Lee Johnson gives his view on whether Bristol City are 'one striker short' Head coach was asked about his transfer dealings following Birmingham City defeat. Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson has given his view on the Robins' January transfer market moves. Questioned during the post-Birmingham City press conference the head coach responded on whether his team are one striker short of having a squad that can really challenge this season. Johnson replied that his team 'are where they are'. A run of three losses across all competitions can be halted if the side from BS3 can win at Deepdale at the weekend - although Preston North End are Johnson's worst opponents, with the former Barnsley manager having lost nine times to the Lilywhites - three times more than any other club. "I think we are where we are," said Johnson on Tuesday evening when asked if it was fair to say that Bristol City may be missing one forward option. "It's phenomenal what we're doing. To be sixth-place in the league after this amount of games with where we are financially. "We get the very best out of what we've got. And we do that by the training that we do, and by the sports science that we do, the staff working their socks off, the players work their socks off and we sign good characters. "You've got to look at some of the clubs in this division and there are some that are 17th and 18th and have come down from the Premier League. "Two or three of them have spent over £50m really," explained the Robins boss. "I just believe that they're a really good bunch of players [at Bristol City]. We've got to allow the dip in form because we haven't got the luxury of guaranteed Premier League quality. "We've got a hungry group who are going to have to learn their lessons. And to be fair to the lads, they've learnt their lessons against Birmingham City at half-time and gone out and put in a performance in the second half. "And I think that's credit to their attitude. Even if some of them were a bit leggy," explained Johnson. Bristol City face Preston at 3pm on Saturday at Deepdale. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/lee-johnson-gives-view-whether-2592489
LJ didn't really answer the question, yes we are where we are, but would a decent striker make us better?? I have a bad feeling, it will be 4 loses in a row..
one4 I agree with you, he says, "It's phenomenal what we're doing. To be sixth-place in the league after this amount of games with where we are financially." I think he is wrong to bring in the financial aspect to it ("Two or three of them have spent over £50m really," explained the Robins boss.) because of the amount of money he has spent himself during his term. Then we have the Semenyo move back from a level 4 loan agreement to give us the extra striker option and he doesn't even make the sub's bench, I think we might have missed our chance.
I think he dodged a loaded question very well. It was a question with a no win answer, and as for Semenyo I believe he was bought back because Taylor was injured and was expected to be out for a while but then made a Lazarus type recovery. Hard on Semenyo but they are the breaks and the club comes first.
Sorry Wiz disagree on this one. To me an honest answer , it’s documented he wanted a striker, for whatever reason we didn’t get one , no point him whinging about it , we are where we are and have to work with what we’ve got, it’s also a fair point regarding where we are financially compared to others, as we are plainly less well off than many who have parachute payments. I’m not sure your point regarding Lees spending is valid either as when he arrived we barely had enough players to field a team and a bench, and many that we had were not championship quality, we now pretty much have 2 players for each position. This season we actually have options on the bench that can affect the game , which we haven’t had for a while and some very exciting young talent coming through also. Just my opinion of course.
I wasn't actually making a criticism of LJ with regard to finance I was pointing out that by bringing finance into the equasion he was exposing himself to crticism by dodging a question and bringing a £50m comparison spend of others in. He made a statement to the media that he was looking to bring one in ( a striker) subject to quality, price and persona, nothing happened, he then brought Semenyo back, I may be wrong but the impression was as a striker back up and the lads not had a sniff since his return and he missed out on a plumb match against Man City into the bargain..
reading between the lines.... where we are financially ! loosely fair play says ... losses of £39m in a 3 year period? .... one of the reasons Brum are "in it" they gambled, ran up a huge loss £30m? in one season and losses in 2 others! VILLA WILL BE NEXT!.... WE HAVE LOSSES but hopefully with transfer dealings a profit or at least just a couple £million loss .. same this season end and next splash out a bit! with the stadium costs being shared by 2 major a nd a couple of lesser activities football club has an edge on previous years finances to "add a few bob to the wage bill!"
I think it was just a question, that if we had a decent striker, would we be in a better place to challenge? I personally think the answer is yes, we are a decent striker away from being a really decent side...
Semenyo was brought back, because of Chelsea and co sniffing around. He’s more of a centre forward but playing on the wing for Newport. From what I’ve heard, it was nothing to do with playing him. It was more to protect the players growing reputation rather than playing out of position and losing value.
Agree about Semenyo, very odd , I wonder whether it was Lees decision, it may make sense in the fullness of time , but can’t make it out at the moment.
We are what we are and will have to take our chances to see if it is enough to reach the playoffs. I think we definitely need another striker because we seem to rely on Diedhou too much and I think he would improve his personal goal tally with some help up front. If you look at Aston Villa and the goalscorers on their books it does seem to point to the fact that you can't necessarily succeed even if you have proven talent up front. There surely must have been someone available during the transfer window but we chose, for whatever reason, to pass it over and I suspect it was due to money issues, either transfer fee or wage demands. I still don't think we are where we need to be and with the number of windows Lee has looked through I thought we would be better equipped to make this season count, and yet we are still well in the hunt and a win at Preston will calm the nerves.
Lee made it clear before the window he wanted to add a striker, we didn’t manage to get one. The fact he wanted one shows his view, as we didn’t get one his mind set has now moved onto making sure we get as much out of the players we have. That’s how I read his answer , a noncommittal answer was as direct an answer as he was ever gonna give, if he didn’t agree he would have said so.
Yes but his need in January is different to what it is now.....In January we were scrapping results to keep away from a relegation battle and we had been leaking goals, so wasn't so much about fire power up front but more tightening up at the back........Situation has changed, we find ourselves with a great opportunity of getting to the premiership. So the question should be, are we a decent striker away from making a serious challenge? or is the overall squad just not quite good enough?
we entered January in 11th 7 pts from 6th and 13 from 21st so cant see we were "scraping?" to get away from relegation zone 13 points is at least 4 losses [ 5 ] and a draw or 2!
Was according to RR .............Also, nobody would have thought that we would be in a playoff position now, that's why I say the situation has changed..
If we lose to preston and leeds, which I think will happen, it is quite possible pne will be on the same points as us. I wouldn't mind betting that LJ has spent a LOT more than pne on players over the time he's been here. He's happy to pull out the low budget card but that doesn't explain how other clubs, on even smaller budgets, have often finished above us.
And other teams with much larger budgets have finished below us. It’s swings and roundabouts and depends on if you are an LJ in or LJ out person on which you use
