Did he back himself to get promoted here? I'm not so sure.

Word of advice to the original poster - Just don't listen/watch his post match interviews. The 'modern football' waffle and chatgpt answers and repetitive use of the same words builds frustration, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is results on the pitch. When Manning was here I just ignored all that.
 
Headington hillbilly said:
I’m a Bristol City supporter that lived in Headington for many years and went to both the Manor and The Kasam on many occasions.

I need some help here. Manning seems to be completely clueless and is replacing the most popular manager that we have had in 50 years.

Other than the fact he’s a snake, what are the thoughts on this bloke. Supporters in Bristol are already singing songs to fire him after four games and the Lansdowns to get out. I’m at a loss to see what anyone sees/saw in him! He seems like a poor man’s Lee Johnson on steroids!
Click to expand...

He loves a buzz word…

City players will be out ‘on the grass’
Manning and the players will be ‘aligned’
‘It’s a process, right’?

Are you at the ‘start of a journey’? Asking for a friend.

He did a reasonable job here but was very well supported financially and via his chosen support network that the club bank rolled for him.

Let’s see where City are in 6 months. I’d suggest between 10-16th and not much further forward than under Pearson.
 
Headington hillbilly said:
I’m a Bristol City supporter that lived in Headington for many years and went to both the Manor and The Kasam on many occasions.

I need some help here. Manning seems to be completely clueless and is replacing the most popular manager that we have had in 50 years.

Other than the fact he’s a snake, what are the thoughts on this bloke. Supporters in Bristol are already singing songs to fire him after four games and the Lansdowns to get out. I’m at a loss to see what anyone sees/saw in him! He seems like a poor man’s Lee Johnson on steroids!
Click to expand...
I personally found the way he played quite boring. Even when we'd win it never felt very exciting or all that enjoyable.
 
OX14 said:
I think the main problem he had was he never completely took the handbrake off. Also his interviews bored me to death.
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I've always preferred managers with a bit of bite to them.

I know Robbo wasn't everyone's cup of team but there was no doubt he cared deeply.

The 'soft' 'measured' approach is all good and well but it doesn't invoke a feeling of passion or care.
 
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