Nigel Pearson will look to continue finding the blend between strengthening in specialist positions and signing versatile players as the focus turns to summer recruitment.
The January arrivals of Anis Mehmeti and Harry Cornick have given the manager plenty of options going forward, with the duo sharing the ability to play anywhere across the front three. The likes of Cam Pring and George Tanner have also had to feature in unfamiliar centre-back roles over the course of the season, due to ongoing injury issues that have left the manager short of options in defence.
City remain in talks to sign Aberdeen's Ross McCrorie in the summer, a player who can play in several different positions. He's played as a defensive midfielder, at central defence, at wing-back and as a right-back meaning he is adept at providing cover across the field.
The priority remains bringing in central defenders and a midfielder, two areas of the field that have proven problem positions through injury over the season. Tomas Kalas, whose contract expires in the summer, has only managed two league starts while Rob Atkinson faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an ACL injury.
Kal Naismith is another player who has been utilised in different positions, starting the season in a back three before making the transition to midfield following the switch in formation in January. Midfielder Andy King has also played a handful of games as a centre-back.
Pearson cited Zak Vyner as an example of how a player can develop if they remain in their favoured role and the City manager wants to bring in new arrivals who can settle into their positions next season. When asked whether versatility is important when eyeing summer targets, he responded: "I don’t want a group of players who are all just versatile. We’ve got some versatile players, we need some specialists as well.
"I think Zak Vyner is a really good example of a player who has played in one position for a whole season and has had the best season of his career probably. Whereas before we played him as a sitting midfielder, right-back, centre-back, you name it he’s played it and he’s been out on loan.
"He’s matured very well this year and has had an excellent season. Versatility is important but I would rather the team be versatile rather than I want specialists as well within the squad."
Bristol Live understands the club will revisit deals to try and sign central defender Jake O'Brien and AFC Wimbledon left-back Jack Currie in the summer having refused to reach Crystal Palace and the League Two side's asking price in the January window. City have money to spend in the transfer window, contributed to the £10.5million sale of Antoine Semenyo to Bournemouth in the New Year.
However, given previous mistakes of flittering money away on big signings which left the club in a precarious financial position, Pearson says the club will take a different approach to how they conclude their business - reiterating the message that he won't waste his energy on potential signings that don't want to be City players.
The Robins have already missed out on one target with the unknown player opting to go elsewhere. Pearson added: "If the right players aren't available. I'll go with what I've got. I've had that philosophy everywhere I've worked.
"I'm not collecting players just because all of a sudden we might have the ability to go out and buy players. At the moment, we've sat down internally on a plan which we think we give us the opportunity to be more competitive.
"There could be a bit of flexibility in either direction. I don't want to make too many statements that you'll then put to print and hold to my name because it doesn't work like that.
"I have to be flexible with how I work, and I think we have to collectively and internally have both ability and understanding that there will always be decisions to be made that will affect the process and the speed in which we can affect change. That for me is one of the important things.
"We'll continue to work hard to make us more competitive or allow us to be more competitive. Just this morning in the training we've had three of the youngsters training with us, one of them for the first time and I think it's good for us to be able to look at players - the close season will be very important for some of those players to make improvements.
"I don't want to talk too much about the future because we have games to play but to give you an idea of what we're looking at timeframe-wise, we'll try and do some early business but we'll also be looking to see how our younger players have developed over the summer.
"They are all things we need to consider but the bottom line is this, the culture that the players are very much part of creating is about having really healthy competition, relative fairness, I can't say football is always going to be fair because it's not, there's always going to be grumpy players somewhere but I want healthy competition in the club but I want us to aim high."
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