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The Morgaro Gomis Show – Bristol City Reflections
Here are my reflections on the match between Blues and Bristol City at St Andrews.
1) The Result
I suppose it should feel like a point gained rather than two dropped bearing in mind Blues came back from two goals down but I really do think Blues should have won it; and had they turned up in the first half hour they probably would have done so. Blues stood off the Robins midfield in the first half; the full backs didn’t get forwards and Peter Ramage particularly was caught out of position defensively on more than one occasion. It also seemed clear from very early on that Keith Fahey was in no way fit and Blues conceded the second partly because Fahey absolutely couldn’t do anything for the pain he was clearly in.
2) Morgaro Gomis
Despite Gomis not coming on until the latter part of the first half, he stood out for me and I’d have probably named him man of the match. Blues were severely lacking in the midfield department prior to the diminutive Senegalese’s introduction, and despite being out of the team more often than not Gomis really did step up to the plate. He didn’t do anything too fancy; just intercepted passes, won tackles and played simple lay-offs – but the constant mopping up from behind the Blues attack when a ball was humped out of defence by the Bristol City backline and then recycling of possession was absolutely key to bringing Blues back into the game. I’d have no hesitation in picking him for the Ipswich game.
3) Marlon King
Got us back into the game with a goal, worked tirelessly winning and holding up the ball second half; all in all a very good game from the striker. A return of sixteen in the Championship and eighteen over all fits very much into what I had hoped for from Marlon and he’s been a key figure in our promotion push. I don’t think I realised what a hard-working player King is before we signed him, and I would say that along with Burke and Murphy he is one of the lynchpins we need to keep in tip-top condition to get us across the finishing line. Of the fourteen goals Blues have got in the last five games, King has got four of them – if we can keep him scoring at that rate, we will go up.
4) The tactical change
One thing that I think has to be highlighted is the key tactical change made by Hughton which got us back on level terms and probably should have won us the game. In the first half both Ramage and Murphy were very defensive, and barely overlapped their corresponding wingers. In the second half, both pushed much further up and consequently Blues were a much more attacking threat; the Zigic goal came after a sweet bit of interplay between Ramage and Burke which only came about because Ramage was in the opposition penalty area.
I suspected a match against a team fighting for their Championship lives would be hard, and whilst I got the scoreless bit wrong I was bang on with the draw. In the context of things it means Blues really need to beat Ipswich at Portman Road on Tuesday to confirm completely their playoff place (and hopefully 4th as well), but once again a win isn’t the be-all and end-all. Just one more thought for you – Chris Wood was apparently miffed that he didn’t get the first team starts he thought he deserved with Blues and this is why he rebuffed extending his stay at St Andrews. Having seen his performance today, would you have picked him for Blues over what we had? Neither would I.
Tags: Bristol City, Chris Wood, Marlon King, Morgaro Gomis
24 Responses to “The Morgaro Gomis Show – Bristol City Reflections”
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Its very simple really. As Brian Clough would say, if you retreat, then the opposition willl come onto you. Bristol were a dreadfully ordinary team in this league. Nevertheless and inexplicably, we played for most of the game like a team defending a 1-0 lead with 5 minutes to go. Get them rockets out and shove them up the guilty posteriors. get real and lets get the bandwagon back on track!
Good summary, sat off them far too much and they looked fragile whenever Blues got forward. Fahey was clearly limping early on and Gomis transformed the game. Lessons learnt and move on and get promoted. On another note, get well soon TF:-)
I thought Redmond lack of match participation over the past few months was too apparent. He should have been alternated with Townsend more to keep his sharpness up.
There is just no pleasing some people. If CH had dropped Townsend for Redmond when he was playing well you would probabbly have given him stick fror dropping Townsend
Fahey was actually injured making a challenge after about 10 minutes and got left on too long. Gomis was excellent when he came on and Colin Doyle deserves full credit for stepping in late and performing so creditably.
Bristol City actually played well and in contrast to Cardiff’s performance who were happy to shut up shop and waste time Bristol still looked to try and win it at the end. Derek McInnes has obviously done a good job down there and I hope they stay up. The sooner Portsmouth are got rid of the better; after our experience with them they had the help of a referee again v Doncaster.
Certainly agree about Gomis and King however promotion is likely to beating West Ham and I just can’t see that. Here’s hoping they overtake Southampton.
Im really disapointed with the result.Getting a win at Ipshit wont be easy.You are bang on with your Chris Wood comment!KRO
we need to get enough points to get i the p/o .saying that trying to patch fahey up for ipswich is not an option.we will need him for the p/o.if we make wembley he will be key.gomis did very well.i,m sure no team below is will win all their games so we should be ok.even if we limp in over the line the p/o are a different animal.on our day we can beat anyone.keef must be bricking it about the euro,s.the lad deserves his chance.get him him right for us first then hopefully he can be ok for the republic
Yes good summary. Gomis was my man of the match – Mr Reliable. Ramage caused chaos when he pushed forward after the break and he was clearly fired up. Burke had a strange game – the odd touch of brilliance but many wayward passes and lapses of concentration. Townsend showed some lovely touches on the ball – he’s got great feet. What I love about Mutch is that he gets his head up and picks out a pin point forward pass plus he gets stuck into the tackling – reminds me of Gerard in his all action all round play. I tell you what it is so much more enjoyable to watch than anything I have seen down there in either the McLeish or Bruce eras so anything else is a bonus.
