'Bristol City's transfer failings are coming back to haunt them in tired performances' Our Robins fan columnist has his say heading into the international break The Championship results could have gone better for us on Saturday. There were wins for Aston Villa, Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday and, on the back of Derby’s point on Wednesday, we dropped from sixth to ninth in the league. We do have two games in hand on a few of the teams around us but at this stage of the season it is the points on the board that really count. We have 10 games to go and pretty much all of them are against the sides battling it out for those play-off places. Our next two games are away to second-placed Sheffield United, followed three days later with an away trip to fifth-placed Middlesbrough. We then play Wigan Athletic at home followed by a home game against fourth-placed West Bromwich Albion and then an away trip to sixth-placed Aston Villa. We then play Reading at home followed by games against 10th-placed Sheffield Wednesday, who are currently on the same points total as us, and then we face eighth-placed Derby County. Our final two games are away to Millwall and away to Hull City. Potentially all games that the opposition could have something to play for which is not a bad thing. But that is an unbelievably tough run-in and we are going to have to rediscover our form if we are going to stand any chance of making the play-offs. After a run of seven straight wins in the league we have now gone five games without a win and the performance against Ipswich Town last Tuesday night was poor and not what you would expect from a team hunting promotion. Ipswich were much the better side in the opening 20 minutes but once we got into the game and opened the scoring we should have gone on to see the game out. We couldn’t and just never really got going. The second-half was terrible and Ipswich more than deserved their point. I have praised Lee Johnson a lot this season but on Tuesday I think he got his selections wrong and substitutions wrong. Max O’Leary didn’t do too much wrong in the defeat to Leeds and his distribution was excellent, and yet Lee opts to give a start to recently-signed Stefan Marinovic. I watched the New Zealander shot stopper in the warm up and honestly felt that we would be in for a bit of a dodgy night. Why change it? Max should be the number one in Niki Maenpaa’s and Frank Fielding’s absence. Fair enough if he loses form but, as I say, he didn’t do anything wrong at Preston when he came on or against Leeds. To be fair to Marinovic he is new to the club and hasn’t played at this level. If Johnson believes in Max as one for the future, tell him he is number one until the end of the season. 'A lottery on full-backs' There were also recalls for Lloyd Kelly, Jack Hunt, Niclas Eliasson and Andreas Weimann. It’s like we have a lottery machine that decides on the full-backs game in game out. You don’t know from one game to the next if it will be Jack Hunt, Eros Pisano or Bailey Wright at right-back or Lloyd Kelly or Jay Dasilva at left-back. Pick what you consider to be your best and play them. If a player feels any mistake he makes and he is out of the side then he isn’t going to perform to his best. Of course if a player is injured then you have to change it but at the moment Johnson doesn’t seem to know his best defensive line-up. In midfield Marlon Pack and Josh Brownhill look absolutely shattered. Both were poor against Leeds and even worse against Ipswich Town. I’m not blaming them, they have been pretty much ever present and the workload has taken its toll on them. So what about Joe Morrell or Liam Walsh? Morrell came in at Ipswich away and Johnson said something along the lines that he’d play the same way in a World Cup final and yet following his substitution against Wolves in the FA Cup we haven’t seen him. Brownhill and Pack needed a rest and if Johnson doesn’t trust Morrell or Walsh enough then you have to question why a midfielder wasn’t signed in January knowing that Korey Smith was out. It’s a similar story at the top of the pitch with Famara Diédhiou. Fam has been working his socks off and with little support, he is often too isolated and has to hold the line up and score the goals. Again, the lack of a replacement for Milan Djuric was a poor decision. Milan wasn’t fantastic but he was a similar option to Fam. It was also a surprise that Antoine Semenyo was brought in against a promotion-chasing side like Leeds United and then left out against bottom of the table Ipswich. It should really have been the other way around. No one really stood out on Tuesday and the rest between Tuesday and the next game against Sheffield United has hopefully come at just the right time. It will give all of the squad a chance to recharge and what a game to come back for. The manager said after the game that he was pleased with a point which in truth is all we deserved and only time will tell just how important that point will be at the end of the season, on the flip side only time will tell just how important those two lost points will be. We have to really go for it now. We should be looking to play two up front especially at home and play our most attacking side. With 30 points to play for anything is still possible and this side has shown just how good it can be. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...ristol-citys-transfer-failings-coming-2655966
We seem to rotate certain positions. Full back and wide players , whereas other areas , midfield and deidhue play on regardless, we have been looking tired in these areas for a while , playing Semenyo in my view was daft. Morell should have had more game time , pack and Brownhill have looked tired and ineffectual recently, they need a rest, had we used Morrell more he could have been able to spread the load a bit, to throw him into the fray now is probably asking a bit too much. It seems Smith won’t be ready until next season, even if Walsh is ready in time , he , much like Morrell , has not had a great deal of first team exposure.
