To use Nigel Pearson’s own adjective, Bristol City’s performance at Birmingham City last season was “rotten”. As the manager stated this week, his Robins team were bullied out of the encounter by Blues muscular and direct style as City served up one of their worst displays of the campaign.
Beaten 3-0, and with little response, resistance or reaction, it suggested character flaws within the squad, and a worrying weakness at being able to deal with in-game pressure and physical intimidation. It also was the preceding fixture before Nigel Pearson’s second leave of absence that term due to illness, adding to the overall miserable feel of the occasion.
Just under 12 months on, Birmingham are under new management in John Eustace but the profile of the team remains similar with an expectation that Troy Deeney will be front and centre of their attacking play and will look to get the face of the Robins defence at every opportunity.
Of the City backline that took to the field at St Andrew’s in November, 2021, Jay Dasilva, Rob Atkinson and Zak Vyner will be the survivors on Saturday, with the latter two likely to experience the full force of Deeney’s frame at various points in the contest. Both are experiencing an upturn in form, and Vyner in particular has looked more assured, accomplished and confident, but will need to be at his most robust this weekend.
Pearson is well-versed in Deeney’s capabilities and characteristics, through their time together at Watford, and while accepting it’ll be a tough challenge in the Midlands, delivered a pretty blunt assessment in how City can limit his influence.
“If I was playing against him, I’d probably knee him up the arse!” Pearson said, with a wry smile. “And he knows that as well! Troy likes to pin people, he wants to know where you are, so you’ve got to avoid that, you’ve got to bluff him. Don't let him feel you.”
Vyner, Atkinson and whoever plays alongside them in the back three won’t be able to use such a blunt instrument as a knee to the backside - at least not when the officials are looking - but the concept of a striker “feeling” defenders is pertinent to last season.
In that game, Blues took the lead as Deeney held off Vyner before laying the ball into the path of Riley McGree, who scored via a deflection. Their second arrived when a huge punt downfield was misjudged by Vyner and Deeney got around the back of him and flicked it into the path of Scott Hogan to finish.
The City defence need to know when to stick tight and compete, whether it be aerially or on the deck, and when to drop off and assess the danger; if they get too close, they risk being rolled, as was the case last season, while if they drop off too far, it gives the Birmingham frontline to run at them.
“They’ve got some good players. A manager who is, I’ve come across a few times, he’s going to be a very successful coach/manager. I think he’s very inventive, he’s got Keith (Downing, former City coach) working for him so it will be nice to see him. They’ll be working hard to get the best out of the players they have.
“I would imagine they will play off Troy quite a bit; he’s a very experienced player, a good targetman. I worked with him at Watford and he’s a big personality too.
“When we played them last year, they sort of bullied us a bit and we didn’t really deal with it in an effective way. So it’s a challenge for us to see whether we can deal with that sort of a threat this time around but I think we are playing better as well. They’ll be aware we have players who hurt them.”
“Being bullied” is not something that sits well with Pearson when describing the performance of his team, but the City manager is confident his squad possesses the necessary minerals to avoid such a fate this time around.
Yes, City are playing better and more fluid football than they were at this stage of the season last term, but there is a greater understanding of what’s required, more organisation and leadership from within the squad, albeit with Pearson missing two of his trusted lieutenants in Kal Naismith and Matty James. The absence of that duo gives further rise to the theory that Andy King will start at St Andrew’s.
“I just think there is a stronger collective mentality,” Pearson added. “There are going to be players playing on Saturday who played in the game last year who have made improvements themselves, and I don’t mean technically - either deal with pressure or deal with whatever the game throws at them.
“Most of the time when we talk internally about performances and players, it’s very rare we talk about technical issues, it’s whether players are able to deal with physiological pressure or their own demons. But, I think, the group has been together for a bit longer now. We’ve added in the players in the summer who have strengthened the squad but they fit in as personalities now.
“When you are shopping in a limited market that everyone else is shopping in, because of the circumstances that football finds itself in, we’ve got to make sure that we get that right. Fortunately for us, the players that we’ve added to the squad, I think, have been really good.”
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