Route to Goal

Bristol City's most productive route to goal proves the path with the most resistance
Bristol City are proving to be a potent set-piece team, on both sides of the ball, but Liam Manning accepts they need to complement that increasing expertise with greater execution in open play

Liam Manning is a details-led coach, focusing on the nuance of a game and how every small action, however insignificant it may seem in isolation, can lead to something far more impactful. But sometimes, when all is said and done, there’s a time and a place for a bit of old fashioned "slinging it in the mixer", within reason.

We’re simplifying things somewhat, because there is detail in everything, but for all the desire fromthe Bristol City head coachto see patience in the build-up of possession, with players problem solving and picking precise moments when to attack, switch the play or reset, the art of set-piece taking is a slightly different beast.

Sam Bell is the Robins’ top scorer on four Championship goals, followed by Tommy Conway on three, but the amount of goals City have recorded from free-kicks and corners outweighs the contributions of their current leading marksmen. Only Cardiff City (11) have scored more than City’s eight from dead-ball scenarios and it continues to be a rich and consistent source for breaking through the opposition, aided by the addition of the towering Rob Dickie.

Manning credited goalkeeper coach Pat Mountain earlier this week, for the fastidious work he conducts in preparing City for not just how to try and fashion chances from set-pieces, but also in denying the opposition; they also rank joint second overall for goals conceded from that position, having shipped just four.

Approaching his month-long anniversary in the job withSunday’s visit of Norwich City, Manning remains relatively new to the role, but Mountain’s presence has been a constant and is providing a profitable one, beyond preparing Max O’Leary, Stefan Bajic and Lewis Thomas for action.

“It’s a huge part of the game, in both boxes,” Manning said. “It’s normally a free opportunity for somebody to put it into a really dangerous area so I think the organisation and the detail you go into is massively important.

“Pat has done a terrific job and I’ve been really impressed with him since I’ve come in, in terms of he’ll go through a huge amount of video to try and identify trends and patterns with what they do and, then, create plans and structures.

“The defensive stuff will only be small tweaks, in terms of your set-up, but the attacking stuff will be creative; how can we exploit certain areas and weaknesses in their box? It’s a big part of the game at all levels.

“The volume of goals from set-pieces, it used to be around the early 30 per cent of total goals and you have to make sure, in your programme, you dedicate enough time to it.”

It was Dickie’s head - jumping between two opposition defenders - that met Gardner-Hickman’s ball into the box against Boro, which set-up Mark Sykes to score the winner last Saturday.Tommy Conway squandereda chance from a corner, somewhat fortuitously created by Stuart Armstrong’s flicked defensive header, but the Southampton midfielder was also defending the near post area also occupied by Dickie.

“You can go through all the organisations, the patterns, the set-ups but the biggest bit is a real desire to attack it and head it,” Manning added. “You can be as creative as you want, you can do everything but, in both boxes, it’s a real desire to put your head on it or put your body on the line to either score or stop a goal. I’m quite simple with certain aspects of it but that connection, the alignment, the timing has to be underpinned by a desire to attack it.”

You may or may not have viewed the clip from the Notts County Fan Forum last month in which head coach Luke Williams, formerly of the Robins set-up, discusses the Magpies propensity of going short from corners.

The gist, outside of the perception of the low percentage of creating scoring opportunities from a straight ball into the box which a defence is theoretically in position and ready to defend, is the more time his team spend on the ball, and are relentless in their use of it, the more time the opposition have to try and stop them, which leads to a build up of pressure and goals from the nth phase of play which originated from a corner.

Due to not being on social media, Manning professed to having not watched the footage but a lot of what Williams said aligns with the Robins’ head coach’s view on how the game should be played, in trying to create mismatches, overloads and win mini games all over the pitch.

But to return to the original point, with the aerial assets that the Robins possess in Dickie and Zak Vyner, a well-delivered ball into the box, increasinglywith laser-guided accuracy by Taylor Gardner-Hickman, will often provide the solution to the question every team and coach is asking: how do we score more goals than the opposition?

“Sometimes it comes down to the personnel you’ve got, so when you look at someone like Rob Dickie, who’s so dominant in attacking boxes, why would you not use the opportunity for that? Of course, we want the ball, but we want the ball to attack. If the staff can create something where, under no pressure, we can put it into an area to attack then, for me, we’ll do that.

“But I think there are elements when it becomes about being unpredictable as well. If they switch off, is it on to go short? You’ve seen it with Sykesy in terms of we have played the odd one short, where actually you can exploit an area or an overload to change the angle of a cross, so it becomes more dangerous to attack.

“The whole end goal is the same - getting it in their box; how we do that may look different at times but any opportunity on a set-piece, if we can attack from that, that’s the main goal.”

Against a Norwich defence that ranks second last for goals against (35) and joint-third overall for set-piece goals conceded (7), there is clear scope for doing some damage in that area, but Manning is fully aware the Robins need greater execution in open play.
Bristol City's most productive route to goal proves the path with the most resistance - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)

 

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