Lee Johnson, the summer recruitment and every aspect of Bristol City's season so far rated Our City writer evaluates the head coach, club's work in general and more. With the final international break upon us until next March and 17 games played, we now roughly know the vintage of the 2018-19 Robins. Currently 13th and following three defeats in a row and six in the last 10, the calendar year to date has not been kind on Bristol City. It's 16 defeats, 10 wins and 12 draws in 38 Championship matches since 1 January. That's 42 points at an average of 1.1 points a game, which would give you 51 points over a 46 game season. Given the vast sums invested in the club by the Lansdown family that performance is unlikely to match the ambitions of the owners. Most seasons you would survive in the league with such a tally, but barely. Plainly improvement is needed and despite the recent gloom there are still good signs. The performance against Preston was dire but thankfully not a regularity, and statistically the Robins have been doing okay in matches. A worrying trend is the lack of goals, particularly at Ashton Gate. In nine home games Lee Johnson's team have only once managed to find the net more than a solitary time. That was in the resounding win over Blackburn Rovers. But there have been three matches with no goals whatsoever and just one strike in the last three home matches. Jack Butland had a large say in the Stoke game, of course, but the Robins' chance creation and finishing has not been good enough of late. Does Lee Johnson carry the can? He does and the manager's record at the helm now reads as: 119 games in charge* *stats taken from here 48 wins 30 draws 41 losses Win percentage of 40.34 With the Robins in mid-table and having faced that 'difficult summer' last year losing key players, this season was always likely to be one of connsolidation and transition. Some fans' patience is wearing thin and unless there is an upturn in form the atmosphere in BS3 could turn toxic. As we approach three years of Johnson junior at the helm, it should be remembered that the longer term picture is decent with progress made year on year if not at the pace that some would like. With the Carabao Cup heroics as well, then Johnson deserves longer to get the ship sailing forwards. And especially while the playoffs or merely mid-table are so achievable. Head coach so far this campaign: 5 out of 10. Recruitment The signs are good regarding the younger players in the squad. We recently measured the best young defenders in the division and both Lloyd Kelly and Adam Webster figured highly. Throw in Zak Vyner, while Taylor Moore is impressing in League One too, and there is plenty for City to build on. Jack Hunt has been steady at right-back and with Eros Pisano, Nathan Baker and Bailey Wright there is strength in depth. Equally, there is plenty of young talent in midfield too, with Josh Brownhill the pick of the bunch but Callum O'Dowda starring for the Republic of Ireland. Mo Eisa and Hakeeb Adelakun are yet to get their chance in the league but do at least offer hope with City's attack faltering currently. The loan signings' have given mixed performances but in the main look solid. Rating: 7/10 Club There have been changes behind the scenes at Bristol City with a new head of communications and the supporters liaison officer's role expanding but stability at the top of the tree should help Lee Johnson's work. Blazing a trail on social media last season has proven tough for the club to continue and changes have received a mixed reception. The Robins have however successfully got their Failand training ground plans moving forward that should be a further aid for future success, plus there's the £100m proposed Bristol Flyers arena that will include some redevelopment of Marina Dolman Way at Ashton Gate. The club's fantastic community work - winning EFL recognition - has been counter-balanced by a huge loss in the yearly accounts reported. Thankfully there is good work being done regarding City's revenue streams, though, showing that there is hope for the future, if the club's aim of being able to sustain itself financially still looks a fair way off yet. According to the head coach, next year's accounts - boosted by fees from players sales last summer - should see the club get closer to meeting their aims. "It's really important but you'd expect next year's results to look a lot different due to the sales of players and that's a good thing for the football club," explained Johnson in his pre-Preston press conference. "We're trying to move towards sustainability and to be honest we're not a million miles off with what we've got coming through," he explained further. Rating: 8/10 https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport.../lee-johnson-summer-recruitment-every-2227140
A fairly reasonable article on where we are and I can't moan too much regarding the comments. The biggest issue I usually have is that we always seem to focus on next year when we were told in previous seasons that this is the one where we will see all our hard work and commitment to the task pay off in terms of our progress. I know there may be things going on in the background of which we are unaware but surely the time is fast approaching for someone (whoever that may be) to say that our lack of progress (however you define progress I suppose) is not good enough for the money spent on both players and infrastructure to warrant continuing down the same old road. The time for talking the talk must be replaced by walking the walk because that is the true test of winners.
'Currently 13th and following three defeats in a row and six in the last 10, the calendar year to date has not been kind on Bristol City. It's 16 defeats, 10 wins and 12 draws in 38 Championship matches since 1 January. That's 42 points at an average of 1.1 points a game, which would give you 51 points over a 46 game season. Given the vast sums invested in the club by the Lansdown family that performance is unlikely to match the ambitions of the owners.' I wouldn't give 8 out of 10 for those results.
I think the next 3 or 4 results are pivotal and will determine how our season unfolds , lose them and we could be in for a battle , do well and we’ll end up comfortably mid table.
not sure what the article proves other than it is re vamped info dressed up in a different manner. It does highlight aspects we are already aware of but marks out of 10 … just one persons opinion …. rating the coach. well it is a difficult season made worse by the latter collapse of last season [ figures in the stats ] and 3 top players moving on, suspension and injury thwarting a settled start / team to continue. negatives is "understanding" where Lee is coming from Team selection is OK but maybe we all disagree sometimes with his selections, and the game plan is most often sound, lack of results down to not converting chances! I would go with 7.5 /10. recruitment. we can all hope for certain players but unfortunately criteria state NO for whatever reason... The club does do quite well in the main with recruitment and having signed players not everyone fits the bill... so allowing for circumstances overall we do /are doing well so 9/10 club … don't know how you can fault the club it is constantly evolving and making things better for all concerned, debt is a by product of this evolvement so would rate the club at 9.5 /10 so that's 2 opinions!
Marvalous isn't it, paid £2.5m for him, sold him for approx £250k 18 months later,10% of what we paid and he has scored 7 goals in 13 games for them, 1 goal every 96 minutes. A big bloody blunder somewhere, somebody has cocked up. ' Engvall hitting form Things are looking up for former Bristol City striker Gustav Engvall. The 22-year-old joined City for an undisclosed fee in 2015 but only played seven first-team matches. He was sold to Belgian second division club KV Mechelen in the summer and he's hit form at his new club. Engvall helped KV Mechelen finished top of the first period of the league with seven goals in his 13 matches - a goal every 96 minutes. He joined The Robins from IFK Goteborg for around £2.5m on Deadline Day in August 2016, but it appears he was sold for a tenth of that back in June. Bristol Live understands that he was sold for £250,000 in the summer.'
Cocked up ? Wasted money ? Surely not Having said that, aside from Anderlecht, Club and Circle Bruges, the names of top Belgian teams don't jump out at you like they might in Spain, Italy or Germany. However I have heard of Mechelen so it's probably considerably easier than scoring goals in our Championship I never thought he got a fair crack of the whip here for reasons we may never know.
