Football / Fan's View
‘Confidence, a weird and wonderful thing’
“Confidence is the preference to the habitual voyeur of what is know as….Parklife,” said Blur (Well actually Phil Daniels but lets not be too picky). Confidence, a weird and wonderful thing. Something that can’t be bottled, brought, bestowed, borrowed or (I couldn’t think of another B word) faked.
It seems to be one key thing that has been lacking, compared to last season, this time round. The late goal at Deepdale on Tuesday may have gone some way in addressing this issue. Having said that, one would have expected a win at Middlesbrough, or the two late goals at home to Leeds to have done similar.
Perhaps the problem is more to do with a sense of being over-awed. Not many of our number have played at this level before and this must go some way to explaining our lack of points compared dominance in the games. We had the majority of possession in both of our recent away fixtures, Birmingham City and Preston North End, but continually seem to be failing in turning this into points.
is needed now More than ever
As stated before in this blog, I have a huge amount of respect for Steve Cotteril and fully trust him with the fate of my team. He, thankfully, seems a little more upbeat in recent times than he did during the transfer window. I am sure he is relived the window is now closed and he can concentrate on the players he does have and the task in hand.
As predicted in last week’s piece, we briefly flirted with a 4-4-2 at St Andrews. The problem with this formation, and so it has seemed for many a year at Ashton Gate, is the lack of natural width within the squad. Joe Bryan could no doubt do a job on the left wing, and Luke Freeman has played that role to considerable aplomb at previous clubs. But on the right we have few options. What we wouldn’t give for a ten years younger Scott Murray.
Saturday sees us welcome a Reading side in decent form. I have often seen the likes of Reading as a good bench mark for where City could/should be. They have been in the Premier League, something we know is the Holy Grail for teams of our size, and seem to compete in the upper escutcheons of the Championship when outside of the top division.
So, looking forward, we need to be more confident all over the pitch, convert our possession into goals, cut out the silly mistakes at the back and be more ruthless in front of goal. Once again my critical analysis seems to read as basic advice for any football team, anywhere in the world and at any level. Just call me Gary Neville.
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