Bristol City 2018/19 season preview

As we enter August in the midst of a glorious, sun-baked, World Cup-hyped summer, there can rarely have been such a feeling at Ashton Gate of simply not having a clue how a season is going to pan out, given what has happened in the past 12 months.

Will Bristol City be the dynamic, quick, attacking high-press team that took the Championship by storm in the first five months of last season, destroying Derby County and overcoming Cardiff, Fulham, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United, as well as fully deserving those four Premier League scalps in the amazing Carabao Cup run?

Or will they be the team that finished the season surrendering leads meekly and weakly, the team that dropped off and allowed others to come on to them, the team that – in certain fans eyes – ‘gave up’ some time before the end of the season?

Will City miss the aerial dominance and cult hero status of Aden Flint, the goals, energy and spirit of Bobby Reid and – probably – the dynamism, pace and natural ability of local lad Joe Bryan?

Or will head coach Lee Johnson’s slightly tweaked transfer policy of signing more experienced campaigners aged between 23-27 bear fruit, with them slotting in neatly, adding solidity and bringing along the likes of Lloyd Kelly, Josh Brownhill and Callum O’Dowda?

Right now no-one has the answer, but for what it’s worth I believe City are more the former than the latter and that the team paid a heavy price for the long-term injuries suffered last season, as well as the extra handful of games played in a critical period.

If you look at the January results, surely the pre-Christmas City wouldn’t have lost to Norwich at home and Bolton away. Those players hadn’t given up but they looked tired, both in mind and body, and it showed in results.

Bailey Wright was playing out of position, affecting the quality of both the team’s defending and right-hand side attacks; new wide men were being brought in and out of the side to try and recreate the flair and speed of earlier in the season; and the core of the team, seven or eight players, were flogged for more minutes than anyone else in the Championship.

It is almost inevitable that that particular combination of issues will have some sort of impact, and it did. Mental tiredness plays more of a part than most fans care to mention, but having got ‘up’ for so many big games through that early part of the season, there just didn’t seem to be anything left when it came to the more mundane outings in the spring.

However, there is a nagging feeling amongst some fans that the early part of last season was actually the blip – we scored some late goals, we got a bit of luck (at Sheffield United especially) and certain players were all in the form of their lives all at the same time.

Whether Johnson can replicate that spirit and momentum is a big question for him ahead of the new season, as well as having to prove he can stop the long winless runs his teams always seem to end up on. This would appear to be why the likes of Webster, Hunt, Watkins and Weimann have been brought in – players with a little more nous to help lead the team through tougher times.

There is certainly some defensive organisational work still to do, and the bright shoots that seemed to be emerging in that area following Jamie McAllister’s appointment were wiped out in the heavy snow of the late winter with capitulations against Sunderland, Leeds, Hull and Sheffield United.

Johnson talked of lacking leaders at the tail end of last season – he clearly didn’t see the oft-ranting-and-shouty Flint as one, and it’s telling that Joe Bryan has spoken of developing leadership skills in pre-season whilst Baker, Smith and Pack can hopefully learn new tricks from the incoming players in that regard.

The other big question that remains unanswered is around the number one shirt. Frankie Fielding has been a great squad member and is one of the best shot-stoppers in the league, but his all-round keeping, especially his command of his area, decision-making (see Wolves at home) and cross catching remains dubious at best, and that’s without even mentioning his oft-criticised distribution.

Johnson wants to implement the modern style of playing football from the back – Webster for Flint should help in that regard – and it seems clear a new, footballing goalkeeper is being targeted. Why it’s taken so long is anyone’s guess but it seems like the club has gone around the houses somewhat in search of a main target.

So, what will happen this season? My suspicion is that City will be nicely nestled in midtable, probably playing around the edges of either the play-offs or bottom eight, but never really getting fully drawn into either. The concern has to be that, as we saw last season, momentum can play a big part. And, given the bad feeling about the way last season finished, if we have a stuttering start it won’t take long before pressure starts to build on the head coach to show he is continuing to improve this side.

Whatever happens it is unlikely to quite reach the heights, drama and excitement of last season – some of that is once-in-a-generation stuff – but maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing all round.

Follow Paul’s Bristol City fan page at www.facebook.com/theexiledrobin or follow him @theexiledrobin on Twitter for more.