It’s not exactly cutting-edge analysis to declare that things haven’t quite gone according to plan for Bristol City under Liam Manning yet.
After some bright shoots of progress around January and into February, underpinned by four strong performances in the FA Cup against Premier League West Ham and Nottingham Forest, the four weeks prior to the international break made for a torturous watch.
Five defeats in six matches have left the Robins marooned in lower mid-table, eroded any sense of optimism and brought angry supporter sentiment around Nigel Pearson’s departure, and the decision to replace him with Manning, coupled with the discontent around the general direction of the club, back to the surface.
As such, the performance of the team and head coach are inextricably linked with the club itself, with the various criticisms essentially all under the same umbrella and an overall feeling of stasis, as the prospect of a 10th-straight season in the Championship looms with an average league position - taking 14th as the early marker for this term - of 14.4.
As it stands, with Manning at the helm City have gotten further away from the glass ceiling the hierarchy ultimately didn’t think Pearson was capable of cracking, rather than closer, hence the growing frustration from the stands which will be further witnessed if things go south against Leicester City on Friday.
Manning has, up to this point, largely remained committed to “the process”, but concedes that results post-Southampton have dictated a certain creeping sense of pragmatism as the Robins have retreated into their shells to a certain extent, literally and figuratively; declining to press so vigorously and moving into more a mid-block when out of possession.
“I definitely think there’s an element of that where a couple of games has compounded what then happens after that and some of that has led to me trying to tweak things, try to ease pressure off players, try to help and support them in that way which, rightly or wrongly, I think it’s always done with the best intentions,” Manning said.
“I would have (liked to have pressed more). And I think we’ve done it well at times; QPR, I thought we did it quite well but then what we didn’t do off the back of it was dominate enough duels and second balls.
“We’ve sat down and looked at it and some of it, when you look at December-January-February, being able to press when you have a game every three-and-a-half days, the physical output, it’s been challenging from that perspective.
“In general it doesn’t change what I want the game to look like across the course of a season. It might look different in certain games, depending on the level and who you’re playing against but, in general, I want to be a team that gets after it, I want us to go and engage higher.
"We’ve got players who have got terrific legs and the capacity to run but I don’t want it look like basketball where it’s just complete end to end, because that brings different challenges in terms of conceding loads of chances on the counter and, I want us to be a team that has the ball but with purpose.
“I never want a player to step on the pitch and feel shackled, that’s really important. We give them elements of the structure and ways they can progress up the pitch but at the same point it’s really important for any player that they feel empowered to make decisions, they know we’re here to help, support, challenge them and make them better.
“You sign players because of what they’re good at, and work hard to tactically get them in a position but also psychologically where they can step on the pitch and be brave and confident and do that.”
Manning has previously said about never “chasing outcomes” i.e wins, and how what ultimately goes in will be rewarded over time, but progress will only be attained by a regular stream of results that maintains a healthy environment both internally and externally.
The head coach has noted the pressure the players are operating under and how that has proven to be a crutch at times for what is chiefly a young squad, as has been largely recruited or developed through the academy over the last couple of years.
The international break has allowed for a reset of sorts, with a breather in between fixtures, the returns to fitness of Matty James and Joe Williams, Scott Twine enjoying a full two weeks of training to put him into starting contention for Friday, while Tommy Conway, Dire Mebude, Mark Sykes and Jason Knight all returned unscathed from their national commitments.
It’s also enabled some reflection from the staff over what’s gone wrong in certain moments, and what they could have done differently to ensure a more favourable conclusion to games in which they’ve remained competitive to the last, just without the necessary quality at key times.
The criticism that has been thrown Manning’s way, whether verbally at games, via the radio and podcasts or in the digital realm, has been noted but the 38-year-old brands himself his own biggest critic, so whatever has been said, isn’t at the level he looks at himself.
“It drives me insane,” Manning added. “I’m here to win games. I think we’ve performed well and not won games, which is a level of frustration. There’s also the ones where I know we can perform better and we don’t get the results; they’re probably the worst ones where you don’t hit your level.
“It’s such a fascinating game in terms of why you don’t do that, why you don’t get the results. We do analyse everything, probably too much at times; sometimes it’s tactics, sometimes it’s psychological, sometimes it might be physically that you’re flat out, sometimes luck doesn’t go your way.
“I’ve watched Championship games forever, there are so many where there’s absolutely nothing in it, it’s just the way it falls that day sometimes. And we have to work harder to make sure they fall in our favour, of course. Cliches around creating your own luck, I do think you can do that.
“I’m as frustrated as anybody but I’ll always remain positive, I’ll always come in and do the hardest work I can and make sure the lads are quite clear and, we had a meeting about it on Monday, go and be the best version of us - we’ve got nothing to lose, go all out.
“Think back to some of the experiences that weren’t so long ago, and go and try and replicate that because we’ve done it.
“I want the fans on board, I think that’s really important. Brian (Tinnion) regularly says it to me, the Southampton game was only six games ago and everyone was on a bit of a high and were in a terrific spot, so I want to get back there and I’m desperate to do that, and I want the fans to turn up and enjoy watching the team.
“There have been games where I’ve found it tough to watch us at times but I understand why; there’s so much pressure on the players that when you do lose a couple of games, naturally whether it be confidence, and that then has a knock-on effect with bravery, bits fall off.
"We’re very fortunate people to do what we do so go out and turn up tomorrow and give everything you’ve got and then the outcome will take care of itself.”
As to what constitutes success for City between now and the first weekend of May, it’s hard to quantify and opinions from supporters will no doubt be varied. As a baseline, exceeding their points total from last term (59, they’re currently on 47) and position (14th, where they presently occupy in the standings) would be a start.
But you sense there has to be more to at least dull some of the external noise, and create an atmosphere that leads into the summer more conducive of a club moving forward, not stuck in the same position.
“We know we’ve had a challenging period but, stepping back, it’s about progress, getting ready for next season; making sure every game is hugely important to us when we step onto the pitch and give everything that we got and we keep progressing and we keep moving forward because, for me, I don’t see it as one season finishes, the next season starts, it’s a continuation, we should be constantly looking to evolve, develop, progress and that is the message we have to have as a group,” Manning said.
“I’m quite clear what we need to add, what we’re lacking. There’s a huge amount of work going on and has been for a period of time to identify potential targets and then the rest around it, we’ve still got eight games so there’s constant conversations around the squad and what it looks like and that will evolve over time.
“We’ve got a long way to go for it to look like I want it to look and some of that will be off the back of results and where the group are at, and then also some of it is just a profile of player which in the future is what you want to add and how it looks. Like Twiney, not having someone like him also then impacts how you play. It’s the same with injuries, you lose Joe and Jamo and you have to make certain tweaks off the back of that.
"We’ve seen flashes of it since I’ve been here, and that’s how I see football - we want to live in certain phases more than others and we’ve had to adapt from certain things.”
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