\n Despite a positive opening 25 minutes, City looked toothless and disjointed as they kick-started the Liam Manning era with a disappointing defeat courtesy of two second-half strikes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n City’s new-look side contained five starting debutants playing in a new three-at-the-back system against an Alex Neil team that is well-drilled and contains plenty of continuity.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Whilst Wright was disappointed that City couldn’t capitalise on the new-found optimism that has\u00a0bubbled away throughout the summer, he was quick to recognise that time was needed to build on-pitch chemistry and understand the new tactical ideas.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s obviously\u00a0disappointing for the lads and the fans.\u00a0There’s been a great build-up to this game.\u00a0We worked so hard throughout pre-season, but the result today isn’t going to define us as a team.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “A lot of changes happened over the summer, a lot of new signings, a new manager, a new way of playing.\u00a0What happened today wasn’t ideal, it wasn’t what we all wanted,” Wright said post-match.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “We all went in wanting to hit the ground running and create some serious momentum,\u00a0but us not being able to do that today, it’s not going to define us as a team or where we finish this season.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There’s not going to be an easy game this year. Millwall came here with a game plan and they pulled it off today.\u00a0We need to go away and look at what we can get better at and what we can improve, and we’ll go from there.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Jacob Wright was left frustrated by City’s struggle to create opportunities. (Image: Paul Chesterton\/Focus Images Ltd) City’s lack of chance creation was a concern, amassing just three shots on target and recording just 16 touches in the opposition penalty area – nearly half of Millwall’s total across the 90 minutes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “I think that’s probably one of the most frustrating things,\u00a0especially in the first half,” the midfielder reflected.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “We felt we really dominated the ball early on.\u00a0Pinning them back and for us not to create that many clear-cut\u00a0chances is something that is a bit disappointing\u00a0and something that we definitely need to work on.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “The boys are strong, everyone’s strong, we’re in this together.\u00a0We’ve got the rest of the day to reflect on this and then we’re back in tomorrow and ready on Watford.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite a positive opening 25 minutes, City looked toothless and disjointed as they kick-started the Liam Manning era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-332901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115004025334617692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}