Bristol City breakdown: Kasey Palmer transfer update, Semenyo threat, leaky defence, team news

After a miserable end to February, Birmingham City will be looking to get March off to a winning start when they travel to Bristol City on Saturday.

Just three places and three points separate the two sides whom have both been, by their own right, ridiculously inconsistent over the course of the 2021/22 campaign.

And their inability to put a good run of games together is ultimately the reason they both sit so lowly with so little separating them in the current Championship table.

The Blues will be buoyed by the fact they may have a number of injured men returning for Saturday’s game including Lyle Taylor and Scott Hogan. Both, if they play, will fancy themselves to get on the scoresheet against a leaky Robins defence.

Key player

The man that is in-form at the moment is Antoine Semenyo, who is reportedly attracting interest from the likes of Celtic, Salzburg and West Ham United.

Since returning from injury in November, he’s been involved in a lot of City’s goals, either scoring or assisting them. His form has been recognised as mentioned by Premier League clubs but he is also in contention to be called up to the Ghanaian national team.

He’s got the physicality to bully a defender and also has the pace to burst into the box.

Perhaps one criticism is that he just needs to improve in the final third and improve on his shooting and then he could be the perfect player.

Strengths

They may have suffered defeat in their last home game against Coventry City, but City are relatively good at home and have picked up most of their points there.

There’s some bright young talent in the team such as Alex Scott and Han-Noah Massengo who could line up either as a midfield two or be supported by Matty James, who could add some experience.

Scott will without a doubt be a player that earns City a big amount of cash in the future and I can see him pushing for a place in the England team when he gets older, he can play at right wing-back but his more natural position is as a midfielder.

Be wary of former Villain, Andreas Weimann too. This is his best season in football with 16 goals and eight assists. That’s a surprise too because he’s not an out-and-out striker, he’s an attacking midfielder who provides service to Chris Martin and Semenyo.

Weaknesses

Bristol City have had a habit of going in front in games and then conceding, no team in the league has dropped more points from a winning position than them.

It’s also 14 games without a clean sheet and their defence really should be stronger than it is.

Consistency is also a major issue, they’ve yet to win back-to-back games under Pearson and are currently on a two-game losing streak.

It all depends what kind of City team turn up against Birmingham, as against Middlesbrough they were superb but against Forest they were below par.

Team news

Defender Rob Atkinson is in contention and is pushing hard to be part of the squad, he hasn’t played since coming off in the Severnside Derby win over Cardiff City.

Matty James made a welcome return against Nottingham Forest last week.

Max O’Leary, who had been in goals before an injury against Swansea City is back but you’d perhaps stick with the experience of Daniel Bentley, who is also the captain at the club.

Callum O’Dowda remains out and former Aston Villa defender Nathan Baker is ruled out for the remainder of the season after a nasty head injury against Sheffield United in November.

Kasey Palmer was linked with a move to Blues in January after being frozen out at Bristol - is there any update on him?

Palmer currently has an injury, so he’s not even training or playing with the under-23’s at this minute.

Palmer was wanted by Cardiff City on Deadline Day it seems but the offer wasn’t one that suited the Robins.

I think the reason a move failed to materialise is Nigel Pearson didn’t want to strengthen a Championship rival just to get a player off the books.

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