Bristol City and Dean Holden served up a load of rubbish against Cardiff City - fan view Our weekly view from the stands/sofa currently, as the Severnside Derby is covered in this week's podcast. Dean Holden said after the Severnside derby defeat to Cardiff City that he wasn’t going to sugarcoat the performance. Quite frankly there was no way that he could. Aside from the first look at Henri Lansbury and Joe Williams there really was nothing positive that could be said about his side's showing. It has been an all too familiar showing of late and the discontent of fans is growing and not a single City fan can honestly say that as a club we are progressing on the place where it matters most, the green grass between the white lines. It’s also worrying just how many fans feel distanced from the club. Dean said that he had some honest conversations with the players in the dressing room after the game and that they will keep the spirit as good as they can and will respond. At the moment it’s all words. Dean said the players knew just how important the Severnside derby was to us fans and that they were ready for it and yet from the first whistle we were second best to what is a poor Cardiff City side and Mick McCarthy’s players hardly had to break sweat to come away with a deserved 0-2 victory. Unsurprisingly, Bluebirds boss Mick McCarthy said after the game that having watched our defeat at Brentford he asked his team to target our left-hand side and that’s exactly what they did. It’s difficult to be overly critical of Adrian Mariappa as he is a right footed center-half being asked to play as a left back. Mariappa’s left foot is as a bad as mine, it’s just for standing on and having the odd swing. The decision not to recruit a left back in the transfer window was a massive error. We didn’t need a permanent signing as we have four out injured but not getting a loan until the end of the season was pathetic and something that any fan with an ounce of common sense could see and yet Mark Ashton, Dean Holden and whoever else is involved in our recruitment didn’t see it as critical. We either have to look at playing a back three with Mawson, Kalas and Vyner (or Moore) or if Dean insists on playing four we have to look at youngsters Ryley Towler or Vincent Harper. The manner of the performance and defeat to Cardiff was all the more disappointing following an encouraging opening half an hour against Brentford in the previous game. We played some decent football against a side that I hope win the league. When people talk about teams having a style of play and a DNA, Brentford epitomise that. They sell their best players season after season but recruit players to fit their way of playing and the football they play is a joy to watch. Under Dean Holden I can’t honestly recall a single game where I have enjoyed 90 minutes of attacking football, something that Holden set his stall out to do in his early interviews. There is of course no doubt that injuries have hit us hard but it’s our tactics and the constant playing of players out of position that is a real concern. How many of us knew how Cardiff would line up and what they would be looking to exploit? And yet we seemed ill prepared, we lost our discipline and gave away cheap free-kick after cheap free-kick. The defending for the two Cardiff goals was nothing short of shambolic. Mariappa didn’t get off the ground or show enough physicality for Curtis Nelson’s opener and I have no idea where on earth Jack Hunt was for the second and how Tomas Kalas lost Kieffer Moore allowing him a simple finish. Henri Lansbury made a couple of decent passes and Joe Williams showed one or two nice touches and some decent runs but as I say, there wasn’t too much that you could be positive about. I thought Han-Noah Massengo put in a decent performance and was my man of the match and yet Holden saw it differently and subbed him on 60 minutes. Holden and his coaches Paul Simpson and Keith Downing have to get back to basics. We have to find a solution to the left-hand side and playing Mariappa or Taylor Moore there (or come to that Jack Hunt or Zak Vyner) is not the answer. We are 10th in the league which is probably above where we should be based on performances. The early wins of the season have kept us from looking over our shoulders but make no mistake if we carry on putting in the same abject displays we will quickly be in trouble. Owner Steve Lansdown will have some tough decisions to make both in terms of the Head Coach and coaching team but also with the CEO who made the appointment. Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast Bonus show player ratings were really tough again this week. 6 is what we expect and all fell well below that in our opinion. We went with Bentley 5, Hunt 3, Kalas 4, Mawson 4, Mariappa 3, Massengo 5, Williams 5, Lansbury 5, Semenyo 5, Wells 5, Dièdhiou 4. The gaffer scored 3, how he continues to play Mariappa left back is beyond me. We got our tactics all wrong and the player’s attitudes were off. This was an extremely poor display on the back of too many similar displays. Simply nowhere near good enough. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-dean-holden-served-4978424
Dean should have an honest conversation with himself and his coaches , our tactics were all wrong, again. It’s no good just blaming the players, he needs to look a bit closer to home, completely clueless
Many of our players have more than enough footballing skills to survive life in the Championship but collectively they are about League One level. How many can you remember coming to join Bristol City based on the premise that they will offer greater depth to our squad only to find out that they are injury prone and are being played in a position that doesn't fit their style? It has become increasingly clear that someone, or something, is upsetting our apple cart before it even get's rolling and that isn't just a recent problem because it has been hanging around our necks for years. We are still asking the same questions we have been asking ad nauseum and it's time we recognized that the problem lies solely with Steve Lansdown who despite his brilliant business acumen isn't willing to do the right thing and hire good people to run the footballing side of his sports empire. I don't think we need to spend more of our time trying to figure out whether it is the fault of Lee, DH or Ashton when a look further up the ladder will find SL looking down on his kingdom, where presumably he sees harmony.
