Brentford Away – Post Match Reaction & Looking Forward

Yet another 90+ minute goal let us down. As frustrating as this is, it was quite a satisfying point earned for City in the end. City have travelled well in London this season, picking up 3 points at Charlton and Fulham, and were close to repeating this feat at Brentford as Lee Tomlin opened the scoring on the brink of half-time with a lovely curling strike into the bottom corner, but City were pegged back by a  91st minute equalizer from Brentford’s Hogan.

City competed well in the first half. Man of the match, Richard O’Donnell made some excellent saves to deny Brentford a couple of goals, paving the way for City to take the lead. However, in the second half City were 2nd best and were relying on O’Donnell to keep us in front. He even saved a penalty on 85 mins but could do nothing to deny Hogan’s last gasp header. Brentford fully deserved their equalizer and as frustrating as it was to concede so late again, we could have no qualms with the scoreline.

The way I see the result, is a point closer to safety. Although it looks like a certainty that we’ll stay up now, just 2 more points and we’ll be mathematically safe which should be the current goal for everyone at the club. Lee Johnson has done a good job since his appointment at City and has made us look comfortable in staying up, almost disguising what a struggle of a season it’s been. We look like we’re becoming a solid Championship side that could push for a top half finish next year. It’s all about progression – I don’t want to jump the gun and claim we can get playoffs, because I don’t think that is a realistic aim. As long as we keep improving as we currently are, the future could be an exciting one.

Following Cotterill’s ultimate disaster with transfers, I am unsure how much say Lee Johnson has in current transfers at the club. He is labelled ‘first team coach’ as opposed to being a ‘manager’, suggesting that he coaches and picks the team rather than having external transfer dealings. Whoever has been doing the dealings since January (most likely Mark Ashton), they’re doing a great job. The permanent signings of Richard O’Donnell and Scott Golbourne have been cute bits of business, and furthermore the loan signings such as Adam Matthews and Lee Tomlin have given us an extra boost. If we can sign them two on permanent deals next season then I’ll be a happy man.

Our next match is tomorrow night at home to Derby County. They’re a good side as we found out in our 4-0 loss to them in december, however they do have a tendency to choke matches especially at this point of the season. As we’ve all but confirmed our survival in the Championship, they’re comfortably sat in the play-off positions so both teams have similar stakes to play for. Apart from doing the double over Middlesborough, we’ve been pretty dismal against the better teams in this division, losing 4-0 to Hull, Burnley, Brighton and Derby. Tomorrow night gives us a chance of redemption, and some renewed confidence vs the top teams for next season. My prediction is a hard fought 1-1 draw, but what do I know! COYR

 

Steve Cotterill: A Fall From Grace – The Formation

In my last blog, I talked about how transfer dealings contributed to the downfall of Steve Cotterill’s reign of Bristol City. In my view, another major error Steve Cotterill made was his stubbornness and failure to change/adapt his tactics and formation to the Championship. I get it – each football manager has a certain set of values and tactical know how which they trust and which gets them employed by football clubs, but when something so clearly isn’t working it needs to change!

The 3-5-2 formation is something that has been incorporated into the modern game, and can be very effective when used correctly. In City’s 2014/15 League 1 campaign, Cotterill used 3-5-2 every week to great success. Wing backs Bryan and Little were able to join into attack at every opportunity, Freeman was given a ‘free’ role and we started with 2 strikers alongside each other. Being the best team in the division, teams were inclined to sit back against us and defend. City almost always has more of the ball than our opposition and by using the 3-5-2, we were able to effectively overload teams with attacking players and easily win matches. Some weeks, our 3 in defence were hardly tested. Aden Flint even managed 15 goals from centre back which shows how constantly attacking we were!

At the start our the 2015/16 campaign, we started with the same tactics. Again, why change something that worked so well last year? City fans including myself had no qualms with continuing as we left off. However, it became quickly evident that 3-5-2 wasn’t working. The higher quality of teams in the Championship were proving harder to break down, and by constantly committing so many players forward in attack, the 3 at the back were getting easily exposed on the counter attack. The wing backs were always so advanced that they offered little to no defensive cover on the wings and opposition wingers were having  a field day. Home games such as the 1-4 loss to Fulham, or the 0-2 loss to Reading were early warnings to Cotterill that 3-5-2 needed adjusting if not changing. However, we’ve all discovered that Steve Cotterill is a very stubborn man as he continued to play his way, convinced that the formation would eventually start working. City fans were crying out to play 4 at the back but it never happened.

