After eight games on cloud nine, Bristol City came crashing back down to Earth in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night as they suffered a late collapse at home to Sheffield United.
Injury-enforced changes began to take their toll on Liam Manning’s side as they had to adapt early-on yet again whilst also attempting to adjust tactically to the Blades’ set up.
The Robins’ first two substitutes at Ashton Gate were one of each, with Mark Sykes making way for Anis Mehmeti just shy of six minutes in, whilst the second was a methodical one which saw Sinclair Armstrong replace Nahki Wells at half time.
It has been a mixed start to life for Armstrong after starting the season with a good run of games, however, since the international break, his Bermudian colleague has been the favourite, hitting some good form in the meantime.
And that’s not even mentioning third option Fally Mayulu who arrived in BS3 alongside Armstrong in the summer.
“Nahki’s been incredible,” the City head coach said after the midweek fixture. “[It’s] just power and pace with Sincs.
“[I’m] trying to give Sincs a bit of time to get up to the speed of the game. Coming on as a sub, it’s not always easy adjusting straight away to the level of the game.
“It wasn’t performance-related (Wells’ withdrawal); Nahki’s been great, and I thought he did well again tonight. It was just to try and stretch their backline a little bit more which, as you saw for the penalty, [Armstrong] did well.”
Since the last international break, Wells has become the easy first choice up top with him finding the net three times in four games before the Blades clash.
In addition to that, Mayulu and Armstrong have struggled in make impacts off the bench to really threaten the 34-year-old’s starting place.
“Sincs went away on international duty and came back a little bit stiff and tight and Nahki’s level had been really good so Nahki got the opportunity and grabbed it,” Manning continued.
“That’s how you work the competition. You want them playing off against each other, Fally as well.
“[Armstrong] obviously did great for the penalty. I thought he got better at pressing. For me, it’s some of the game management stuff where we could’ve been smarter in releasing things down the side for him to chase. He did OK.”
The early Sykes removal, which Manning said looks like hamstring injury at first glance, resulted in a shift of positions.
The Reds had centre backs on the bench in Rob Dickie and the returning Rob Atkinson which could have seen one come in for Sykes, pushing Zak Vyner to right back which is where he ended up for the majority of the game against Preston.
However, Manning opted to bring on winger Mehmeti and push George Earthy back into right back, an unfamiliar role for the 20-year-old.
Presumably this was due to a lack of fitness for Dickie and Atkinson, with the Robins boss stating that was the reason for Dickie’s omission from the starting 11.
“You’ve got George Earthy playing right back from five minutes into the game,” Manning reminded everyone after the game. “I thought he did a terrific job.
“You’ve got people that haven’t played for a little while. I can’t knock that side of it from the lads. We’ve lost it because of a mad five or 10 minutes.
The clash with Chris Wilder’s side was the third game on the bounce in which City had been forced into an early change.
For the most part, the Robins dealt with yet another blow very well, matching the Blades and even taking the lead after slicing through their opponents and winning the penalty.
“You can work out scenarios and changes but you can’t predict the game,” Manning said.
“I thought we dealt with it well. I thought we passed the ball well in the first half. Probably lacked quality in and around their penalty box. Maybe not brave enough to cross it or missed the pass, but got into really good areas from really good play.
“Apart from when they hit the post, we restricted them to very little and then I actually thought we had a bit more aggression at the start of the second half, engaged a bit higher, passed the ball well still. Terrific play to create the penalty.
“We played against one of the strongest sides in the division with a large number of their players available to them and we’re coming away [thinking] we’ve probably performed marginally better. I wouldn’t say massively, but marginally better for a large chunk of the game.”
Options are beginning to dwindle slightly for Manning as we trudge towards the midpoint of the season.
The 39-year-old now only really has one completely fully fit defender in Zak Vyner, with the others either returning from or suffering injuries.
There is no doubt that this mini crisis is taking its toll on the team’s game management.
After having two men go off against Preston in George Tanner and Joe Williams, the Reds managed the game extremely well to respond to an equaliser with two more goals and take home a big three points from Deepdale.
This time, though, they couldn’t replicate Saturday’s feat as individual errors cost them; a dodgy punch from Max O’Leary and a lapse in concentration from Dickie preceding the two Blades goals.
“It’s twofold, right,” Manning pondered.
“Ultimately, we don’t lose the game because [of injury-forced changes], but, at the same point, could we have maybe stopped things at source or stopped them applying so much pressure? Possibly.”
“Hindsight’s great but you have to work with what you’ve got in terms of availability and options. You’re asking numerous people to play out of position and when you look at it, the lads did an outstanding job at it.
“Credit to the players, credit to the staff in terms of the way we work of coaching. We can change shape, we can change system, we can play people out of position and they’re still quite clear on their roles. When the emotion from today settles and the disappointment goes away, there’s a lot of positives to take from it.”