Last Night

[Bs4Red]

Let the dust settle before this post.

Thought we were okay last night, first half we dominated the ball and felt like Brum barely touched it. 
Should have be 1-0, golden opportunity at the back post headed wide. 
70% possession at half time proved this, however we had an awful lot of safe possession. Brum sat in a low block and we struggled to break this down. 
Going forward the pace was very slow and we struggled to break lines with our passing. 
The couple of times we broke through, the final pass or delivery just wasn’t there. Knight breaking forward. 
 

Second half was more even and opened up when Rooney made his subs, again we just lacked that bit of quality in the final 3rd. 
 

For me it was a decent performance just lacking that final bit, no matter how bad Brum are currently they defended their box well and made it hard for us. 64% possession overall away from home and our goal hardly threatened. 
 

After the busy schedule and Millwall coming up, I did feel the lack of urgency was a “plan” we didn’t rush anything at all. Williams alluded to possible “fatigue” in his post presser. 
 

Sykes was a massive threat again and gets through a ridiculous amount of distance going forward and defensively so I can see why he keeps getting hooked. Don’t think it’s tactical but more protection. 
 

Overall a decent point even if disappointing and we kept the run going, our record vs Brum is pretty woeful too.

Win v Millwall and it’s been a fantastic last 5 games. 

[Davefevs]

Yep, you reflect LM’s thoughts too.

 

[Bs4Red]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

Yep, you reflect LM’s thoughts too.

 

Haven’t even watched that mate, will have a listen now. 
What were your thoughts? 

[Davefevs]

2 minutes ago, Bs4Red said:

Haven’t even watched that mate, will have a listen now. 
What were your thoughts? 

What you said pretty much!

Just watched Williams’ interview too, pitch stopped flow too…set up by Brum deliberately imho.

[1960maaan]

21 minutes ago, Bs4Red said:

Let the dust settle before this post.

Thought we were okay last night, first half we dominated the ball and felt like Brum barely touched it. 
Should have be 1-0, golden opportunity at the back post headed wide. 
70% possession at half time proved this, however we had an awful lot of safe possession. Brum sat in a low block and we struggled to break this down. 
Going forward the pace was very slow and we struggled to break lines with our passing. 
The couple of times we broke through, the final pass or delivery just wasn’t there. Knight breaking forward. 
 

Second half was more even and opened up when Rooney made his subs, again we just lacked that bit of quality in the final 3rd. 
 

For me it was a decent performance just lacking that final bit, no matter how bad Brum are currently they defended their box well and made it hard for us. 64% possession overall away from home and our goal hardly threatened. 
 

After the busy schedule and Millwall coming up, I did feel the lack of urgency was a “plan” we didn’t rush anything at all. Williams alluded to possible “fatigue” in his post presser. 
 

Sykes was a massive threat again and gets through a ridiculous amount of distance going forward and defensively so I can see why he keeps getting hooked. Don’t think it’s tactical but more protection. 
 

Overall a decent point even if disappointing and we kept the run going, our record vs Brum is pretty woeful too.

Win v Millwall and it’s been a fantastic last 5 games. 

Agree with most of that.
It did show there is a lot of work to be done. I thought the passing, though slow at times , was effective to a point. We dragged them around a little even though they sat in and tried to congest the game, we found pockets in the first half more so than the 2nd. I don't want to say they run out of ideas, but we do need to find a way of beating a packed defence. 

One other point that Manning made, we didn't go gung ho and leave chances at the back like we did against Norwich. Brum had pace and looked like they could be a threat on the break , but Tanner and Dickie dealt with most of it comfortably. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by 1960maaan

[Bs4Red]

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Yep, you reflect LM’s thoughts too.

 

Thought he was going to mention box entries at one point @Davefevs

[Always injured]

Unfortunately for us millwall game is likely to be very similar to this one expecting a very tight edgy match 

[redkev]

13 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

What you said pretty much!

Just watched Williams’ interview too, pitch stopped flow too…set up by Brum deliberately imho.

