Sorry Lee but Bristol City are still short of a striker and battering ram Head coach should revisit decision not to replace Milan Djuric If the Robins had had Milan Djuric on Tuesday night I firmly believe that Bristol City would have been in that draw for the second round of the Carabao Cup. As the head coach explained in Wednesday's press conference, City had some 20+ crosses into the box while the Robins peppered the Plymouth goal with chipped up crosses for the last 15 minutes or so against Derek Adams' side. Less the siege of the Alamo, more the siege of Raynes Road as Callum O'Dowda, Andreas Weimann and Lloyd Kelly swung balls over as City attacked the goal in front of the South Stand. But no-one connected with those attacks and no-one could beat the Pilgrims' Irish defender Niall Canavan in the air on the night. please log in to view this image Milan Djuric of Bristol City celebrates his goal with team mates after making it 1-0 There was little wrong in the midfield build-up play but as the head coach himself admitted, there was just no 'je ne sais quoi' in the last three games to see off Plymouth. The big Bosnia and Herzegovina forward was perhaps no Ronaldo, with respect, but Djuric did hit occasional match winners when games were tight - even if he was unfit for much of the time. He particularly profited from Bristol City's wing play, while on Tuesday the attackers were simply not suited to attacking high balls into the box and breaking down a low block. Yes, Famara Diedhiou will return in three games' time but what if - as many Robins supporters have rightfully pointed out - he becomes injured? City need another option for those chaotic final moments in games where it becomes hit and hope. Don't get me wrong, this writer has been impressed by Mo Eisa. The 24-year-old keeps finding good positions and it surely won't be long until he finds the back of the net if he continues to do so. And while Tammy Abraham only scored two goals in his first four league games - both against Burton - after Hordur Magnusson was eventually credited with the winning score against Wigan on Match-day 1 in the 2016-17 season (even if Abraham did net against Wycombe in the EFL Cup), that goes to show that it's possible to start slowly and get on a great scoring run. I can only surmise that the current thinking by the Robins coaching staff is that Eisa needs to be afforded the time on the pitch and that at 6ft he can ultimately play that spearhead role. Otherwise, it looks like the plan is for Andreas Weimann or Jamie Paterson to drop deep to create for a mobile front man such as Taylor or Eisa. please log in to view this image Mohamed Eisa of Bristol City challenges for the ball Robins fans will need patience to see the best of the ex-Cheltenham Town forward, and even Matty Taylor who has still only shown glimpses of what he can offer to the Robins, Tuesday being another missed opportunity for the former Rovers man. But what Djuric offered was the occasional get-out-of-jail-free card, as shown against Ipswich Town at home last season and Sunderland away. And Bristol City shouldn't easily dismiss having such an unashamed back-up plan. Johnson has explained that the decision to not bring in another physical option is down to finances but I don't believe that. I'm sure if the case was made then Steve Lansdown and the board would back the signing of another striker at the right budget point to offer another aerial threat for the Robins. Or even a loan would suffice if the right man could be found, either from the Premier League underbelly or lower leagues. That would provide cover should Famara Diedhiou get injured or help to bring the best from Taylor or Eisa who look like they'd excel more from the space afforded by a target man alongside them, and should an effective partnership not be forthcoming. As well as Diedhiou, Bristol City still need a jack in the box. A physical presence present for those times when the match result is up in the air. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sorry-lee-bristol-city-still-1907288
Surely when we knew Fammy was suspended for 6 games, the fact we had sold our star man (Reid) for £10m, the decision to move Djuric on by our management, we either had to change our style of play to suit the shorter player or sign up a taller, stronger striker, it's plainly obvious showering the penalty area with high balls is futile, you can't keep blaming Taylor if he is unable to reach the ball or surrounded by Amazons or Eisa who's only experience is level 4, good on Weimann for sc0ring 2 in the circumstances but that is why we paid £2m plus for him, skill and experience, imagine how many more he could have scored with a big man along side him. You can't keep falling back on the old adage lack of finance being as we are sitting on a £6m profit , no,once again we are caught out with bad planning, wrong tactics or complacency, not trying to blame LJ soley but there is only one direction you can point the finger of blame and that is at our management team. We are being told we are finished in the transfer or loanee market, it's obvious we are lacking in the gk and striker areas, action and leadership is needed vey quickly, not platitudes and comforting words or we are going to fall to far behind.
