A Rubbish Bristol City Side With No Identity and a Lack of Ideas

'What is Lee Johnson thinking? A rubbish Bristol City side with no identity and a lack of ideas'
By Matthew Withers
Our fans columnist doesn't hold back after the Robins awful home defeat to Preston North End.

Last week I was struggling to find the words following defeat away to Reading, this week one word comes all too easily “Rubbish”. Is that harsh? Not for a moment, I think I’m being kind!

What I witnessed on Saturday at home to Preston was a team playing with a lack of any cohesion or direction, a team playing with no identity and a team who are light years away from the team that played the high tempo, fast flowing, and free football for a large part of last season.

Yes, last season has gone and we are a different team but what has happened to the philosophy of how to play? And Lee stop trotting out the excuse that we are a new side or a young side, it doesn’t wash.

The manager opted to match up against Preston rather than pick a team and formation based on how he wants to play the game. We played three at the back with Kalas, Webster and Baker. I put them in that order as any Bristol City fan that has seen us play would have had Webster in the middle and Baker left but not LJ.

Lee played Kalas right of the 3 with Baker in the middle and Webster on the left. Was it a coincidence that defensively Webster had his poorest game yet for City? Jack Hunt and Jay Dasilva filled the wing back roles and both did get forward.

Hunt got it some really decent positions and linked well in particular with Andi Weimann but his final ball was poor. The manager thought we were reactive rather than proactive to the balls into the box which is a far comment but for me the quality of delivery was poor and was the bigger issue.

The side just didn’t seem to understand the game plan and really struggled with the formation. Aside from the 2nd half of the Stoke City game our intensity, speed of thought and passing has been dreadful.

We don’t do anything with any pace and as I have said on what seems too many occasions of late, we are so easy to defend against.

Playing 3 or 5 at the back whichever way you look at it, what would we do in midfield? Liam Walsh has showed up well in the last couple of games and Johnson would have struggled justifying dropping him but irrespective of how the opposition lined up as I said last week, you can’t play Walsh, Marlon Pack and Josh Brownhill together.

It just doesn’t work. The manager should have made the brave decision and rested a still out of sorts Pack and played Walsh and Brownhill together. I understand the argument that Marlon adds height to the centre of the pitch but surely you pick players on form, which Marlon just isn’t.

After last week’s showing I honestly expected us to really attack Preston but we opted to play with no wingers and left Eliasson and O’Dowda on the bench, bringing Eliasson on 10 minutes into the 2nd half.

Up top Famara Diédhiou was selected alongside Weimann. Now let me say straight off Famara didn’t have a great game, not by a long shot but neither did anyone else. The cheering at his substitution in the second half was in my view wrong and will do little for his confidence.

I’m not excusing it but it was born more out of frustration, we have all seen how good a player Famara can be, crikey I even had a bet on him to be top scorer in the league before the season started but it just isn’t working for him at the moment.

When things aren’t working you have to do the basics, you have to work hard, chase for every ball and too often he was on his heels and his first touch which has never been great has completely deserted him. Weimann was no better and could easily have been hooked.

Callum Robinson who didn’t have the best of loan spells when at the club a couple of seasons back was Preston’s match winner and was arguably the best player on show but his goal was all too easy.

We got caught out, didn’t close the ball down and he was able to tap the ball home. Sadly, he showed no class when celebrating a little too much in front of the South Stand.

After what was a dire 45 minutes, I felt sure Johnson would change things but as I have said he didn’t until 10 minutes in and for me unbelievably he took off our best ball playing player in Walsh. I say unbelievably but I predicted it. Baker was withdrawn when arguably he was the best of the back three.

So who else would join Eliasson to try and change the game? Surely Mo Eisa would be given an opportunity to show us what he could do or maybe bring on O’Dowda to try and get some pace in the side? Not on your nelly, not when we can call on an out of form Jamie Paterson.

I honestly don’t want to keep moaning and again Jamie Paterson is a player I like but he is so badly off form and has done nothing to justify his inclusion. What does it say to the bench or the squad when players out of form are continually given game time.

Eisa may be untried at this level but for goodness sake give him a chance, his on the bench so throw him on. You can guarantee he would have at least injected some energy into the team and would have been eager to show what he can do.

The final thrown of the dice was to bring Famara off for Matty Taylor.

It wouldn’t have taken Derren Brown or David Blaine to work out our subs. I could have written them down before the game. You want you subs to affect the game and make an impact but none of the three did and aside from a Josh Brownhill free kick, Rudd in the Preston goal probably had the easiest 90 minutes of his career.

Fans showed their frustrations at the final whistle and again, whilst I don’t agree with the booing I can understand it.

I talked about our inconsistencies last week, under LJ we seem to be able to win 3 or 4 games on the bounce but we also have these dreadful runs where we lose 3 or 4 (or more in a row). It’s a worrying pattern that has been the one consistent thing in Johnson's reign.

When you get beat by good sides you hold your hands up and whilst Preston were decent today, we should be picking points up against them and the same can be said against the likes of Reading, Wigan (no disrespect Greener) and Rotherham this season.

Johnson says it’s not a disaster because we are 13th but we are in free fall and playing like a side that won’t be 13th for long.

My final comment sums up the manager's tactics after the game when asked about out home form he said “We’ve lost four or five players with a song! I’ll be honest; I put Matty Taylor on because I know they’ve got a song for him”.

Seriously, did he really say that? Should we expect to see Scott Scott Super Scott or Tinman and his Bristol City hat in the line-up at the next home game?
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-lee-johnson-preston-2210561

 

A hard hitting criticism of LJ, his tactics, team selection, substitutions, judgement and excuses, personally I believe there is obviously some blame for LJ but players also need to stand up and be counted, it's strange but we have been here a couple of times before and if we are not careful we will drift into obscurity.

These comments are written by a fan and it is obvious there is a lot of emotion being felt but LJ is still, in my opinion capable of steering us to a top 10 position but the sands of time eventually will run out, even with the cloak of security of Steve Lansdown and action may need to be taken.