I said last night during the game that the pitch was affecting the game 

[italian dave]

We all know that at this level it’s hard to break down teams that come to Ashton Gate determined to just sit behind the ball, to defend for a 0-0 and hope for a breakaway. It’s that much harder against a team who do that at their own place. That was my over-riding memory of last night.

We said the same as @Davefevs at half time about Brum having the pitch set up to help them too. They watered it heavily. Ball was skidding everywhere.

I’d have been happy with a point at the start. I was happy with a point at the end. I think it was significant that pretty much the whole away end waited to clap the City players at the end. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by italian dave

[KingHillRed]

Was interesting to hear Williams mention the pitch because to the naked eye it looked like a poor surface 

Definitely take the point at a place historically we don't tend to do too well - we lost 3 zip here last year and that was when Nige had a meltdown (rightly so) and I think it may have been Massengos last game 

[redkev]

Agree about fans waiting till the end of a 0-0 away game 

easy to scoot off and beat the traffic but when fans stay clap the players off the fans understood the game 

I always thought last night would be difficult tbh we got 1 more point than I thought we would 

[italian dave]

3 minutes ago, KingHillRed said:

Was interesting to hear Williams mention the pitch because to the naked eye it looked like a poor surface 

Definitely take the point at a place historically we don't tend to do too well - we lost 3 zip here last year and that was when Nige had a meltdown (rightly so) and I think it may have been Massengos last game 

We won 1-0 with one of Fammy’s best goals for us a few years back. That aside, my recollection of visits to St Andrews is fairly bleak!

And, yes, you’re right about last year. 

[Midlands Robin]

It's one of those things where, if we were to take Brum out of the posts or take the date out, we could be talking about a game 3 months ago. Lots of hard work from the team but very little end product and lacking in the final third.

We were spoilt by the pefromance against Watford but at least we know that we have that game in us now.

One or two signings are crucial for AM to bring his own feel to the squad

[GrahamC]

10 minutes ago, italian dave said:

We won 1-0 with one of Fammy’s best goals for us a few years back. That aside, my recollection of visits to St Andrews is fairly bleak!

And, yes, you’re right about last year. 

Only big win was very very early under Pearson in the pandemic era, 3-0 & Semenyo scored by charging down the keeper.

No one was actually there to see it, sadly.

People go on about Preston but Birmingham are our real bogey team, won at AG loads & we don’t win up there much either.

On Robins TV they said we have won 4 of our last 25 against them.

[Shuffle]

Disappointing performance for me & a huge lost opportunity for a rare win at St Andrews. Just watched the Menehti headers back & two great chances that have to be taken.  We moved the ball too slow to which Vyner was constantly moaning about which is good to see.  Williams was superb and mom by a mile for me.  Thought TGH was poor as slowed it down & caught on the ball.  As others have said it’s a point gained but they were there for the taking & their fans would have made it toxic if we had scored.  Thought Bell looked good when he came on and played a brilliant ball across 6 yard box.
 

Im not sure how many of Blues team played at the Gate but what a contrast in the two games I’ve seen them in.  If we could nick one from them then I’d have Bacuna all day long as quick, strong and technically very good.

[Charlie BCFC]

8 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

Disappointing performance for me & a huge lost opportunity for a rare win at St Andrews. Just watched the Menehti headers back & two great chances that have to be taken.  We moved the ball too slow to which Vyner was constantly moaning about which is good to see.  Williams was superb and mom by a mile for me.  Thought TGH was poor as slowed it down & caught on the ball.  As others have said it’s a point gained but they were there for the taking & their fans would have made it toxic if we had scored.  Thought Bell looked good when he came on and played a brilliant ball across 6 yard box.
 

Im not sure how many of Blues team played at the Gate but what a contrast in the two games I’ve seen them in.  If we could nick one from them then I’d have Bacuna all day long as quick, strong and technically very good.

Completely agree with this, probably still the best team to come to the Gate this season for me. They were fearless in August with a pretty similar squad, last night however they seemed to be happy with a point which I don’t think benefits them in the long run

[italian dave]

19 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Only big win was very very early under Pearson in the pandemic era, 3-0 & Semenyo scored by charging down the keeper.

