Liam Manning has claimed that he and Anis Mehmeti drive each other “mad” following Bristol City’s win over Stoke City, with the Reds’ boss insisting the winger deserved his goals for hard work on the training pitch.
The Reds climbed to seventh in the Championship with a 2-0 win over Mark Robins’ Potters at Ashton Gate, with goals from Mehemti in either half enough to ensure all three points would be remaining in the West Country.
In the first half, the 24-year-old turned home from close range following a smart interchange between Scott Twine and Mark Sykes, before firing in with a half-volley in the second period.
Although Manning admitted he can be “really tough” on the Albanian international, he was delighted to see the former Wycombe Wanderers man’s love for the game expressed in his attacking display on Wednesday evening.
“I’m on him because it should be more and that’s the thing with Anis,” Manning said in his post-match press conference. “We have a great relationship. He drives me mad, I drive him mad and I think the beauty about Anis is you can be really tough on him.
“He cares so much, he’s so ambitious that he wants to get better, he wants to improve, he works really hard at his game so I can be really tough on him and he’ll take it and try and implement it. We have some really good chats about it and he deserves it for how hard he works.
“I think he’s being more direct, that’s the biggest bit. He looks to run depth, he drops wide and he drops in between. We talk about, how we have an organisation, and a structure in the way we work, but I want players to feel free, especially your attacking ones who are creative. You don’t want them to step on the pitch and feel shackled. When you see Twiney do what he does, you see Anis, you see Syksey, your attacking players you want them to go and express themselves and keep that purity, that love of the game.”
After 32 Championship games, Mehmeti remains City’s top scorer having found the net on 11 occasions. Before the win over Stoke, the 24-year-old hadn’t scored since New Year’s Day when he tapped in the opener in the Reds’ 2-2 draw with Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
His second against the Potters was arguably his best of the season. Without breaking his stride, the attacking midfielder waltzed onto Rob Dickie’s deflected nod down before cannoning past Viktor Johansson in the visitor’s net.
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While Manning rather tongue-cheekily questioned whether or not the Albanian international meant to find the top right corner with his right-footed effort, he was keen to praise not only the finish but the Robins’ entire performance at Ashton Gate.
“It came off his shin,” the City head coach grinned. “Top moment again, round the back to Rob and then just the control on it was excellent, as was the first goal.
“Probably the frustration at the weekend was we lost to a goal of a couple of errors whereas tonight we won the game off moments of real quality. That’s the bit, don’t give anything away which we didn’t tonight.
“I thought the professionalism, how we managed the game, how hard we were to beat. I don’t remember Max [O’Leary] having too many saves to make which when you look at the weekend, if you make two, three four mistakes at this level, it’s going to end up in the back of your goal. What we have to do is make sure we keep working hard on the quality with the ball.”