Bristol City Match Thread

[Dono77]

Austin needs to sort himself out. Get on the treamill and shift a few pounds as he's def overweight and at the age of 32 he certainly isn't an old man just coming on for the last 10 mins. He's been well off the pace so far this season and the fact that gray started today could mean austin will be the odd man out.

Apparently he wasn't in great shape when he came back for pre season training and still looks unfit. Any thoughts? Plus I think chair could do with dropping out for a couple of games.

Nothing seems to be happening for him and willock is now out main threat whereas last year it was Ilias. He looks knackered aswell!!

[Undecided]

What a sad group of tired, frail old has beens we seem to have accumulated suddenly.

A month ago they were all the bees knees!

What's happened?

[Stainrod]

What a sad group of tired, frail old has beens we seem to have accumulated suddenly.

A month ago they were all the bees knees!

What's happened?

Is that the posters on here or the players your talking about ?

[Undecided]

Is that the posters on here or the players your talking about ?

One of those categories hadn't entered my mind.

[mikechaj]

What a negative bunch of moaners. Yes we lost the last two games but created more chances in both to win them by 4 or 5. Were playing some lovely football - just compare this season to the first half of last when none of us knew where a goal was going to come from, let alone a win.
yes we need to score those chances but we more than matched Bournemouth in every department and completely outplayed BC for the vast majority of the game.
this board is in meltdown - get a grip fellas.

[Dono77]

No one is moaning that we are crap all of a sudden. The manager himself has set the bar for this season and we are all enjoying the ride so far but unfortunately our defence is still our point of weakness.

If we were losing games due to the opposition scoring worldies then its hard to get stuck into the lads but when you see the goals we are letting in and nearly all have been avoidabavoidablpeople will ask the question.....why is our defence still so bad?

[Jonny]

No one is moaning that we are crap all of a sudden. The manager himself has set the bar for this season and we are all enjoying the ride so far but unfortunately our defence is still our point of weakness.

If we were losing games due to the opposition scoring worldies then its hard to get stuck into the lads but when you see the goals we are letting in and nearly all have been avoidabavoidablpeople will ask the question.....why is our defence still so bad?

For me it’s not the defence but a few other contributions, namely;

- Odubajo has poor decision making in the final third when all the team are high up near the edge of the box. He’s erratic and is causing the team big problems when he loses it in killer areas.
- Stefan Johansen needs a strong defensive midfielder alongside him ie Field, as he either can’t or won’t do off the ball work. Too slow and looks lethargic at times - people are just ghosting past him far too easily. Great on it, not very good off it, and it is starting to show. Increasingly noticeable that he played in a 3 man midfield at Fulham. He was a number 8, as was Cairney. Kevin McDonald was the number 6 destroyer.
- The team is far too open down the middle when teams inevitably break on us.

[MINCER]

For me it’s not the defence but a few other contributions, namely;

- Odubajo has poor decision making in the final third when all the team are high up near the edge of the box. He’s erratic and is causing the team big problems when he loses it in killer areas.
- Stefan Johansen needs a strong defensive midfielder alongside him ie Field, as he either can’t or won’t do off the ball work. Too slow and looks lethargic at times - people are just ghosting past him far too easily. Great on it, not very good off it, and it is starting to show. Increasingly noticeable that he played in a 3 man midfield at Fulham. He was a number 8, as was Cairney. Kevin McDonald was the number 6 destroyer.
- The team is far too open down the middle when teams inevitably break on us.

Our fans tend to close their eyes where Johansen is concerned.

Both Barnsley goals were a result of Johansen of going to sleep/ lack of mobility,a weak header at Borough leading to a pen,he stood still for reading’s second goal when in a position to make a challenge.

I saw a rumour on another forum from a Fulham fan that he came to us with an injury.

[mikechaj]

Johansen is the Wilkins type player we need to see a pass or to just be the go-to fulcrum player. He needs a water-carrier - the MacDonald reference is a good one. We’ve been better when Ball plays (although with no disrespect to Ball, he’s not good enough). With two up front, with the two attacking midfielders behind, Johansen is suddenly both te player at the bottom of the diamond, and the quarterback - and he can’t do both jobs, particularly when the wing backs are bombing forward. All you need then is one misplaced pass (Odubajo for the first goal), or a quick break (with a massive slice of luck when the ball bounces off someone for Weimann to play admittedly a brilliant technical pass to Wells, compounded by a slip from DeWijs), and we are in trouble on the break.
The two up front decision wasn’t good as a starting point, then Ball came on cold and wasn’t really in the game at all, as he needs time to get into the flow.

[mikechaj]

And we are a million times better with Johansen than without him. He just needs a great defensive midfielder behind him. Ball was signed to stop us being relegated, Field was signed to help get us promoted. We saw how good Johansen with Field behind him was between January and May last year. Field’s injury has been pivotal in why we concede goals - just think what we could do given our attacking prowess with the door more closed at the back. It’s not the three centre backs, it’s the lack of a Sam Field which is the missing piece of the jigsaw.

[72bus]

When Moses gave away the ball for their goal , we had no movement , no one wanted the ball
The team should no eachothers strengths and weaknesses , we lack options so players such as Moses need help , yes he can do the basics and looks good when attacking but his positional play and distribution are poor so he needs someone to tell him where to be and what to do , reminds me of furlong as at times he forgets his 1st job should be to defend