2 Transfers Bristol City Could Complete In January
Bristol City are going along very nicely this season and it would be no surprise to see them push for a play-off place come April. Given the situation they find themselves in, it would be wise to spend a little money in January in order to strengthen further and ensure they give themselves the best possible chance of a top-six finish.
They are wise at Ashton Gate though and know that signing players for the sake of it simply doesn’t work. Their own weaknesses, or perceived weaknesses, will need to be identified and appropriate replacements have to be brought in. It could be this tinkering that could give them that extra 5 or 10 percent for the second-half of the season.
Here we look at two potential incomings when the silly season starts in the New Year:
Maikel Kieftenbeld (Birmingham City)
The midfielder wanted to move to Derby County but was not allowed in the summer. Birmingham continue to disappoint with or without him, but he may well be looking at Derby now and thinking that he possibly got away with it slightly, as the club had promised to be fighting for a position in the top-2, which does not look so likely now.
The central midfield or defensive midfield position this season has been filled for the most part by Marlon Pack, who among the regular starters for City, has rated more or less the lowest in terms of his average score out of ten.
His stats in this position don’t look terribly great and he has even picked up 7 yellow cards to boot. Bringing Kieftenbeld into this role would be a huge improvement to the side and would mean a more solid midfield base to allow their excellent wide men to keep attacking.
Kyle Vassell (Blackpool)
Despite the form of Bobby Reid who has 10 goals in 19 Championship games, other forward options are thin on the ground at Ashton Gate and that is something that will need to be addressed by January.
Famara Diedhiou, like Marlon Pack above, is rated pretty lowly among the regular contributors at Bristol City despite his 5 goals in 13 appearances.
Bristol City know well that players can take the step up from League One in their stride, and a few in that division are scoring plenty of goals such as Kieffer Moore, Brett Pitman, Jack Marriott and others. The thing about Vassell though, is that he has not been tried at Championship level yet and is improving all the time.