The concept of a mini pre-season inside an actual season probably needs its own term, then again the unique and strange circumstances clubs across Europe find themselves in through November and December will hopefully be a one-off.
After time to recuperate, Bristol City were back at the High Performance Centre this week to resume training for the re-start of the Championship season, which for the Robins is signalled by an away trip to Rotherham United.
City have a behind-closed-doors friendly against Southampton to attend to this weekend but in the build-up to all that, released a sneak peek inside the boundaries of their Failand training base in the latest Robins Uncut. Here’s five things we spotted from the footage…
Naismith back on the grass
The break in fixtures isn’t ideal, for a number of reasons, with the only benefit being able to devote your full focus on the World Cup. However, there are certain positives for City, primarily the period of time it’s given for Kal Naismith to get back to full fitness.
The Scottish centre-back hasn’t played since limping off against Coventry City on October 4 with his original 10-day timeline for a return extended into November. Had the Championship schedule continued, Naismith would likely have missed at least two more games or potentially been rushed back, risking aggravation of the injury.
Instead, the 30-year-old has been afforded the freedom and time to rest, recover and now, with Rotherham United just over a week away, the footage released by City shows him back on the grass, among his teammates, running and striking a ball cleanly.
Providing he doesn’t suffer any setbacks, it’s safe to assume that Naismith will be back in contention for selection against the Millers next week.
Where’s Andi and Max?
With the exception of long-term injured duo Tomas Kalas and Ayman Benarous plus Antoine Semenyo, due to his involvement with Ghana, the rest of the City squad have been seen in some shape or form this week on the training pitches this week at the High Performance Centre, with two notable exceptions.
Despite a large proportion of Robins Uncut filmed on the shooting drills conducted by Jason Euell there is no sign of forward Andi Weimann nor goalkeeper Max O’Leary - two City players very much integral to such an exercise.
Weimann did sustain a small knee injury while away with Austria as they played Andorra in a friendly. But O’Leary missed out on selection in the Republic of Ireland squad this time.
However, to ease any concern, Bristol Live understands that the current City No1 has been training this week at Failand, it’s just a quirk of fate he’s not been captured on camera, while Weimann reported back on Thursday, the day after filming had been conducted.
Fresh faces in the fog
The City production line continues and following on from Joe Low’s debut against Middlesbrough before the World Cup break, there’s no doubt we’ll be seeing some new faces in the first team between now and the end of the season.
Elijah Morrison could well have been the next man/boy up after Low having been named on the bench against Lincoln City, and if not for the dreadful way the Carabao Cup tie played out, the 16-year-old may have secured some game time as a substitute. Instead, it was not the right situation for him to make his first steps in the senior set-up.
However, Morrison continues to be involved in the first-team at the HPC along with fellow Under-21 teammates Seb Palmer-Houlden and Omar Taylor-Clarke.
Palmer-Houlden is a tall and rangy forward who is bright and inventive around the penalty area, while Taylor-Clarke a creative attacking midfielder who had a brief loan spell at Yate Town at the beginning of the season.
Both are seen taking part in the aforementioned shooting drill, with the latter seeing one shot saved by Dan Bentley and another find the top corner, with a cry of “let’s speed it up boys” from the 29-year-old, before playing a pass into Joe Williams.
Working on Bell’s movement
Pearson highlighted Jason Euell’s work with City’s attacking players at the recent fans forum and a small example is displayed in Robins Uncut where he not only leads the shooting exercise but works closely with Sam Bell on his movement.
In a drill whereby the attacking players must take a touch away from a defender - represented by a free-kick mannequin - Euell guides Bell through the angle and the width of his run away from the defender and the best type of touch to take, to move himself into space and get the shot away.
Although it’s something demanded of all players, it’s very much relevant to Bell’s game because he operates on the shoulder of defenders, using his pace and timing to make room before opening up shooting opportunities. Combining his ability and talent with greater guidance and decision-making can only make him a better forward player.
Bell’s situation remains of interest given how prolific he’s been for the Under-21s all season but with a major logjam ahead of him in the striking positions.
That is tempered ever so slightly by the prospect of Semenyo being sold in January, and with transfer focus elsewhere, a situation could develop where Bell is elevated up the hierarchy. For now, though, he remains an intriguing work in progress.
Massengo's shooting boots
With Han-Noah Massengo having seemingly worked his way back into the first-team environment, the prospect of the Frenchman’s first ever goal for the club is back on. No discussion about Massengo is complete without mentioning his future and, as it stands, he’s on a countdown and an ever-decreasing number of games as to if he can ever find the target for the Robins.
His smart finish at Under-21 level has shown he has it in him, and of the footage broadcast by City his striking qualities are once again in evidence as he beats Bentley was a fine outside of the left boot finish, drawing the shout from Euell of, “beautiful! He does know where the goal is - striking mentality is back, yeah”, to which the goalkeeper quips back, “not in games”, and the coach responds, “you took the words right out of my mouth there, Dan”.
Whatever your opinion on Massengo and how Pearson should be using him, or not, as his contract expires, you can’t deny that if he gets another opportunity in front of goal and can break his duck, it’ll be a significant highlight of the season.
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