Bristol City

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Bristol will have a new manager bounce and Nigel Pearson teams are always tough to beat, reflecting his personality. However, I've been reading that they could have 11 or 12 players missing from their squad, so we have every chance of winning this. As badly as we've been playing, surely we have enough to beat what in effect is their second team?

That said, we've been so piss poor I'm even beginning to doubt that. One below par game can be written off as a bad day at the office but when it becomes three or more games, it's a lot more serious than that. Loss of form? Loss of confidence? Other teams have worked us out and stopped us playing? Whatever the reasons Cooper doesn't seem to be able to arrest the slide, yet he still spouts that we are playing reasonably well. :unsure::rolleyes:

If he believes that, we're in trouble. BIG time!! Without rehashing everything we're doing wrong and not doing right, the end result is that the players have not been performing, look lethargic and seemingly lack confidence to play on the front foot. Well tomorrow is a great chance to put things right. If we can't beat a decimated Bristol playing a string of youngsters and second choices, the writing is on the wall vis a vis automatic promotion. More alarming is that, if we start losing games, even a play off spot might be in jeopardy given the resurgent form of teams like Cardiff and Barnsley.

Whilst Cooper has undoubtedly improved as a manager, I think he has been lucky so far and been baled out by a spot of individual brilliance on a number of occasions when our overall performance didn't warrant it. Tomorrow will tell us a lot but, if we don't get three points, a lot we don't want to know.
 

IanABS94

Key Player
On recent form this game is a probable loss. New manager bounce for Bristol and with us not being near our best its easy to see us not win this.

I'm still on the side of the fence that we'll be top 3 this year, even after some lacklustre performances. All teams do a dip in form but it's the ones who grind out results regardless of style that should be near the top. We've lost once during this poor spell and it surely has to end soon.

This will be a tough one but we've got the quality to get something. We've got to get back basics though. International break could be a godsend for us in March, the players do look knackered.
 

The Blobster

Prediction Champ
squad rotation is going to be important over the next few weeks, no good starting players with lead in their legs, fresh legs will be vital for continued success and our squad must be used to the full, starting Ayew and Lowe every game is taking its toll on them , Cooper must trust the squad , not just his favourites.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Loss of form?
No.

Loss of confidence?
No.

Other teams have worked us out and stopped us playing?
No.

All teams do a dip in form.
It's not a dip in form.

...the players do look knackered.
They are not knackered.

So what's happened?

Short explanation:

Steve Cooper is experimenting with our formation to accomodate Hourihane who doesn't have any defensive discipline. During the Coventry game poor Yan Dhanda, who was supposed to play as attacking midfielder, had to do all the defensive work for Hourihane. Etc.

Long explanation:

Soon on CroJack's Corner.
 
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The Blobster

Prediction Champ
I agree, Hourihane offers very little other than his skill at set pieces ( very good set pieces ) he needs to link play better, be more creative in attack, and keep track of opposition runs through our midfield.
 

CroJack

Key Player
I agree, Hourihane offers very little other than his skill at set pieces ( very good set pieces ) he needs to link play better, be more creative in attack, and keep track of opposition runs through our midfield.
He was the man of the match against Norwich, and the worst rated player on the pitch against Forest and Huddersfield.

Here is the difference

Swansea formation against Norwich:


Norwich-LineUp-Yes.jpg


Swansea formation against Forest and Huddersfield:

Forest & HuddersfieldLineUp-No.jpg


Here is how our formation against Coventry should have looked like:


Coventry-LineUp-Yes.jpg

And here is how it mostly looked like:

Coventry-Formation-Poor.jpg
3-1-4-2 is a risky formation, because it needs only one direct forward pass through the 4-line up front to bypass 6 of our players, and that's exactly what Huddersfield did. And when you have a player in that 4-line who rarely tracks back, then you are in trouble. Against Coventry, a hard defensive work from Grimes and Dhanda saved our ass. So, we either play Hourihane as ATM or we don't play him at all.
 
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Yankee_Jack

Key Player
I agree, Hourihane offers very little other than his skill at set pieces ( very good set pieces ) he needs to link play better, be more creative in attack, and keep track of opposition runs through our midfield.
there’s always a reason why a player becomes available then drops down a level. If we can identify these deficiencies so can his club’s coaching and analytics staff; hence the release. meanwhile we burn games to evaluate what we have acquired. Smith will be back in the line-up sooner or later. Our best strategy is to lock up shop at the back, and we can’t have a midfield player not doing a defensive job on the field to keep those shut outs coming.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Our best strategy is to lock up shop at the back, and we can’t have a midfield player not doing a defensive job on the field to keep those shut outs coming.
We can have both, but then we have to choose between Dhanda and Hourihane. Or even Lowe and Hourihane.

Hourihane is a class player. He is creative and his set-pieces delivery is so valuable for us that it makes him almost irreplaceable. But 3-1-4-1 formation is a risk because he doesn't track back as much as he should, which leaves a big gap in the midfield. I appreciate what our coaching staff is trying to do - they want us to become a more attacking side, and they want us to have more players around opposition box. But Houri is just not that player who can run tirelessly from box to box. In my opinion Grimes and Fulton must play as double pivots in the midfield. We could play 3-4-2-1 with both Hourihane and Dhanda behind Ayew, or continue with 3-4-1-2 with either Hourihane or Dhanda behind Lowe and Ayew.
 
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Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Double #10s (H+D) with Ayew as #9 is a very interesting idea. More potent than 1 + Lowe and Ayew. More creative on the break, More lethal from outside side box. Dhanda is better at driving forward with the ball than Lowe.

yes, I really like this combination. It would deliver an organizational challenge defensively for the other team.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Double #10s (H+D) with Ayew as #9 is a very interesting idea. More potent than 1 + Lowe and Ayew. More creative on the break, More lethal from outside side box. Dhanda is better at driving forward with the ball than Lowe.

yes, I really like this combination. It would deliver an organizational challenge defensively for the other team.
Yeah, I like it too. It gives us a lot of options. Ayew can also play together with Houri and then Cullen or Whittaker up front.

Houri+Dhanda.jpg
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Auew’s best games for us have been as a pure #9. It gives him a specific role that he adheres to and delivers well.

as laid out above, how would the opposition deploy a back 4 to defend against the triangle with Ayew at its apex. It would cause all sorts of chaos. Who marks who? How do the opposition’s deep midfield players adjust. This would be disruptive in the same way that our 4-2-3-1 was against 4-4-2 et al back in Martínez’ day.

We would naturally defend higher up the field.
 

IanABS94

Key Player
Cooper benched his best player Fulton. Why?
Agreed, I'd have dropped Lowe and had Ayew alone up top. Put Fulton in there with Grimes and allow Hourihane, Dhanda and Ayew to be the trio in attack. We'll be bossed in the middle today I feel with Pearson likely giving Bristol some impetus.
 
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