No one was actually there to see it, sadly.

People go on about Preston but Birmingham are our real bogey team, won at AG loads & we don’t win up there much either.

On Robins TV they said we have won 4 of our last 25 against them.

The Preston thing is odd, isn’t it?

They’ve actually beaten us only once in the last 10 meetings. They had a six consecutive wins before that, which I gues is where the bogey myth comes from. But the record before that was much like the last 10!

Give me Preston over Birmingham any day! 

[KingHillRed]

14 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

Disappointing performance for me & a huge lost opportunity for a rare win at St Andrews. Just watched the Menehti headers back & two great chances that have to be taken.  We moved the ball too slow to which Vyner was constantly moaning about which is good to see.  Williams was superb and mom by a mile for me.  Thought TGH was poor as slowed it down & caught on the ball.  As others have said it’s a point gained but they were there for the taking & their fans would have made it toxic if we had scored.  Thought Bell looked good when he came on and played a brilliant ball across 6 yard box.
 

Im not sure how many of Blues team played at the Gate but what a contrast in the two games I’ve seen them in.  If we could nick one from them then I’d have Bacuna all day long as quick, strong and technically very good.

Agreed, very good summary

Bacuna always feel like one of those players that will make something happen, I get the impression that he is either excellent or pony 

[Garland-sweden]

55 minutes ago, Always injured said:

Unfortunately for us millwall game is likely to be very similar to this one expecting a very tight edgy match 

Yes, the teams in lower table are going play safe against us. We have became better and have to solve the defensive teams.

[old_eastender]

Can understand why he put AW on for Mehmeti, given Andi's good showing as a sub against Watford, but in hindsight Yeboah would have been a better option to actually cause their defence some problems. AW did little and his constant drifting inside nullified our attacking down the left. 

[Silvio Dante]

1 hour ago, Bs4Red said:

Let the dust settle before this post.

Thought we were okay last night, first half we dominated the ball and felt like Brum barely touched it. 
Should have be 1-0, golden opportunity at the back post headed wide. 
70% possession at half time proved this, however we had an awful lot of safe possession. Brum sat in a low block and we struggled to break this down. 
Going forward the pace was very slow and we struggled to break lines with our passing. 
The couple of times we broke through, the final pass or delivery just wasn’t there. Knight breaking forward. 
 

Second half was more even and opened up when Rooney made his subs, again we just lacked that bit of quality in the final 3rd. 
 

For me it was a decent performance just lacking that final bit, no matter how bad Brum are currently they defended their box well and made it hard for us. 64% possession overall away from home and our goal hardly threatened. 
 

After the busy schedule and Millwall coming up, I did feel the lack of urgency was a “plan” we didn’t rush anything at all. Williams alluded to possible “fatigue” in his post presser. 
 

Sykes was a massive threat again and gets through a ridiculous amount of distance going forward and defensively so I can see why he keeps getting hooked. Don’t think it’s tactical but more protection. 
 

Overall a decent point even if disappointing and we kept the run going, our record vs Brum is pretty woeful too.

Win v Millwall and it’s been a fantastic last 5 games. 

Good post, and I tend to like these reflecting on the morning after points.
 

Yesterday was interesting on a few fronts - we played against an opponent whose first and only objective was not to lose. I saw an xG stat for them of 0.11 which tells its own story. I think Millwall will be the same so we need to find a way to get through teams like that. The relatively deep sit of Brum meant there was a lack of space behind, and also that we couldn’t go with pace - effectively we were playing through two banks. Notwithstanding that we should have won - I have sympathy with Mehmetis first header as it’s a mishit from Wells, but the second one really should be buried.

The possession stat is also interesting - again passes up massively, possession up massively and performance a step down. I’m not that hung up on that aspect from yesterday because the possession stat was driven by Brums approach as opposed to reversion to the approach in Norwich etc. It does however suggest that teams may be happy to let us have the ball when they compare our relative effectiveness - again, Millwall will be interesting but moreso how the pattern develops against PNE and further games.

