Bristol City spent a deal of money this summer trying to push Liam Manning's side on towards the play-offs, but the remain steadfastly stuck in midtable as doubts persist about the manager's style - we spoke to @fevsfootball.
How's the season been so far for Bristol City?
It is your typical Bristol City, ups and down, but averaging out at win one, lose one, draw one, mid-table no-man’s land. I wouldn’t say it’s going to plan by any stretch of the imagination. It has been a bit frustrating in all honesty.
Without getting too carried away with the perceived but unknown strength of opponents’ pre-season, there was a feeling that City had an easier set of fixtures in the first couple of months and could get off to a flyer. And with a tougher set to follow, a good start was necessary to harbour any hopes of a playoff tilt.
But this is The Championship, and there is no such thing as "should beat” or "free hit”, not for Bristol City anyway.
At the end of the midweek round (GW20) City are 11th with six wins, six losses and eight draws. City fans are in the land of the optimist - "if we were to win the next one or next couple, we’ll be right in it”. Whilst that is true, City don’t ever seem to accomplish it. It seems like City have waited for The Hoops to find some form too, and QPR at Ashton Gate has "away win” history.
City in the league so far…
Hull 1-1 Bristol City Estupinan pen 90 – Mayulu 84
Bristol City 4-3 Millwall Mehmeti 3, Armstrong 12, Mayulu 78, Twine 88 – Esse 51, Bradshaw pen 54, Watmore 64
Bristol City 1-1 Coventry Tanner 45 – Palmer 76
Derby 3-0 Bristol City Goudmijn 28, Jackson 60, Ozoh 89
Blackburn 3-0 Bristol City Travis 17, Ohashi 55, 70
Bristol City 2-1 Oxford Armstrong 57, Wells pen 76 – Rodrigues 28
Swansea 1-1 Bristol City Cabango 15 – Knight 76
Bristol City 0-0 Sheff Wed
Bristol City 1-1 Cardiff McNally 73 – Tanner 54
Boro 0-2 Bristol City Mehmeti 27, Hirakawa 45
Stoke 2-2 Bristol City Koumas 2, Moran 14 – Wells 50, 52
Bristol City 0-0 Leeds
Preston 1-3 Bristol City Greenwood 48 – Hirakawa 6, Wells 51, Bird 81
Bristol City 1-2 Sheff Utd Mehmeti pen 75 – One 86, Burrows 90
Norwich 0-2 Bristol City Mehmeti 16, Wells 63
Bristol City 0-1 Burnley Anthony 23
Watford 1-0 Bristol City Andrews 53
Bristol City 4-0 Plymouth Twine 57, Mehmeti 62, 70, Armstrong 90
Portsmouth 3-0 Bristol City Bishop 20, Murphy 62, Lang 71
Sunderland 1-1 Bristol City Roberts 90 – McNally 62
Big wins and big defeats coming into this game, what can we expect to be facing this Saturday?
Yes, a 4-0 thumping of Plymouth, followed by a 3-0 stuffing by Pompey, but to back-up question one, a 1-1 draw with Sunderland, means any of the three result types are on the cards on Saturday lunchtime. If you take the Portsmouth performance out – a case of not turning up - then I think City have generally been performing consistently over the past 6-8 weeks. Results may be up and down, but we’ve got the results our performances have warranted overall. In effect beat the worse teams, lose to the good teams, close games against those around us, give or take the fluctuations of a low scoring sport.
I’d say we are playing more vertically (quote – Regis Le Bris) than the slow, horizontal (quote – Fevs) stuff we saw earlier this season that saw some turgid matches. We are pressing a bit higher, rather than resorting to a block, and it’s probably a bit easier on the eye. I’m still waiting to see which way, if at all, we break-out of win, lose, draw run. City are losing ground on the top-six and home form offers no safe place to guarantee three points.
I’m not sure I can even give you a hint at the line-up or whether it’ll be back-three, back-four or a hybrid. City might have Scott Twine back after illness, but he’s been fairly average following his big money signing.
Opinions still divided on Liam Manning?
Yep, the fanbase is still pretty split.
For me, 20 league games into this season and 51 league games into his tenure, I’m yet to see the evidence of the (cue, cynical comment) progressive, modern, on-the-grass head-coach, who plays high press, forward thinking, front-foot, attacking football. Couple that with my perception of his inadequacies in-game in terms of tactical nous, I still don’t see how he is the one to take us upwards, unless it’s by throwing money at him. And after the summer window that looks a bit foolhardy. He is just a bit underwhelming for me.
How do you rate your summer business? What needs doing in January?
On paper, early summer recruitment looked fine, good even. But none of us had seen how the new signings would fit into Manning’s tactical system, so we were judging blind.
