“Everyone knows it, it’s no secret that I hate being on the bench, I want to play every game even if I feel exhausted.”
Bristol City winger Anis Mehmeti hates being on the bench more than most. With a real hunger to improve, the disappointment drives him to do extra work behind the scenes at the Robins High Performance Centre.
The 23-year-old responded to being dropped from the starting XI on Boxing Day by putting on a statement performance, scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Portsmouth. Both Liam Manning and Chris Hogg have been on the record with how hard the Albanian has been trying to reach a consistent level of performance.
He has put the time in to develop relationships with the creative players around him, staying behind to improve the finer details and learning to make smarter decisions. After extending his tally to eight goals on the season, Mehmeti is the Robins’ top scorer and is seeing his hard work pay off.
There’s a calmness to his game that is starting to show, which when paired with his quick feet and decision-making, is causing defences havoc. Mehmeti took his time with the opening goal after Max Bird put him one-on-one with Portsmouth goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid, and produced an outcome he was delighted with.
“Do you know what it is? You’ve just got to be calm and composed, and I thought I did that,” Mehmeti explained. “I opened up my body to disguise and act like I was going to go one way, and then did the other, hitting it near post. So, yeah I’m happy with that one.”
“We all know Max (Bird) is a brilliant player, and we’ve been working on that connection quite a lot, so I’m happy to see it come through in today’s game. Hopefully, there are many more of those to come, and hopefully, he can keep assisting.”
Alongside Bird, Mehmeti has been developing a bond with city striker Nahki Wells, who provided him with his second.
“You wouldn’t know he’s 34 at all,” he said, “I can’t speak highly enough of him. We are so close off the pitch, which meant I was quite frustrated because I probably should have assisted him too today.
“I think we’ve missed him in the last two games, and it just shows what a top player he is, being back today.”
The interplay between the two looked effortless at times in Sunday’s win, with the two creating multiple chances beyond the two goals in an entertaining first half.
“He makes it easier for me,” Mehmeti said. “We just need to keep going and look forward.”
Towards the end of the previous campaign, the attacking midfielder began to grow into Manning’s system, being involved in key goals in wins against Southampton, Ipswich, Leicester, and Blackburn. That form has continued into this season, with Mehemti now flourishing in one of the two number 10 positions behind a central striker.
He has scored in wins over Millwall, Middlesbrough, and Norwich, converted the penalty to take the lead at home to Sheffield United, and has starred in dominant performances over Plymouth and Portsmouth.
Nigel Pearson brought him into the club in January 2023, after an impressive start to the season on the wing for Wycombe Wanderers, but Mehmeti believes that the freedom of playing more central in Manning’s system is bringing the best out of him, and Cam Pring.
“I’ve played at number 10 previously, I used to play there a lot actually,” admitted the 23-year-old. “It wasn’t until my final year at Wycombe that I really started playing on the left wing. There I transitioned from number 10 to the left.
“I think I prefer it more in this role because I can go wide, and I can roll inside. You’ve got more of a free role. We know Pring is a powerful runner, he’s a top player, so having him behind me is great, the system allows him to get higher, and we complement each other I think.”
As the season has gone on Mehmeti has started to make that position his own, with many individual moments to win games.
Scott Twine has done the same, and Yu Hirakawa and George Earthy have also impressed in the minutes they have had behind Wells. Competition is strong, something which drives Mehmeti on.
“Yeah, it drives me on, especially when we go to five at the back as there are only those two positions,” he said. “We’ve got me, Yu, Twine, Earthy, and Bird who can all play there, as well as Jason Knight and Sam Bell.
“We know the competition is there and that’s what should drive all of us to be at our game every single day.”
Attention now turns to New Year’s Day, where the Robins will make the trip to play Plymouth Argyle. The London-born 23-year-old also scored a brace the last time the two sides met, which was the 4-0 victory at Ashton Gate in late November.
Wayne Rooney’s side sit bottom of the Championship, but are a different proposition at Home Park, where they have won 16 of their 18 points. With City winning back-to-back games for the first time this season, morale is high with the team, but Mehmeti believes they can’t get too carried away with a game coming so soon after.
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“There’s no time to enjoy it as there’s another game in two days,” he said. “Two games ago, everyone was so down after losing to West Brom. Now we’ve gone back-to-back, and everything is so high.
“We can’t get carried away though, because there’s another game coming up. We know they’re difficult to beat at home, so we just need to go there and try and get the three points.”
A third straight win for the Robins would likely push them even further towards the play-off positions, to which they currently trail by four points. When asked whether he was looking at the gap to playoff spots, or just waiting for it to take care of itself as the season progressed, Mehmeti opted for the latter.
“But we’ve also got to pay attention to them at some point because that’s where we want to be,” he said.
“We can’t control what other teams do, we can only control ourselves as a team, and take it game by game, but as long as we keep winning, we’re going to find ourselves a space in the top six.”