Bristol City “must be more clinical” following rallying cry from Manning

Daniel Wales and Charles Hague-Jones discuss Bristol City’s issues in front of goal.

Transcript

00:00Dan, looking at Bristol City. Now, obviously, we've mentioned before the inconsistency that

00:06needs to change and improve in the Championship. They have real potential to actually go and

00:14compete, but they just can't seem to get wins over the line in games where you think, obviously,

00:20losing away at Portsmouth, getting a point away at Sunderland, which obviously was a

00:26last-minute equaliser from the hosts, but they held on in that game. And then drawing

00:31at home to QPR, where they actually had, looking at the statistics, 17 shots, only five on

00:39target for Bristol City. Now, it's clearly something that needs to improve, a bit of

00:44clinical in front of goal, and they've sort of lacked that so far this season. Is that

00:49sort of a main thing that needs to improve ahead of these festive fixtures?

00:53Well, that's what Liam Manning, the manager, has been sort of calling for for actually

00:57a few weeks now, to be honest. I mean, just last week, he told the players that they need

01:01to step up and sort of be counted a little bit in front of goal. And he's said it again,

01:07he's continued to say that they just must be more clinical because they've got the players,

01:11the style of play there. He's one of these modern coaches, Liam Manning, it's fair to

01:14say, in terms of he wants them to be a passing and possession outfit. And to be fair to them,

01:21the players have bought into it and they are playing well as a unit and as a team and

01:26they are creating these chances, but then they get in front of goal and you've got the

01:30likes of Adesma Messi and Naki Wells, who, yes, they've got some goals this season and

01:34fair play to them, but missing too many chances and not getting them on target at least, at

01:39least test the keeper. As you say there, they've had that many efforts, but only a handful

01:44of them actually on target. And, you know, that threatened the goal, of course, one going

01:48in against Queen's Park Rangers that weekend. And that was a free kick, to be honest, from

01:53Scott Twain. So they just need to be putting more chances away because they're creating

01:58the chances and that's the frustration because then it's what else really can Liam Manning

02:03as a coach or a manager do because he's coached them to the extent where they're creating

02:08the chances and they're getting themselves in front of goal, but then it's down to the

02:11individual to put those chances away. And that's something that, yes, you can practice

02:15and you can work on, but it is down to the individual and no wonder he's actually calling

02:20for them to sort of step up and be counted and be decisive because they haven't been

02:24doing that. And that's really frustrating because they've clearly got a side who's able

02:28to compete and get results. And you look at against Sunderland, as you say there, you

02:33go one and open, okay, perhaps yes, you may be not as pressing for the one because the

02:37game is starting to go on, but then they concede one and that's frustrating. You think, well,

02:41maybe if they'd got another, which they could have done, different game. And then against

02:45QPR, you score a great free kick and then you have all the other chances. Then QPR equalised

02:49five minutes later through a silly error from the goalkeeper as well. And so, yeah, it's

02:56just really frustrating for Bristol City. They need to be better in front of goal.