You can always say that unless you're top of the pile mate...You would be saying the same if we were fighting relegation that January cost us...All a bit hypothetical
I think the comment is right, and RR did amongst many "reiteratings" of his posts did say, as did a lot on here, we needed to do something in January. HOWEVER... although there were mutterings/rumours /call it what you like about who? might be on the radar … nothing of much consequence happened. Although the reported interest by a few in ASSAMBOLONGA did seem to get him more game time at BORO! …..
Are you being a little disingenuous ? Surely I remember you saying something about our poor record of January signings right back to 2008. Anyway for my 2 tuppence worth GJ got us to the play offs on a relative shoestring which we all applauded at the time. LJ has, with 50plus signings, (can't resist that one) has for 2 consecutive Januarys has got us challenging for the play offs. For all 3 of these Januarys City, or rather SL, hasn't funded the spending required to get City further. Should we aim less fire at LJ and GJ and more at Mr Lansdown. Or should we just admit it and say - it's a f****** difficult job to get out of the Championship.
Talking about ' Transfer Failings' this was a almighty flop, I don't think we can blame SL for this one. The one that got away - The Bristol City transfer flop now flourishing in Belgium The Robins were forced to take a £2.2 million hit on Swedish striker Gustav Engvall With Jonathan Kodjia sold late in the window ahead of the 2016/17 campaign for a huge fee to Aston Villa, all eyes were on Gustav Engvall when Sweden international striker arrived from Kalmar for a fee in the region of £2.5m. A talented young striker full of pedigree who had just broken into the full Sweden team having excelled at youth level. The Robins seemed to have pulled off something of a transfer coup. But after just 53 minutes across two Championship seasons, precious impact and City also loaning him to Djurgardens and IFK Gothenburg in his homeland, the club finally pulled the plug and cut their losses on the 22-year-old last summer, selling him to Belgian side KV Mechelen for £250,000 - just 10% of what they paid in 2016. "I wouldn't be surprised if you switch on the telly in three or four years and see him playing in the Europa League," said head coach Lee Johnson once the sale had been completed. The City boss had questioned Engvall's desire, explaining: "I don't think he did enough. He didn't do enough in training, he didn't adapt. He wasn't the best player in training every day." But now Engvall's career seems on an upward trajectory after 30 appearances in Belgium's second tier, scoring 10 goals and also supplying seven assists to propel Mechelen into the Jupiler Pro League. "I feel that the football is going well now," Engvall told the Fotbollskanalen website. "I am in a good team and they trust me. In any case, I think it has been my most important season in my career. "I have gained confidence, so it is the most important (season) and of course one of the best," he reflected, explaining that he wasn't in the Mechelen team immediately but forced his way in and has kept his place for the rest of the Belgian B title-winning campaign. Engvall also explains his philosophy and how he considers his time at Ashton. "You should always look ahead and I feel that I have played a good season now and come good after the messy times I have left behind me," he said. As for the future, Engvall possesses a two-year option on his contract having initially signed a 12-month deal at the club. "There hasn't been any discussion about it yet. We'll take it as it comes. Now we have the cup final, but there will be some discussions this summer," he added. The season is not over though: a brief holiday and then that aforementioned Belgian cup final, against Ghent on May 1, awaits the two cap senior Sweden International. And then possibly that Europa League appearance in years to come. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/one-away-bristol-city-transfer-2666911
But what I'm saying, there's no point in signing players just for the sake of it, needs to be the right player.....must admit, I've never been a fan of the January window. Nice to see you back RP gunning for the Junior!!. I still think he's doing a decent job and no one out there that would do so much better (realistically)
It’s all very well saying that the lack of signings in January are hurting - and it’s true, it is - but we can only sign players who want to come to us. We are fighting teams with stronger footballing pedigree than ourselves and haven’t made it yet as an attractive proposition for the ready-made talent to choose. We DID try and sign players - but they didn’t materialise for whatever reason.
Morning 1For, I'm not gunning for LJ (please stop calling him Junior) Not withstanding I can't and never will like him as a person I think he has a tough task and doing,with decent funding, a reasonable job. Hoping the 18 day break will arrest the mini slide, City certainly have some tough fixtures ahead.
If I'm honest, it would be a big surprise to me if we make the playoffs, not sure we are quite good enough and think the games we went unbeaten was a bit of a red herring, the first loss V Wolves, which was nothing to be ashamed of, seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of us..It's tough fixtures throughout in the championship....it's one tricky league.
I don’t think we will either, the.run in us too tough , a similar finish to last season would be success bearing in mind the changes we’ve made and would be a pretty good reflection on where we are.
If we can keep the core of this team together and add a few quality additions then maybe we can manage the play offs next season . Keep losiing our better players will make it difficult to move beyond where we are now in my opinion
But teams always move forwards and backwards - change. Mr Johnson talks about identity. Each season Lee Johnson himself changes how the team play. Its cyclic in nature. One pro of having a true identity - model of play is that it better meets the challenges of players leaving. The team being built on solid playing principles means its not in the same cycle of learning and development. "We've got our identity back … " Well if the team has one. It can't be lost. It is what the team is. Teams who progress past where City are frequently display very very clear playing principles - identity.
