The key takeaways from Bristol City’s 3-0 defeat to Birmingham City

Bristol City were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Birmingham City at St Andrews in the EFL Championship.

Riley McGree put the home side in front before Scott Hogan and Gary Gardner inflicted further damage on the Robins.

It saw City drop from 15th to 18th, but still only five points off of the play-off-zone and ten clear of the nearest relegation spot.

Yesterday’s match was discussed to a massive extent by supporters who weren’t too pleased with the manner of performance.

We take a look at some of the talking points from the action from the Midlands.

Managing Massengo

The big talking point when the teams were announced this evening was the exclusion of Han-Noah Massengo from the starting eleven.

Massengo put in a solid performance against Barnsley, staking a claim for the man-of-the-match award but was dropped in place of Jay Da Silva.

The young starlet was eventually introduced for Matt James, who was forced off with a calf injury.

We did have an idea of why he wasn’t started from the outset though, as Curtis Fleming was asked pre-match on Robins TV to explain why he was dropped.

It was a case of game management for a young player, who will need to be managed correctly when it comes to his development.

“He’s running 11km in a game so we’re talking 33-34km this week he would be doing, so you need to manage him.”

This is something that City fans may have to put up with this season, despite merited opinions that he should be one of the first names on the team sheet, he may need to be rested on occasions to avoid any serious injury.

Aerial threat prevails for Birmingham

There was a suggestion that Massengo could have been dropped given the height of Birmingham, hence the inclusion of Zak Vyner, who at least stands over six foot.

Birmingham were always going to challenge in the air and two of their goals came from being stronger in the air. The second goal is just Troy Deeney outmuscling Vyner from a simple punt up field for Scott Hogan to score.

The third goal doesn’t even require as much aerial threat as there is no one near Gary Gardner when he scores but his powerful header showed that the away side had a game plan and they played it to a tee.

That was reminded by Nigel Pearson, who in post-match conference put praise on the opposition’s front two: “Troy Deeney was very important for Birmingham, people forget how effective a striker he is.

“We didn’t deal with the threat from Deeney and Scott Hogan. The third goal is, wow, not good enough, I’m very annoyed about that. We’ve conceded poor goals.”

The absence of Kasey Palmer

There was no place on the bench again for Kasey Palmer who has now been absent from the last three match-day squads. You have to go back to the defeat against Middlesbrough for the last time he played more than a half of football.

A few supporters have suggested that the 24-year-old is converted into a striker, similar to what happened to Bobby Reid. This is a good suggestion but at the moment, he is not being fancied by Nigel Pearson.

It seems like Palmer just can’t fit into the system that Pearson is deploying and in the last few weeks has had to watch on as 18-year-old midfielder Ayman Benarous has taken his spot in the team.

Matty James’ withdrawal impacts Robins

Before last night, Matty James had played in every minute of Bristol City’s Championship games this season. A collision though forced him off and will now be assessed to see if he is fit enough to play against Coventry.

When the former Leicester City midfielder was forced off, the midfield lost their structure, coinciding in the two further goals they conceded.

His absence affected those around him, including Tyreeq Bakinson who had a satisfactory performance before James’ departure. City are a bit thin on the ground for options in midfield too if James is injured as Andy King has been sidelined until at least December.