Nahki’s performance softens Semenyo injury blow for City
Talking points from Bristol City’s draw against West Brom at Ashton Gate, by
ANOTHER game and another last-gasp goal conceded. A great team move, an individual error, weak mentality or just sheer bad luck - call it what you like but the Robins trudged off the field with one point when they should have taken all three.
A dismal opening 25 minutes sparked into life when Andi Weimann’s cross found substitute Nahki Wells, who made no mistake from close range to give City lift-off.
The goal seemed to settle the hosts down and they looked comfortable until Dan Bentley flattened Kyle Bartley, leaving the referee with little choice but to point to the spot.
As the clock ticked into the final 10 minutes with the score level, cometh of the hour, cometh the man as Weimann finished off Rob Atkinson’s excellent leap to score his 18th goal of the season.
In typical City fashion, there was more late drama when Adam Reach scored his first goal for West Brom when he finished off a tidy move to leave manager Nigel Pearson hitting out at the same players making the same individual mistakes.
Here’s the talking points as the Robins dramatically improved from their showing at Barnsley but will ultimately feel deflated to leave Ashton Gate with a point.
NAHKI WELLS BACK IN BUSINESS
THERE’S no doubting Antoine Semenyo’s injury will be a bitter blow for the club and player - particularly after his call-up to the Ghanaian national side.
Manager Pearson couldn’t provide any further detail on his injury after the full-time whistle except that the striker had jarred his knee after coming off in just the fifth minute. He was spotted with an ice pack on his right knee, hobbling out of the stadium with Pearson saying: “Obviously, he’s upset at the moment because he’s been called up for the Ghana squad and he’s jarred his knee so we’ll have to see how he is.”
However, it meant opportunity knocked for Wells, who has not made a league start since the 3-0 defeat against Birmingham at St Andrew’s on November 2.
Before Saturday, the most amount of league minutes he had played in a contest between that time came on Tuesday when he was introduced with 35 minutes left to play in the 2-0 defeat at Barnsley. So it is perhaps no wonder that, with just five league starts to his name, he had only scored two goals this season.
That all changed on Saturday afternoon following his introduction. He went out with a point to prove and, just 24 minutes after coming on, he was celebrating with his team-mates in the corner when he finished off Weimann’s cross.
For some players who haven’t played a lot of football in recent times, they can be excused for lacking sharpness or being rusty but that wasn’t the case for Wells.
His movement was impressive, he closed down his opponents at every opportunity and even defended well inside his own half when City were dealing with pressure in the second period.
What happens in the summer regarding his future, especially with a year left on his contract, remains to be seen but Wells showed he can have a big part to play from now until the end of the campaign.
THE LATE GOALS - GAMEMANAGEMENT?
YOU do get the feeling that if we’re
not talking about conceding set- pieces, the topic of conversation moves swiftly to the goals conceded in stoppage-time.
Saturday was goal number 11 conceded in the 90th minute or beyond, and as City fan Rob points out on Twitter, that’s 11 points thrown away just at home by allowing opponents to score at the death.
City have also conceded 20 per cent of their total goals between the 81st and 90th minute - a total of 14 out of 69. That’s by far the highest figure compared to other minutes during a game with 16 per cent of goals conceded (11) between the 41st and 50th minute.
In a slightly more surprising comparison, just six goals have been conceded between the minutes of 71 and 80 - which must pose
a question as to why City are so vulnerable towards the latter stages of matches.
Whether it comes down to a mentality issue, a lack of confidence, a lack of leadership or poor game-management, something must change going forward.
Pearson criticised the same players making the same individual mistakes for the equaliser and he may have a point considering City had a throw deep inside their own half just moments before the equaliser went in.
He also may have a valid point about Jake Livermore being in offside position when he played the flick into Adam Reach’s path before the goal. But, with four minutes of added-time played, Pearson could have killed time and taken the
opportunity to take the sting out of the game by making one or even two substitutions to disrupt the flow of the game.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but arguably it was the one thing Pearson could have changed on Saturday.
WEIMANN’S FORM AND FUTURE
TWO City goals and two involvements from Weimann, who increased his season goalscoring tally to 18 - by far his career-best.
City pulled off a masterstroke by tying him down to a new contract in the summer to ward off the interest of Stoke.
His nine assists may also go under the radar considering his terrific goalscoring numbers, and he now sits third in the most Championship goal involvements this season behind Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dominic Solanke. Ben Brereton-Diaz is also up there with his 20 goals, so he’s not in bad company.
Weimann was back in the middle on Saturday, playing behind the two strikers, which Pearson said came down to playing in front of the home supporters and wanting to show attacking intent.
His work-rate doesn’t need repeating - he’s played 90 minutes in his last nine matches and the ground he covers during a game is remarkable. City have the security of tying Weimann down until the summer of 2024 and at the age of 30, one would assume potential clubs trying to sign him would have to cough up a large figure for the club to even consider cashing in.