Press news in...

🟡🟢 Liam Manning has joined us in the Colney press room. Here we go...
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We start with fitness issues. Lucien Mahovo has entered Manning's thoughts and "will be an important part" of things going forward. Manning still likely to give him some game time as a substitute before expecting him to start.

Kenny McLean came through the Stoke game well, but "it's still going to be a bit of time" for Gabriel Forsyth after his minor knee surgery. Shane Duffy isn't training at the moment and "keeps having minor bits flare up", but isn't far off.

Manning: "I think we have to develop a robustness where we're able to. It's one of those - the lads have been in to do a bit of recovery and we'll now make a decision on who can play on Wednesday."

On whether he expected to be further along than he is: "It's different with every group you work with. The volume of change we've had, you need to have experiences to grow. Being able to suffer and stick together with help us, but the biggest bit is that we need to control games. That performance is the biggest thing we're looking for on Wednesday."

Manning wants his players to be braver on the ball. "It stats with the head for me," he says. "It starts with the mind. I know it's in there, it's just how do we do it consistently? It's relishing the challenge and owning that aspect. That's the biggest bit for me."

On Jacob Wright: "I think we need everybody with the same mindset, I don't think it can be on one person. We need everyone wanting the ball. Jacob's trained really well. I've been pleased with Pelle and Kenny's back as well. We need people stepping up. I've seen real quality in Jacob."

On Anis Ben Slimane: "He's actually picked up an injury. After the window shut I saw a real spike and took him aside and showed him that he was really close. He's got a quad injury and will be out for months." No surgery required.

LM says City have "had some tough conversations" about injuries. Club made some tweaks in the summer that haven't had the desired effect, and Manning seems frustrated with the problems that keep cropping up.

On home record and fans: "We have to earn credit. We haven't got enough credit in the bank at the minute. We have to give the fans something to get behind, and there are numerous parts to that."

On West Brom: "They're hard to beat. I watched so many games in the week and the margins are really fine. We have to make sure that we step up and take the game to them. We'll be quite clear on how they'll set up, but once the whistle blows it's on us."

Manning says this week is an opportunity and he's "really looking forward to it". Wants his side to show consistency now the games are coming thick and fast.

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That's all from the City boss. Onto West Brom...

Posted By: DrDublin on September 29th 2025 at 17:06:22

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