AFCB Vital Blogs

Vital Verdict – Bristol City v AFCB

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Written by kirsikka

The most complete performance of the Parker era so far. Could, and probably should, have been four or five. Not just that though, given the enforced changes it may have looked disjointed but actually, we purred around the pitch as a unit.

The slight change in formation worked out perfectly. It hinged a lot on Kilkenny bringing quality to the fulcrum role and Billing being energetic in getting back more than the other formation requires. Plaudits to both for nailing their respective jobs admirably.

The pass and move throughout the match was a joy, but so was the press and hard work that constantly unsettled Bristol City. They couldn’t get any sort of rhythm going, but a lot of that was down to the graft which is easy to overlook when there were prettier sides of the game also on show.

Loved what I saw out there. And let’s remember four of the starters came from the academy.

Noteworthy performances:
Kilkenny – might feel aggrieved to have lost his place after playing well at the start of the season. Could say the same after today. Played very well and surely can’t be just discarded again.

Lowe – Good full debut. Looked dangerous and nice to know we have him as an option out wide as well as in the middle. I suspect he’s going to be an important player as the season goes on.

Things to work on:
Our shooting. It was comically bad at times out there. The chances carved open should have resulted in at least saves for their keeper but the vast majority were skewed off target.

Man of the match against Bristol City

Stacey

Zemura

Zemura

Anthony

Anthony

Lowe

Lowe

Your say…

darwinsdummy wrote…

After a number of games where we’ve gone up only to cling on for the last 10 or 20 minutes, credit to Parker and the team for keeping the pressure on, never really felt nervous today. Maybe one of our more complete performances of the season. Haven’t thought through player ratings fully, but Parker probably gets an 8 from me today for setting up well and keeping us going the whole game. Maybe should be higher, actually, the only failings today that I saw were personal moments that are totally outside of the manager’s control (poor finishing, a missed header or tackle).

Better shooting and we’d have had 5+. Not gonna complain much seeing as a fantastic conversion rate carried us for a number of games earlier in the season, so I just see that as the odds evening out a bit. Very pleased with all the chances that were made though!

Maybe Cahill’s worst game for us so far with a few mistakes leading to shooting opportunities, but we got the clean sheet, so job done there. Stacey was solid on defense and got good crosses in, including the assist, so he’s my MOM but only just barely above Kilkenny and Zemura.

MB1980 wrote…

Loved how we kept the pace up, particularly in the first half. Whenever the ball went out of play, we didn’t take our time, kept the intensity up.

Was almost laughing at times, the way we were constantly first to loose balls all over the pitch, it was ridiculous. We seemed to be everywhere first.

People were saying we’d have a better idea of our credentials by the end of this month. So far we’re more than delivering.

Waz afcb wrote…

My thoughts:
As convincing an away performance as you are ever likely to see, we completely controlled the game from start to finish. I’m going to choose to shape my opinions based on the perception that we were very good, rather than Bristol City being very bad.
-we completely dominated possession from start to finish and they couldn’t get close to us, the movement of our players off the ball was non stop and very impressive. Our players were constantly making ‘decoy’ runs to create space for a teammate to receive the ball, massive credit must go to Parker as a lot of work has clearly been done in terms of our movement off the ball and it really showed today.
-central to everything we did was Gavin Kilkenny, my God this boy is good. He was the conductor, virtually every attack was initiated by him. I don’t think he surrendered possession even a single time. Everything he does is just so bloody composed, he seems to be able to wriggle out of any situation while retaining possession. He knows exactly when to play it simply and keep play ticking over, and he knows just the right moment to switch play too. And he can switch play in an instant with a pinpoint cross field ball to completely change the dynamic of an attack. He is just too good not to be playing.
-what was very noticeable to me was that our right-hand side was as threatening today as it has looked all season, I believe this was down to the link-up between Lowe and Stacy. Lowe looked a bit rusty and misplaced a few passes, but the positions that he was taking up played a big role in getting the best out of Stacy, who had his best game for a while today. JL varied his game by at times hugging the touchline and acting as a traditional winger, and at times he drifted inside to create the space for Stacy to attack on the overlap (the goal being a prime example.) We looked a lot more balanced today than we have done in previous weeks in my opinion, JL and JS should keep their places for sure.
-Ryan Christie needs to play centrally as I strongly believe that his talents are wasted when asked to hug the touchline. He is not a traditional winger and he doesn’t really link with his full-back a great deal when played here, always looking to come central. Today showed just what he was capable of in a central position, constantly finding pockets of space and drifting between the lines. When in central positions he has the ability to both pick out an incisive defence-splitting pass and also to pick the ball up from deep and drive at the opposition, it also better gives him the platform to utilise his range of passing (see the second goal.) We will get a lot more from him playing centrally than we will in a wide position.
-without meaning to state the obvious JZ is quite some talent, how many left-backs at any level can do what he did today? Without meaning to sound negative I think at best we are going to have him until the end of this season, with his contract due to expire in the summer and no news on him signing a new one. Why he wasn’t given a longer one I don’t know, but that’s a discussion for another day. There is no way that the top clubs are not looking at this kid very closely, let’s just pray we don’t lose him on a free transfer.
-shout out to Travers too. We all know he’s a good shot-stopper but today for the first time he actually showed signs of commanding his area, coming out to deal with two or three crosses. We need more of this going forward please Mark! – Join the conversation, click here.

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