Bristol City fan's column: 'A win but why many of the fans aren’t happy' By The Bristol Post | Posted: February 06, 2017 By Matthew Withers please log in to view this image Milan Djuric of Bristol City celebrates with team mates Saturday's game against bottom of the table Rotherham was all about the three points. With the position that we are in, it's the points that matter and a victory against The Millers was an absolute must and that was achieved. So everyone will have left Ashton Gate happy, yes? Sadly not!! In terms of the team selection, there will have been quite a few fans in the stands that on hearing the starting line-up will have agreed with Lee Johnson. Lee Tomlin starting again and David Cotterill making his second debut for the club will have pleased many. This was a supposed 4-4-2 formation with options on the bench. So why were so many Bristol City fans unhappy? The first 45 minutes were as poor as anything that I have seen at Ashton Gate in many a year. The team seemed to lack energy; struggled to string any passes together, didn't seem to know what shape to play and generally looked uninterested. Was this really the same team that earned a point against high flying Sheffield Wednesday only a few days before? We needed to show an attacking intent against the poorest team in the division who had a goal difference of -36 prior to kick off. We just didn't get going. We were cagey and other than Cotterill no one stood out. The midfield two of Marlon Pack and Jens Hegeler were too defensive. Lee Tomlin was a shadow of the player he was on Tuesday night and Tammy Abraham was once again isolated up front. The fans were unhappy at half time but this was nothing compared to their reaction in the 58th minute when the Manager withdrew fans favourites Tomlin and Abraham, along with Mark Little. Matty Taylor made his City debut and took to the field alongside Milan Djruic and Jamie Patterson. Cries of "You don't know what you're doing" rang out and at one point Johnson appeared to get into an argument with members of the crowd, which is never a good sign and something Johnson would do better to avoid. please log in to view this image In fairness to the Manager, Tomlin had been awful and was a shadow of the player he was Tuesday night. His reaction to go straight down the tunnel and his reaction at the end of the game was petulant and I hope he has apologised to his team mates and manager. Tammy worked tirelessly but wasn't as sharp as he normally is and so the changes in the cold light of day were more than justified. The introduction of the subs and a switch to a back three did change the pattern of the game. City were on the front foot and started to cause Rotherham problems. The midfield won the ball and linked with the forwards and we stayed solid at the back. Matty Taylor looked very lively and linked well with Djuric and Patterson got on the ball and it was from his shot , parried by former City keeper Richard O'Donnell that Djuric opened his account for the Robins and sealed the win. Credit has to go to Johnson for making the changes that brought the win but that can't hide how poor we played against such poor opposition. We are unlikely to get anything away against the likes of Derby, Leeds and Newcastle if we play that badly. The teams confidence has been shattered in recent weeks and so 4 points out of 6 is a decent return, we need to all stay behind the manager and the team and try and get something out of a tricky run of away games. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/bristo...8217-t-happy/story-30114279-detail/story.html
'Cries of "You don't know what you're doing" rang out and at one point Johnson appeared to get into an argument with members of the crowd, which is never a good sign and something Johnson would do better to avoid.' I bet this really hurt the guy and surely the powers that be would have taken notice, LJ must be on notice.
The football has been dire all season. Players appear confused as to their role and game plan. I would struggle to give the team 3 out of 10 for entertainment value. Playing 1 up front clearly has not been working and yet we have persisted with this set up. We need to stick to a formation with 2 up front and not keep changing to match the opposition. Oh and we need to get rid of Johnson as he clearly has more than enough talent at his disposal, to not be in this situation in the first place.
Being unpopular goes with the territory of being a football manager. When winning, everyone loves you; when losing (especially the way we have been of late) you are vilified. It may hurt him - he's human after all, but he can't be surprised. You have to have tough skin in that job.
If results of the next few games go as expected he has to be out on his ear. But delaying the decision is just making it harder for someone else to come in and turn it around and time is ticking on.
As it turned out he did know what he was doing because we won - and the 3 substitutes made a difference Rotherham were never going to make it easy. The bottom line is that we won (arguably did not deserve to lose some of the matches we lost). I thought the fans stayed with the team pretty well on Saturday.
I believe LJ has to go, but I am not one to hurl abuse or wish for us to lose in order to get him sacked. He is doing his best - which is falling short. End of. No nastiness or name-calling. Thanks Lee but not good enough.
Just a pity we got rid of our SUCCESSFUL manager before isn't it. Just to remind you, Cotterill brought us a double a couple of years ago. So we sacked him !
I said months ago that it was incomprehensible that after considering the length of time he had been in charge, that him openly admitting that he had changed the formation "11 or 12 times in the second half" showed that he isn't a talented manager, he is a kid in front of a FIFA game. It made him sound foolish. Now some months on, he still doesn't know his best 11 or his best formation, literally not even close to discovering it. Has no defined style of play and it appears we have no game plan each time we turn out. It just isn't normal no matter how many excuses are made for him. Basically, they/he have thrown money to hide the lack of aptitude. Problem with that is that each new player that comes in, soon recognises this, so it's a total waste of the generous funding afforded him that no other manager before him has been given.
And all because he's the yes man that Lansdown wants. I'm sure our illustrious leader wouldn't like or tolerate a Manager that told him some home truths about where we've gone wrong over the last decade, or more importantly, what needs to be done to put things right.
