Did historic Man Utd win cost Bristol City promotion? Why Carabao Cup run clipped Robins' wings Bristol City travel to Wigan on Friday night, live on Sky Sports Football from please log in to view this image Things went pear-shaped for Bristol City soon after their historic win over Manchester United If you've never been in the Premier League, it's not often your team beats Manchester United. For Bristol City, that could not be more true. Before last December, they hadn't even played any of the Premier League top six in a competitive game since an FA Cup win at Liverpool in 1994 - so seeing off United 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup ranked pretty high in the annals of their history. please log in to view this image Korey Smith's last-minute goal saw City past United at Ashton Gate It looked the perfect season was developing for Lee Johnson's side on that night at Ashton Gate, with City also third in the Sky Bet Championship and breathing down the necks of second-placed Cardiff. But as enthralling as the two semi-final legs were that followed with eventual champions Manchester City, they were just as energy-zapping and attention-diverting from the league - and the Robins' relatively small squad ended up 11th, eight points off a play-off spot. So was beating United a blessing or a curse? And could dropping out of the Carabao Cup in round one this season help City keep up their bright start this time around, with Wigan next up on Friday night on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm? A season of two halves City were in the driving seat for at least a play-off place when they beat United, having lost only three of their 22 league games up until that point. They kept going for another couple of games, too, before a last-minute defeat to Wolves in their last game of 2017 proved the start of the collapse. City would win only four more games before the end of the season to finish 23 points behind Cardiff and promotion, having been four off at the time of beating United. Exhaustion had caught up with City, who had been struck down by injuries and could do little in the way of squad rotation. please log in to view this image Only 13 different players started more than 10 of City's 54 competitive games in 2017/18, and the cracks began to show in a 5-0 thrashing by Aston Villa on New Year's Day. After that game, only days before their first leg with Man City, Johnson said: "What do you do? Write off the Man City game to get points in the next game? We can't. We haven't got a big enough squad to compete on all fronts due to our injuries." The Robins would reserve their best performances for the two legs against Pep Guardiola's men, but in the league they were a spent force, throwing away leads of 3-0 over Sunderland and 2-0 over Leeds as the mental fatigue of some of their earlier performances took their toll. There is a question whether it would be worth swapping a promotion for a night like beating United for City fans who have not found their club on the back pages too often - but either way, it may have proven fatal for their promotion charge. Second time lucky? Bristol City have started this season more impressively than they began the last, and sit four points off the top with eight games gone. But not long ago, things weren't looking great for Johnson when three of his star players were sold in the summer; top-scorer Bobby Reid, left-back Joe Bryan and centre-back Aden Flint all departed, the first two for the Premier League. Their success has been fuelled by replacements who have hit the ground running. Andy Weimann has already scored five goals, matching his tally from last season at Derby with 40 games to go, young defender Lloyd Kelly has stepped into Bryan's shoes and Tomas Kalas has slotted into a back-line which has only conceded once in the last four games. Influential midfielder Korey Smith is the club's only long-term injury absentee, and with Plymouth doing them a favour by knocking them out of the Carabao Cup in round one this time around, the league is the only focus for Johnson and his players until January. please log in to view this image Weimann, 27, has scored almost one-tenth of his career goals in the first seven games of this season Sky Sports pundit David Prutton was one of those surprised but impressed by the Robins' start to the campaign, and said: "It could have gone one of two ways for Bristol City this season. They lost arguably their two most important players in the summer in Aden Flint and Bobby Reid, but it doesn't seem to have impacted upon their form too much, which is a credit to Lee Johnson and the job he's doing there. "The top two might be a little bit of a push with the likes of Leeds and Middlesbrough looking strong, while you're also waiting for some of the big boys such as Stoke and Aston Villa to wake up, but there's no reason why they can't make the top six." The one thing which could halt the charge of City under Johnson, still the fourth-youngest manager in the whole Football League, is the reputation he has already developed for long runs of form, both good and bad. If they are to help relinquish Bristol's title of the largest city never to host Premier League football, they will have to buck that trend this time around - but with the side currently enjoying its best start to a second-tier season since 1990, perhaps this could be the year. https://www.skysports.com/football/...tion-why-carabao-cup-run-clipped-robins-wings
Possibly , without it I’m certain we’d have at least made the top 6 , maybe top 2 . Did we have a choice , I think so , but it would have been a big call to keep playing the players that got us there , keeping our best players for the league , but I feel a decision none the less that should have been made. In the article above LJ poses the question what do you do write off the Man City game to gain points in the next game? , he then goes on to say we didn’t have a big enough squad , with all the injuries to compete on all fronts . In those circumstances I’m afraid that’s exactly what we should have done & the minute we didn’t make the correct decision we were doomed to a mid table finish. I feel a bit like RR here , saying I told you so , but actually I did , I knew we would mess up any chance we had of promotion by chasing a cup dream that ultimately took too much out of our squad , both emotionally and physically to enable us to do ourselves justice in the league.
I think our great cup run and of course injuries cost us dearly, we may have made the play offs, were we good enough for promotion, I don't think so, all round I don't think we had a big enough and good enough squad, think we have a stronger squad this season, will we be good enough, if we are up near the play off spot when the January window opens its all according how big Mr Lansdowns Cheque book is, just my opinion for what its worth.
Good point Alan , what is certain though was that we didn’t have s strong enough squad to be at our best on two fronts, which is why I suggest we should have stuck to concentrating on the league. We still may have a ultimately failed , but would have at least been able to give it our all.
The age old question has come up and I must confess I end up with conflicting answers. If I were hiring a manager and he told me that he was only interested in winning league games I would question his commitment, and yet league position is the ultimate acid test. I don’t think the cup run cost us promotion on it’s own but possibly contributed in the end combined with the lack of any effort on behalf of our management to act sensibly in the transfer window. As usual the faults lay at the feet of those who should have known better.
I’m not suggesting we set out to only concentrate on the league , but in the position we found ourselves , with record injuries etc, we should have decided to concentrate our efforts on the league. We did it in the earlier rounds and still managed to beat several prem teams , we made a conscious decision to change our strategy when faced with Man U , and Man C .