To me, it’s a decent enough point that should have been three but also gives a steer as to an aspect we may need to improve if we are to look upwards.

[Jerseybean]

Lots of good comments in this thread and although there are some polarised observations I tend to agree with most of what’s being said. Historically we have struggled to breakdown teams who set up to defend (which Brum certainly did) noteworthy that we failed to manage a shot on target.

If we’d beaten Brum 4-1 and drew 0-0 with Watford think everyone would have been chuffed.

The challenge is to find a way of penetrating teams that set up to defend and hit us on the break, it’s more typically something we face at home and Millwall will likely employ this approach. 

Reinforces the need for more creativity in midfield and a different kind of striker for me.

Also highlights the realities of BCFC and the Championship - superb team performance v Watford with all player ratings higher than average reflecting this and at best an average team performance last night (ratings around 6/7 for most) against an inferior team who are struggling. 

 

[Bs4Red]

38 minutes ago, old_eastender said:

Can understand why he put AW on for Mehmeti, given Andi's good showing as a sub against Watford, but in hindsight Yeboah would have been a better option to actually cause their defence some problems. AW did little and his constant drifting inside nullified our attacking down the left. 

This was a constant throughout the game I thought and a pattern clearly worked on. AM drifted inside a lot of the game to give Pring the space to run into. 
Williams and Dickie both hit a couple of delightful diags out to Pring because AM had tucked inside. 

[Jerseybean]

AM miss https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/bristol-city/13039280/how-did-he-miss-anis-mehmeti-header-misses-open-goal

 

[italian dave]

3 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

Lots of good comments in this thread and although there are some polarised observations I tend to agree with most of what’s being said. Historically we have struggled to breakdown teams who set up to defend (which Brum certainly did) noteworthy that we failed to manage a shot on target.

If we’d beaten Brum 4-1 and drew 0-0 with Watford think everyone would have been chuffed.

The challenge is to find a way of penetrating teams that set up to defend and hit us on the break, it’s more typically something we face at home and Millwall will likely employ this approach. 

Reinforces the need for more creativity in midfield and a different kind of striker for me.

Also highlights the realities of BCFC and the Championship - superb team performance v Watford with all player ratings higher than average reflecting this and at best an average team performance last night (ratings around 6/7 for most) against an inferior team who are struggling. 

 

Agree, although to be fair most sides struggle against teams that set out to defend at this level; it's not just us. 

I know Stoke hit 3 past them on Boxing Day - but by all accounts Birmingham went a bit gung-ho for a win that day. But even the likes of Leicester and Southampton can find it hard to break down teams that just play deep with 10 behind the ball. 

4 minutes ago, Bs4Red said:

This was a constant throughout the game I thought and a pattern clearly worked on. AM drifted inside a lot of the game to give Pring the space to run into. 
Williams and Dickie both hit a couple of delightful diags out to Pring because AM had tucked inside. 

And Vyner hit one first half that was superb. had to be 50 yards, straight to his feet.

[italian dave]

5 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

AM miss https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/bristol-city/13039280/how-did-he-miss-anis-mehmeti-header-misses-open-goal

 

Thank you: really couldn't see that last night from where we were sat. 

[Davefevs]

59 minutes ago, old_eastender said:

AW did little and his constant drifting inside nullified our attacking down the left

Thought he was bright when he came on, and drifting inside is exactly what LM wants his left sided forward to do, to open up the space for Pring.  What we didn’t do in the second half was get Knight on the ball around AM or AW to create those overloads.  Knight seemed to favour the right half most of the game.

[old_eastender]

Shame that Pring unusually had a bit of a trampoline foot, so wasn't able to make much of that space then.

Still think when we are struggling to create much against a team sat-in, Yeboah's true pace and zest for taking defenders on, is more likely to result in something positive.

 

[underhanded]

I thought we were generally okay. One thing I noticed was we seemed to waste turnovers regularly. I know the idea is to recycle the ball quickly on a turnover to catch opposition players out of position, but the first pass after winning the ball back was often misplaced. Need to work on that

[archie andrews]

I really had a ball.....