The CableGuy
Well-Known Member
Bristol City verdict as Robins look close to breaking point
Bristol City twice surrendered the lead against Coventry City to lose 3-2 in humiliating and troubling fashion having been played off the park for 45 minutes by 10 men
If you want a model, look at what Mark Robins has done with Coventry.
You can pin the West Brom and Bournemouth defeats on finances but there was no such excuse on Saturday as [Bristol] City were outplayed and out-manoeuvred with a team assembled from a fraction of the transfer budget and wage expenditure.
The Sky Blues played with clear purpose and identity, subconsciously interchanging positions through midfield, knowing where there teammates would be each time they were on the ball, playing with constant fluidity.
Even when they went a man down, Robins adjusted his formation according by switching to a back four but keeping his main attacking players on the field because he had confidence in his system and players to figure things out on the field.
We’re told City are an inexperienced team, which they are, but that Coventry XI contained eight players who have only become Championship regulars over the last season and a half, yet operated with real presence and authority and a problem-solving City could only dream of.
Robins did use the words "bravery" and "spirit" in his post-match assessment, something Fleming highlighted City lacked, but he also spoke of "switches" and the smart substitution of Liam Kelly to safeguard midfield and allow Ben Sheaf and Callum O’Hare to get higher up the pitch.
These were clever proactive decisions, not reactive and reductive moves to contain or hold onto what they had. Quite simply they looked a better-coached team (and that's not just in the context of those 90 minutes on Saturday).
It was a comeback forged out of more than just attitude and the tired cliché of “wanting it more” – yes, that may be true to a point and the foundation of it, but Coventry were also intelligent with their use of the ball, with each and every player clearly on the same page. They were engaged.
Robins is, of course, a manager who’s been in his job for four years allowing him to impose his blueprint on the club over time and form and coach the type of team he wants, from League Two through to the Championship.
The difference with Pearson's project being is that Coventry started at a low base, in League Two, and then progressed upwards through the pyramid on his watch. City, sadly, are in real danger at the moment of going the other way.
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