This is where I noticed confusion amongst our fanbase. Fans seemed to be stuck in two minds whether to criticize Cotterill for his stubbornness, or to trust him after what a fantastic season he’d given us previously. It ended up being a mixture of both which is not a healthy relationship in football. December then came, and a couple of 4-0 losses to Derby and Burnley showed absolutely no signs of progression, in fact showed that City were on the decline and in danger of being relegated straight back to League 1. Cotterill then started to anger fans further by his angry and pathetic post match interviews. After every poor result he would come out and have an excuse, e.g the referees/a penalty decision/the pitch. It was like he had no understanding that his tactics were the reason we were losing matches! Yes, there might have been 1 or 2 dodgy referee decisions along the way, but the fact that he was showing no remorse and showing no attempt to change his own management was fatal.

The final straw for Cotterill was the 1-2 home defeat to Preston. It was a must win game against a team who had finished two places behind us in the previous season. Fans were clearly livid at the result and made their feelings known. This is when Cotterill seemingly lost his head (and his job). Snapchat footage shows Cotterill getting into a verbal spat with one of our supporters, both shouting foul language at each other. This is not only bad internally for the club, it is also very embarrassing as the footage ended up going viral, and puts our club in a very negative light. Unfortunately, in the modern game the majority of football managers get stick off the fans if things aren’t going right, but the way Cotterill reacted showed a man who’d had enough.

Post Cotterill’s sacking as manager, John Pemberton took temporary charge and straight away signed left back Scott Golbourne and started with a back 4. This shows that it was not only the fans who wanted to change the formation, but even Cotterills assistant manager too! Makes me wonder if Cotterill was even ignoring his own staff when continuing to trust his 3-5-2 formation?! Now that Lee Johnson is in charge, we start with a back 4 every week and look much more compact, and our recent results show that we are reaping the rewards of it. I, like many others, was sad to see Cotterill go after what he’d done for us, but unfortunately he made a series of errors upon being promoted to the Championship, and at this level of football it is unforgivable.

Steve Cotterill: A Fall From Grace – The Transfers

On this day a year ago, City beat Bradford 6-0 away to secure emphatic promotion to the Championship. Steve Cotterill had master-classed League 1, won the JPT, and had strong backing to more than compete in the Championship. City fans including myself were optimistic and excited to see what this genius of a manager could achieve at a higher level. However, 5 months into City’s championship campaign, we were sat amongst Bolton and Charlton in the relegation zone and Cotterill was rightly dismissed. A year on and City look comfortably safe in the Championship thanks to new manager Lee Johnson who has been impressive in succeeding Steve Cotterill. This blog will look at Cotterill’s downfalls and how such a ‘fall from grace’ was able to happen.

‘The Sleeping Giants’ is a nickname that is usually associated with us, and in league 1 this was certainly the case. Ourselves and Sheffield United were much ‘bigger’ clubs than the likes of Fleetwood and Crewe who shared the division. This is a large reason as to why Cotterill was able to sign the best players in League 1. The likes of Oldham captain Korey Smith, Stevenage ace Luke Freeman, and divisional top goalscorer Keiran Agard all relished the chance to play at a ‘bigger’ club with most likely increased wages. These signings plus others were imperative in the demolition of league one. Cotterill was also given the full backing from Lansdown to sign who he wanted, and gave him the largest transfer budget in the division.

Cotterill went into the Championship with the same mentality as the previous season – sign the best players in the division. Why not? It worked before why wouldn’t happen again? The problem is, there are currently much bigger and more attractive clubs in the Championship that these star players had a preference towards. In other words, City weren’t the most attractive proposition in the division. City’s optimistic £6m pursuit of Dwight Gayle, and then £9m pursuit of Andre Gray goes a long way to proving my point. Both bids were accepted but the player didn’t want to come. The time wasted chasing these players meant City had little time to look for alternatives and therefore went into the season with a very light squad. We ended up making several desperate loan signings and starting the season with an even weaker squad than we had in league 1, after releasing JET and selling Cunningham.

Every man and his dog welcomed the January transfer window with open arms. It was a chance for Cotterill to redeem himself, and learn from his mistakes by buying more realistic players who actually want to transfer to us. However, once again, Cotterill was optimistic and wasted his time chasing players who didn’t want to play for us. Zach Clough was this time at the centre of things. A £3m bid accepted but the player didn’t want to make a ‘sideways’ move. Cotterill didn’t last long after this. 3 losses on the trot, and a particularly bad 2-1 home defeat to Preston (Cunningham scoring the winner) and Cotterill was out the door. It is clear that the transfers is something that Cotterill got very wrong in the Championship, and was a huge contribution to his downfall.