Add to that the saga of the Scott Twine chase, the Tommy Conway banishment to the u21s for not signing a contract, and the injury to Yu Hirakawa at the Olympics before he’d kicked a ball in anger, and a bit of the gloss was taken off.
City had signed Max Bird in January but had loaned him back to Derby, so he was already through the door. Ditto with Josh Stokes from Aldershot, a "one for the future”. They were added to by: Fally Mayulu (Rapid Wien), Sinclair Armstrong (QPR), Yu Hirakawa (Machida Zelvia – loan), Scott Twine (Burnley), George Earthy (West Ham – loan), Luke McNally (Burnley) and Marcus McGuane (Oxford).
Taylor Gardner-Hickman, signed permanently from WBA in January, went out on loan to Birmingham, which raises questions as to why City bothered with the option-to-buy. It probably felt a 7/10 on paper as the window closed. If I include Conway being sold it’s a 1/10. But once I started to see how the new signings integrated into the squad and Manning’s way of playing it looked a bit all over the place. More below…
So, as for January, I would be saying – "work harder on improving what you’ve got in the building already”.
Ins >>> Scott Twine, 25, AM, Burnley, £3.5m >>> Fally Mayulu, 21, CF, Rapid Vienna, £3m >>> Sinclair Armstrong, 21, CF, QPR, £2.5m >>> Luke McNally, 24, CB, Burnley, Undisclosed >>> Marcus McGuane, 25, DM, Oxford, Undisclosed >>> Yu Hirakawa, 23, RW, Machida Zelvia (Japan), Loan >>> George Earthy, 19, AM, West Ham, Loan
Outs >>> Tommy Conway, 22, CF, Boro, £5m >>> Andreas Weimann, 32, AM, Blackburn, Free >>> Harvey Wiles-Richards, 22, GK, Bath City, Free >>> Jamie Knight-Lebel, 19, CB, Crewe, Loan >>> Ephraim Yeboah, 17, CF, Doncaster, Loan >>> Matty James, 32, CM, Released >>> Andy King, 35, CM, Released >>> Duncan Idehen, 21, CB, Derry City, Free >>> Taylor Gardner-Hickman, 22, CM, Birmingham, Loan >>> Josh Stokes, 20, AM, Cambridge, Loan >>> Jamie Knight-Lebel, 19, CB, Crewe, Loan
How are our former favs Rob Dickie and Sinclair Armstrong getting on?
Sir Nahki of Wells is currently first choice striker having started the season as third choice. That probably tells you something about Armstrong. He started off ok, but over time he’s looked less and less comfortable playing the lone-striker role. I don’t blame him for all of it, I think he’d benefit from a partner, but he struggles with playing more than 45 minutes and by the hour he’s spent. I’m not writing him off, far from it, but he’s got some work to do.
Fake Big Rob (Rob Atkinson is Real Big Rob) hasn’t quite hit the heights of last season, but a hamstring injury and a red-card haven’t helped. Dickie and Vyner formed a great defensive partnership last season, but this season he’s mainly been paired with Luke McNally and the partnership hasn’t really developed yet. Cue 30-yard thunderbastard and clean-sheet on Saturday.
I assume that you no longer mention Nahki Wells as he left almost 5-years ago, but I thought he deserved a mention anyway. He’s been playing well, grabbed five goals in 830 mins and shows little sign of winding down his career. His past two years in BS3 have been the best of his five-year stint. His game is more rounded these days, and I would be very surprised if he doesn’t start at the weekend.
Stand out players in the side?
City have no standouts – we have a pretty even ability squad. But I’d name Dickie and Knight as the two key cogs. Very noticeable that when they both had a shocker at Pompey, the whole team fell apart. Mehmeti is having a productive season too, and Wells (as above) is showing there is still life in the old dog
Weak links?
Again, no real weak links, a hardworking, honest bunch of pros. Vyner is playing right-back at the moment with Tanner and McCrorie injured, but he’s still capable in that position. City’s weakness is probably not really having a matchwinner, someone to produce a bit of magic where it matters.
Revised expectations for the season?
We look nailed on for mid-table, 11th-14th which for me is below par. We spent a decent chunk of money allowing Manning to re-shape the squad, but we sit in 11th place, the same position when he took over, ironically at Loftus Road. As above, a season record of 6-8-6 and an overall record of 17-16-18 hardly screams playoff tilt. Cifuentes’s 52 games have yielded 17-18-17, but Rangers were in a mess when Marti took over. Manning inherited a stable foundation, ready to kick-on. He hasn’t done that.
I predict a 1-1 draw, Dunne and Wells the scorers.
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