It shouldn't come as a huge surprise, given Bristol City's status as the Championship's third weakest defensive team for goals conceded, but Nigel Pearson has indicated that signing at least one centre-back will be a transfer priority this summer.
Resolving the Robins' defensive issues has become a primary task for Pearson as it's been 15 matches since their last clean sheet and in that period of time they've conceded an average of 2.33 goals per game.
Pearson has frequently said that City must defend as a team, so it's not only the defence's responsibility to keep the ball out of the back of the net, but speaking on Thursday, the manager outlined some of his intentions for the next transfer window.
City's first-choice pairing since January have been Tomas Kalas and Timm Klose, with Rob Atkinson, Robbie Cundy and Zak Vyner in reserve. However, Pearson has voiced concern over burnout regarding Kalas, who has played the second-most minutes this term, while Klose and Cundy are out of contract in June.
Atkinson has experienced a mixed first season at the club as he adjusts to the demands of the Championship but could force his way back into the starting XI at Blackburn, giving him an opportunity to finish 2021/22 how he started it, while Vyner looks firmly out of favour following a string of errors, most notably at Swansea City last month.
Pearson also implied that providing Klose can continue to prove his fitness between now and the end of the season, he'll be offered a longer term deal to remain at Ashton Gate.
"Our main objective still is to have dominant centre-backs that can deal with the demands of the game," Pearson said. "That's the first thing.
"Timm's in on a short-term deal and hopefully, he does enough to stay and then we've got other players who are vying for those positions and first and foremost, they are the priorities.
"Full-backs are nice on a wishlist but I think everyone said they centre-back building through the middle and that will also remain the priority so at the moment, we thought we were relatively strong, we've underachieved this year. So that remains the priority."
As mentioned, Pearson gave this response with regards to a question about the need for right-backs, another area of concern for the squad with George Tanner the only specialist in the position and the 22-year-old returning from a second hamstring injury of the season in what has been a big step up for him from League Two football.
Having started the first 10 games of the season with relative assurance at the back, conceding at a rate of just 1.1 per game, City have lost all sense of defensive stability and are simply too easy to score against - with 20 in their last 10 fixtures - something of considerable irritation for the manager who, first and foremost, wants to make his Robins team tough to beat.
Consequently it puts enormous pressure on the attack to effectively outgun the opposition as each game they've to score at least two to get anything out of the contest.
Pearson also noted last week that the club is bereft of proper defensive midfielders, which indicates that having signed a centre-back in Atkinson and two central midfielders in Matty James and Andy King last summer, he intends to do the same - albeit with slightly different profiles - again in the forthcoming window.
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