‘The mood at Ashton Gate was bright as the club headed into the international break’

After a mixed start to the season, the mood at Ashton Gate was bright as the club headed into the international break with three successive wins. The players and staff not involved with their country had a few days off, whilst the likes of Callum O’Dowda, Lloyd Kelly and Tomas Kalas got on the road to represent their nations.

Saturday’s return to league action represents perhaps the toughest test of the season so far, as Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United arrive in BS3 defending a record of four wins on the bounce, and the inspired signing of Oliver Norwood appears to have boosted their promotion credentials substantially.

But it is a glance at Bristol City’s recent history books that makes this an important game for Lee Johnson and his staff, given City’s dire record after returning from the international breaks in the past two seasons. If there is one criticism that seems to stick on Johnson’s record more than any other, it is that he can’t change things when results go awry and struggles to regain that momentum.

Whilst that is more usually pointing towards the long winless streaks, his career to-date has suffered all-too-regularly. The drop in performance levels and poor results following the mini-break is another area he must prove he can find a resolution for.

In the eight times City have had an international break over the past two seasons, the results have been as follows in the subsequent couple of matches: DL, LL, LL, LL, WD, DL, DL, DL. This equates to only eight points from 16 matches.

The one chink of light giving some cause for optimism in this particular statistic was the form following the equivalent break last September, where we returned with a win at Reading and held Champions-elect Wolves at Molineux, before going on to thrash Derby the following Saturday.

But the rest is pretty dreadful. Is it just a quirk, an anomaly of the type you often get in football, or does it point towards something fundamentally wrong in the planning when the breaks come around? Yes, City do have a few players representing their countries, but they don’t ‘suffer’ in the way other clubs do by having ten to 12 players heading off across the continent.

So, what goes wrong? Do the players have too much time off, or too little? Is the focus not regained quickly enough on their return, or are players too slow to bond back together?

Whilst we can’t know exactly what goes on in the team room and on the training ground, Johnson spoke this week on BBC Radio Bristol’s Sound of the City, hosted by Geoff Twentyman, where he revealed they have tweaked the schedule this year to try and change the pattern.

Whereas previously the non-international players have trained as usual for the few days following the league match, then had a long weekend off (Thursday to Monday) before returning to training, this year they’ve been given an immediate break, from Sunday to Thursday of last week, but have then returned to a more normal schedule, training on the middle Saturday as if there were a match and being back in on Monday morning as usual.

From the outside looking in this makes more sense. It must have been a bit of a strange training week, perhaps lacking a touch of intensity, without an actual match to prepare for on the weekend, and now this gives the coaching staff and team the same training pattern as usual in the lead-up to the first fixture back, rather than a disrupted one. They can hopefully do what they usually do on a Monday, then a Tuesday and settle in more quickly.

I’m sure they’ve looked at other areas too, and hopefully it can make a difference during Saturday’s battle with The Blades, ending their winning run and keeping our good form going.

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