The problem saying/ thinking the profit made, should be paid out on new players is, it won’t cover the operating loss over the year. I think I read that last season we lost 14 million. As a club we can’t keep expecting SL to fund these losses and learn to operate as a club. As Wolves showed last season and Florest this season stay in the black for two rolling seasons allows a 39 million gamble on year three. Don’t quite understand why Florest can do it when one of their years was because they were under embargo I think. But that is another debate over FFP.
Slight change of direction possibly going on, now it's rumoured he may be bringing in a striker on loan, talk about u-turns but if this one is true good on LJ. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...istol-city-inquiring-bringing-striker-1908577
Are we really that toothless up front? Ok I’ve been following the first few games from my bedroom (in Costa Del Sol to be precise) but the stats look as if we are getting plenty of efforts on goal: The forest game stats showed we had 6 shots on target - same as they did. Ok they had more attempts overall but our respective keepers had the same amount of work to do: Again with the Bolton game, we gave their keeper plenty of work to do: We forced their keeper into making 3 saves, plus scoring twice. They scored with the only 2 shots they had on target. We also must have frightened both teams to death - look at the foul stats - both teams kicked us to bits. Weiman is scoring - it looks to me like we gave Forest and Bolton plenty of problems - if anything it was THEM who were lucky - definitely Bolton were.
So you’ve based that on one game you’ve seen on TV, that you want a defensive midfielder that in the last five years has had 5 clubs?
The defence is more of a priority imo , we lost Bryan Flint and mags , we’ve only bought 2 in as replacements , one of which is a young , inexperienced loan signing , take your point about Djuric though , we have no one to fill his role . The strikers we have mostly are too similar, I also worry about the keeper. I wasn’t over impressed first game , accept one game isn’t enough to judge , so will give him more time before making a decision . I’m sure he’ll have pleased the people on here who think a keepers main role is distribution, I’m more old school who believe the main role is shot stopping .
INTERESTING how the EvilPost can write so much about a bit part player that OK if he had been available would have been a target man ...but guarantee he would have scored .. we might even have lost by more! at least one sensible comment patience … MO before he got injured had shown a few glimpses in small number of minutes …. when do you define "few final minutes for hoof it time?" and at what state is the game .. draw or losing?
Bristol City were **** when they hoofed it last season. Bristol City are improving this season because they are hoofing it less.
Pretty football alone will not get you out of this division......must be able to mix it up sometimes and grind results out...(Cardiff)
Warnock hardly binned his football when it got tougher neither did Wolves and Fulham. Plenty of teams play their way out of the Championship.
You are inferring that Warnock played his way out of the championship with football............which must be of course a joke...
Warnock gets a lot of stick on here and is labelled as being ‘anti football’, but he gets results and is a master at getting teams into the Prem. I find the panto villain quite entertaining to be honest - and I have a lot of respect for him. His achievements speak for themselves. Do I want his style of football at AG week in week out? No - but I would tolerate it for 1 season if it took us up.
I don't have a problem with Warnock, in fact I have always said, he knows how to get out of the championship, he's an expert at it....... Going back to my original quote.. "pretty football alone will not get you out of this division......must be able to mix it up sometimes and grind results out...(Cardiff).. Red Alert quoted "Warnock hardly binned his football when it got tougher neither did Wolves and Fulham. Plenty of teams play their way out of the Championship." And I'm saying, not sure he had anything to bin.................How this conversation got on to Warnock
Right I get you now. I was saying he doesn't bin his football when it gets tough what you think of his football is up to you but he doesn't change and neither did Fulham and Wolves last season they kept at what they were about. City last season played like different sides and it cost them dearly.
