If 67 is the Dictionary.com word of the year, ‘Struberball’ might well be the winning entry in South Bristol.
The quirky catchphrases of new Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber, referring to players, football and even tables as ‘sexy’, combined with the playing style he has introduced at Ashton Gate, have formed a special bond between the dugout and the stands barely a dozen matches into his tenure.
Picking up 22 points from your first 12 games will help any manager, but it is the style as much as the substance both on and off the pitch, which has endeared the West Country side already.
Friday 7th November 7:30pm
Kick off 8:00pm
He has been fortunate to inherit a side that finished sixth last season, playing a brand of solid but unspectacular possession football under Liam Manning. If that did need a tonic, his often breathless, usually edge-of-your-seat football is it.
Manning’s Robins kept the ball well but were less sure of what to do with it. They needed more final-third passes to produce a shot than any other Championship side last season – and none of the 18 ever-present sides have seen a more pronounced drop in 2025/26.
Now, more than eight per cent of the Robins’ possessions are counter-attacks, the highest proportion in the division. Struber promised vertical football and has delivered. The feeling around the club is as good as it has been for some while.
So what’s the problem?
Bristol City travel to Watford live on Sky Sports Football on Friday, missing as many as 10 first-team players through injury. Those absent would make the outfield of a decent Championship outfit themselves.
Struber has had to manage without a full complement in key positions since day one but now things have reached breaking point.
Jason Knight, who played every minute of last season, has finally succumbed to his workload and has missed the last seven games with an adductor injury – often caused in athletes by overuse.
City have lost three of those matches without their talisman and were always going to struggle to replace a player who won possession more than anyone else in the Championship last season.
Centre-back Zak Vyner has had to fill the void and deputised well, but soon Struber may require him back in an equally stretched defence after Rob Atkinson was injured in Saturday’s defeat at Stoke.
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Watch free highlights as Stoke blew Bristol City away with three goals in the opening half hour
That 5-1 hammering at the Bet365 Stadium was by far the Robins’ worst afternoon of the season and on the surface, came with little warning following nine points and two clean sheets in a week against Norwich, Southampton and Birmingham respectively.
But the underlying numbers were telling a different story. Against Tom Brady’s Bluenoses, City saw just 28 per cent of the ball and scored from their only shot on target. More concerningly, their normal high-intensity pressing game was at its least effective of any match all season. Even worse than that humbling at Stoke seven days later.
That afternoon in Staffordshire finally proved one step too far. Bristol City were blown away by three goals in the opening half hour, before compounding matters with a leggy and lethargic defeat at home to lowly Blackburn on Tuesday.
Fatigue appears to be setting in. Though it is fair to question why this should happen so early in the season but overseeing an injury-hit squad, City have relied on the third-lowest number of players of any club in the division and made the fifth-fewest substitutions. 10 players have played the equivalent of 10 full matches – another league high.
All this while playing a brand of football that demands a higher intensity than most of their rivals. Five of the Championship’s 45 most frequent high-speed runners play for Bristol City, while the squad as a whole has sprinted the fifth furthest distance this season. Those who are fit are being asked to push themselves to the maximum.
Struber could perhaps have utilised what depth he does have in his squad better. Haydon Roberts was chosen as Atkinson’s replacement on Tuesday in his first start of the season, and in an unsurprisingly rusty performance was partly at fault for Yuki Ohashi’s winning goal.
Yu Hirakawa, who may be called upon at Watford, has played just half an hour of football over the past month.
The reasons for City’s injury crisis will be debated within the club; either way, it is largely a situation beyond Struber’s making. But it does threaten to derail what had been a largely successful start to life in the West Country.
A third game in six days presents a conundrum for the Bristol City boss whether to ride out the storm or dial things back for 90 minutes, before many of his squad get a two-week rest during the international break. Perhaps this is where ‘Struberball’ takes a brief back seat.
Watch Watford vs Bristol City live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm; kick-off 8pm.
