Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson makes no apology for his controversial one up front policy By a_stockhausen | Posted: March 09, 2017 Lee Johnson makes no apology for his continued adherence to the controversial policy of playing one up front in home games.Deemed negative by some supporters, the head coach has regularly gone into Championship games this season with just one striker in his starting line-up. That strategy has proved unpopular with fans, many of whom adhere to the old adage that you play two up front at home and seek to put the opposition under pressure. On the rare occasion when he did accede to fan pressure and start a home game with twin strikers, City lost control of the midfield and suffered a confidence-sapping 2-0 defeat at the hands of Fulham. Having since admitted he made a mistake in his team selection and tactics, City’s head coach reverted to his favoured 4-1-4-1 team shape for Tuesday’s home clash against Championship play-off hopefuls Norwich City. But having opted for strength in numbers in the middle of the pitch, Johnson saw his team struggle to exert sustained pressure in a first half in which they barely laid a glove on the opposition. The introduction of Matty Taylor to play up front alongside Aaron Wilbraham made an immediate difference, while the subsequent arrival on the pitch of Milan Djuric and Lee Tomlin altered the balance of power sufficiently to enable the Robins to come from behind and salvage a 1-1 draw. They might even have won the game in a frenetic finale in which they put a desperately tired Norwich side under the cosh. Asked about his team selection and tactics by journalists who noticed the disparity between City’s first and second-half performance, Johnson gave a detailed explanation of his strategy. “I know people will have been saying ‘hey Johnson, why are you playing one up front at home’? It’s a fair question, but you only have to go back to the Fulham game to see why I did it. “We went two up front in that game and it turned out to be a bad decision. You have to make an honest assessment of the opposition." Johnson said: “We have not been getting enough good results whereby we can go ‘there’s your 4-4-2 at the start of the season and now play 46 games with the same team’. We need energy to play our game and, at Newcastle for example, the ploy of playing midfield runner in behind a big forward worked well. The thinking was very similar for this game against another top side. “Sometimes, if you go 4-4-2 too early in the game, good players play around you, especially if they have top-class players in the centre of midfield like Fulham and Norwich.” Johnson attributed City’s disappointing first-half display to a lack of confidence. He said: “You still need to put your foot on the ball and you need to play. We went a little bit too direct and Aaron Wilbraham was getting blocked out. “But it is horses for courses and we needed to stay solid and then go for it later in the game. In those games where you believe you will be the dominant side and have more of the ball, you can afford to go with two up front. “In the end, the substitutes made a really good impact, and the strength of our bench could be our saviour this season. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/bristo...front-policy/story-30189993-detail/story.html
It's his take on things, right or wrong. I don't have a problem with him explaining himself & thoughts....If he didn't say anything, that would be wrong too..
It's all very well and good to explain your actions but when you are using your words to try and cover up your total ineptitude they somewhat lose their meaning. In other words Lee you clearly have no idea about running a successful football club so therefore these constant tweets and press releases are a total waste of time whilst becoming very annoying. Do you really have no idea that your tenure at Bristol City will go down as the worst in the club's history, or at least the recent past, and if you combine that with the vitriol doing the rounds, and continuing to take your salary under false pretenses like you are would have got you booted out the door a long time ago at any other club.
When he comes out with the same remarks week in,week out.it goes in one ear,then straight out of the other. He waffles along as if the fans are thick as ****.
In other words Lee you clearly have no idea about running a successful football club At least he's in good company down there in BS3 Mike....
They've got a complete team of them angelic and it's a shame none of them can play football. Then again it's becoming obvious, even to most passionate of supporters, that they haven't got a clue what football is yet alone run club. I think this will become our worst season on the public relations front but it might improve when they learn what the word public actually means.