"The most worrying thing for me" - Claim made on Liam Manning's Bristol City future | OneFootball

FLW's Bristol City fan pundit has given his view on whether head coach Liam Manning is under pressure.

This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

It has been a disappointing start to the season for Bristol City in the Championship.

Bristol City finished 11th in the table last season after another inconsistent campaign, but they lost just one of their final 10 games, giving supporters plenty of hope going into the summer.

The positivity around Ashton Gate increased further after a strong summer transfer window that saw Luke McNally, Marcus McGuane, George Earthy, Scott Twine, Fally Mayulu, Sinclair Armstrong and Yu Hirakawa join the club, but it has been a slow start to the new season for Liam Manning's men.

City picked up five points from their first three games of the campaign, but they suffered their second consecutive 3-0 defeat as they were beaten by Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Saturday, with Lewis Travis' strike and a double from Yuki Ohashi sealing all three points for the hosts.

Manning admitted that it was a "hugely disappointing result and performance" that was "nowhere near the level we expect or are capable of", and his side currently sit 17th in the table, just two points above the relegation zone.

Bristol City fan pundit on Liam Manning's future

FLW's Bristol City fan pundit Tom Sandy does not believe that Manning's position is under any immediate threat, but he admitted the 38-year-old needs to turn the situation around quickly.

"Bristol City have suffered back-to-back 3-0 defeats, but the fact they were either side of the international break is even more worrying," Tom said.

"We had time to regain our composure, we weren't thrown straight into another game, we had chance to change what went wrong in the Derby game, and yet we just played in a very similar fashion, which is obviously not good viewing for Bristol City fans.

"I don't know if there's pressure on Liam Manning, probably not from higher up.

"I don't think the Lansdowns or Brian Tinnion will be looking down at him and thinking 'this is worrying', but in the first five games of the season, we've conceded three goals in three of them.

"We're shipping way too much at the back and we're giving away so many chances.

"We gave away goals at Blackburn at the weekend, it wasn't that they tore us apart, we just capitulated under pressure.

"The most worrying thing for me is that there was no positives I could take from Blackburn.

"You look at how we played at Derby, we were awful, and we kept the same system for Blackburn.

"Every single Bristol City fan I know was saying we would start Scott Twine in the number 10 role and we'll change the system to play someone else out wide in order to utilise him properly, and yet he played in the same role as he did against Derby.

"He doesn't play wide enough, there's not enough width down the left-hand side and it narrows our play.

"I don't think there's pressure on Manning yet, I don't think we're going to act as rashly as Stoke have this week with the sacking of Schumacher.

"But there's definitely pressure on him to change what we're doing, I wouldn't be surprised if we moved to a back three.

"With Rob Dickie missing through injury, you can tell he's gone and we miss him so much at the back.

"If you look at how we were doing at the start of the season compared to now in terms of shipping goals, it's just night and day.

"He needs to sort something out for sure, but I don't think he's going to be getting sacked."

Liam Manning deserves more time at Bristol City

There is no doubt it has been a poor start to the season for the Robins, and the fact they have suffered consecutive 3-0 defeats is alarming.

While Derby and Blackburn have both been strong so far this campaign, they are two sides that City would be hoping to compete with, so it is certainly concerning that they have been beaten comprehensively in the last two games, and as Tom says, Manning must urgently tighten his side up defensively.

However, it is still early in the season and the Championship table is yet to really take shape, so there is no reason for the Robins board to panic and make a knee-jerk decision on Manning's future.

After being backed in the transfer market this summer, Manning will know he needs to deliver, and the patience of the City hierarchy will not last forever, but his job should be safe for now at least.