I agree with Jeff. The last three games, while important to secure the play off position, are not crucial. Try and nurse him back to health – if possible – and get him right for the vital games in the play offs…
As okay as Gomis did yesterday for his first competitive game in weeks I would not be as confident for the remainder of the season if he has to play every game, too lightweight too often in my opinion.
Good news was no booking for Davies
Btw – just seen Mutch limping badly down my local health club. Think he took a bad knock yesterday so hope he is ok for Tuesday.
Simple really we were off it first half, on it second. Gomis was ok, nothing more,. can’t hit a pass over 10 yards. the other players stepped up unlike in the first half when Fahey was injured. Wood was terrible. kind of performance he put in for us too often
While i agree gomez had a great game and put in a lot of work i can understand why murphy was man of the match. His ball control was fantastic picking balls out of the air with one touch a joy to watch. I Also agree about marlon king does a lot of work chasing the ball and his goal scoring record is excellent we have to keep him for next season. Although he scored a goal i thought ziggy had a poor game as he was not prepared to get in front of his man to win the ball just hoping it would reach him, work rate was poor also compared to king. Felt sorry for doyle didnt stand a chance with either goal.
Ramage i thought was an improvement on previous games ,his distribution was better and got forward more. Hopefully we can get a point at ipswich !
Get well soon Trevor Francis k.r.o.
Zigic work rate stats are among the highest in the team. he got in front of his man to score. more than Chris Wood did. In fact, did Wood play?
I thought it was an excellent display from Gomis; as always he did the simple things very well allowing Mutch and the wide players to get forward and support the strikers.
Townsend was very dangerous as well, it would be great if we could keep him next year, regardless of which division we are in.
We are all excited to have almost reached the play-offs. And while I still think we can beat most of the teams that qualify for the play-offs, I am not so sure if we can beat West Ham at Wembley. Ok, we did well at Upton Park but lost a 3-1 lead, but on Saturday they won 6-0 against Brighton, another play-off contender and we draw 2-2 against lowly Bristol City. So the best thing for us is, in my belief, if West Ham continues its current form and passes Southampton to gain a place among the top two. Then Southampton would be very disappointed, having lead the division for so long, which could affect their form. KRO
Is the OP on crack? Gomis MOTM? The guy put in a few tackles but was very wasteful in possession, including two or three dreadful floated balls straight out of play. I think he has played well at times this year, but at key moments attacks broke down because of poor decision making and technique. Difficult when you’ve been out for a while but given the way Bristol were set up, Elliot would have been a better choice for me.
On other hand, thought we played pretty well really. Now I think we need to use the squad a bit – more playing time for fringe players – now we’re basically playing a succession of dead rubbers until the playoffs.
Agree King was excellent. Burke is a machine. Murphy is emerging as one our most important players(quite the turn around.) Shame Ramage is pretty ropey, I quite like his angry man of football attitude. Not a long term solution though.
It seemed quite clear to me that Fahey was injured after a tackle early on. Should he have made it clear to the bench that his injury was so bad that he could no longer perform or should the manager and his assistants have seen what I could see; that he should have been substituted long before Bristol scored their second goal. For at least 10 minutes or maybe longer we were playing with 10 men, and that goal might have been avoided. My only criticism of the manager is that he is very conservative with his substitutions, but I think it cost us 2 points on Saturday.
AR
Most decent managers will allow a player the chance to run-off a bad knock, or if deemed serious will make an immdeiate substitution.
Most decent managers don’t get criticism for such common sense.
To look for a scapegoat is pretty pointless and petty imo. As we have seen countless times before, we began poorly as a whole team and Myhill’s last minute take-off might have influenced things mind-sets a bit.
I also expected a draw and as such am grateful for it.
AR – I dont see your name being quoted for the vacan England managers job at the moment. Perhaps your lack of football / managerial / medical knowledge could be the reason for that. maybe you should therefore leave the Birmingham managerial job to the managerial team which have virtually reached the play off’s with a group of very average players. They seem to be the ones who have managed to get them all performing better than any of them ever have done in their careers to date
Gomis made a big difference, as good as I’ve seen him play. His general awareness was very good – his neat passing wasn’t all safe passes, some good forward balls too.
As for Wood: part of gaining experience is fighting for your place, he played less when his performances dropped – what a muppet.
Zigic and King looked good together again. It’s starting to look like a decent partnership – and a good forward partnership wins you games!
Marlon King was easily the man of the match for me, good job Zigic put away his simple tap in because he missed a sitter before Bristol scored!
I thought Gomis was superb.kept it simple and mopped up the loose balls.he has been a bit unlucky not to have played more games,but now with Fahey and N’daw struggling he has a chance to shine.The same goes for Redmond and Elliot.