‘Perhaps it’s time to put some trust in the clear potential of Liam Walsh’

If ever a moment summed up the sometimes irrational nature of supporting your local club, it was on Wednesday night.

The greatest player many people have ever seen play football was, by all accounts, giving an absolute master-class at the home of English football. Two of the continent’s best sides, including many of England’s World Cup heroes, were involved in a six-goal thriller, but, having paid ten of the Queen’s finest pounds to watch BCTV coverage of Bristol City’s game at Rotherham, that was my game of choice. Watching a low quality 0-0 draw on my iPhone through an app instead of watching Messi sparkling almost life-size on my 40-something incher…

Ridiculous, yeah?

A couple of weeks ago City turned in by far their worst performance of the season at Wigan, where they looked one-paced, passed poorly and offered little attacking creativity and threat.

The first half at Rotherham was surely worse?

I nearly started writing this blog during half-time, but in the end took a deep breath and watched the second half which, albeit still low on quality, at least produced some chances worth getting mildly excited about.

Having been seriously unlucky in losing to a deadly West Brom team at the Hawthorns a couple of weeks ago, following a vibrant, pacy, attacking display, City have since turned in three performances which make you question who those players were that night. Wigan was poor all round and summed up by Marley Watkins smashing our key loan signing out of the game for two months.

Against Villa it was a better overall performance and offered improved intensity – a good job in front of 24,000 at the Gate – but the play was more efficient than extravagant, very direct and chances were still at a premium.

Following that abysmal first 45 minutes in New York, RO, we at least created some chances once Lee Johnson had made his standard double-substitution-on-the-hour, and Matty Taylor surely did more than enough to show he has to start again next time out. Marley Watkins also came on to be our biggest attacking threat of the whole match despite playing just 30 minutes, but his night was cruelly personified by an incredible stumbling, off balance, triple-miss, nudging and slicing the ball towards goal three times from less than a couple of yards out without success.

If the jury appears to be very much still out on Watkins, then the reversion to a defensive, direct (and relatively unsuccessful) style of play means even those firmly behind Lee Johnson are left frustrated by the sudden change in approach and results. It seems as if he was so spooked by the way in which West Brom sliced us open that we’ve been swung completely the opposite way, tightening up at great cost to the fluidity going forward.

I’m sure LJ will point to only two goals conceded in three games and two consecutive games without defeat, but the frustration has been clear even in his words. Whatever it is he’s trying to achieve with the more narrow style clearly isn’t being executed effectively on the pitch by his players, so much more work is required by all.

Andreas Weimann looks as if he could perhaps do with a rest following his blistering start to the season, especially with Taylor chomping at the heels of both strikers.

More worryingly, having had a consistent escalation in performances over the past few years, linchpin Marlon Pack has turned in what are probably some of his poorest performances for some time. His passing range and creativity is clearly key to our set-up, by keeping possession, quickly spreading the ball wide to the wingers and releasing balls for the strikers to run in behind, and it’s clear when he’s not on song we’re going to struggle to create much from anywhere.

Are we asking too much of him and the Duracell bunny next to him, Josh Brownhill, to play 95+ minutes twice a week in the absence of Korey Smith? Perhaps it’s time to put some trust in the clear potential of Liam Walsh, for one game at least.

The trouble this current team will always face is that we’ve been here before and, after four games without a win, there will be plenty of nails being bitten around Ashton Gate on Sunday if things aren’t going well, given the long winless runs we have seen in each of the last two seasons.

At least at home we will surely be more intense again, and hopefully the recent memory of destroying an albeit injury-hit and almost-snowbound visiting set of Owls last March can be brought to the fore and give us the confidence needed to secure three points again.