QuoteHow is a move from L1 to a Championship side a bad move?Originally Posted by tommy_c12000
On the face of it, seems like a terrible move. Who’s advising him? Unless Bristol City are building a strong team with good backing, and could be next seasons Luton?
How is a move from L1 to a Championship side a bad move?
This was my initial reaction too but as you said Luton have shown whats possible in that division. They were firmly midtable last season, fairly big club, Nigel Pearson in charge, so with all that you'd hope that Knight could be a catalyst to kick them forward to playoffs.... and as LurcherLover said, at least its out of L1
Is as good a move as could reasonably be expected at this point. But a teenage midfielder with an abundance of championship experience would have got a better move than a 22 year old league 1 regular starting “utility” type player…. In short. He shoulda moved well before now.
Sykes, Weiman, Memheti and Kalas are current internationals, Bajic and Conway are current U-21 internationals. Nigel Pearson is an experienced manager. Bristol City will not win the Championship, but they seem a good bet for the play-offs.
Off the mark for the Robins; they're 2-1 up on Oxford at halftime in the League Cup
2 goals, 1 assist - taken off after 60 mins
Clearly he was being held back at Derby!
Good to see Knight captaining Bristol City today. I've no idea if he does that regularly or if today was a one off, but either way it's good to see. Sounds like he's playing very well for them also. Knight I think is a player that could pretty much adapt to any level of football, he didn't completely stand out in League 1, yet he looks very good in the Championship once again and if he played in the Premier League I'd say he wouldn't look out of place there either.
He's probably the most underrated Irish player at the moment, certainly if the number of pages I had to go back to find this thread is anything to go by. But as we hopefully move towards a more sensible and mixed style of football under a new manager I'd expect him to be central to our plans for the next few years, because we don't have anyone else who can cover the ground and make a meaningful impact in midfield the way he can.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Update on Knight from the local press in Bristol.
TL;DR: they like him a lot.Can we clone Jason Knight?
Just once, maybe? It’s not being greedy. As great as it would be to have six or seven Knights on the pitch at one time, just one more version of the Irishman would make a huge difference. There are ethical and moral debates to be had but it could be the difference between a good and great season here, folks.
We joke to an extent but Knight has kind of caused a problem for himself and the rest of the team in that he’s so good and so important to so many aspects of how the Robins play, that they need him to be on the field for every minute of every match, but equally, such is the intensity at which he plays his game and which facilitates his best attributes, that requires him to be at, or at least approaching 100 per cent.
The latter clearly isn’t possible in a Championship schedule let alone one that ludicrously demands teams play four games inside 11 days (we’re going to keep on at this and, sorry, there’s more to come). When Knight is functioning at full capacity, City look a very good side, when he isn’t - which is wholly understandable because while it doesn’t always seem that way, he is only a human being - so elements of the collective performance dips.
The wide players are important in stretching teams and creating overloads which has a knock-on effect elsewhere on the field but Knight’s role, especially against tightly-packed organised defences and midfield units such as Millwall is more so. He has to constantly look for the spaces either side of the deep-lying sixes in midfield, buzzing from left to right, and then turn into the areas of vulnerability between defence and the middle of the park, hopefully drawing players out from there or then interlinking with his forwards.
There were a few moments when this did occur against the Lions, notably the move that led to Tanner setting up Weimann, but they were also too infrequent and what possibly was more symbolic of his performance were the two inside flicks he attempted to free Mehmeti, neither of which came off either due to a lack of execution or the Albanian not quite anticipating the trajectory of the pass.
Knight is not a traditional No10 in the classic playmaker sense in putting his foot on the ball and delivering passes that nobody else inside the ground outside of the recipient can detect, he very much plays downhill and at pace. If we’re being blunt, he’s probably a box-to-box No8 having to fulfil a job that there’s nobody else in the team who can do right now at an appropriate level.
Nigel Pearson may have been playing politics to an extent when, upon signing Knight, he declared the Irishman was there to complement not replace Alex Scott, but evidently that would have been a preferable outcome from the summer.
There’s no question the 22-year-old can operate in more advanced roles, just perhaps not every single game, and certainly not at this intensity. The Scott void is still to be filled by City and is recognised internally at the HPC with the desire for a goalscoring No10 to be added in this window, if that is possible given the various obstacles January can create.
In a perfect world, of course, Knight could have been given a moment’s rest in one of the four games between December 22 and January 1 but such is his influence in the team, on the ball in trying to create and off the ball in leading the press from the front - as the Robins morph into a 4-4-2 out of possession - he couldn’t, especially as Manning had to rotate other individuals in and out of the team. It was a juggling act that unfortunately didn’t quite come off, but then again, seven points from 12 games isn’t a paltry return by any stretch.
Such is Knight’s omnipresence on both sides of the ball, when he’s firing on all cylinders, it’s almost like having an extra man on the pitch. City need it every game, the issue is that sometimes that isn’t possible and needs others to compensate for his mortality. Sadly, against Millwall, that didn’t happen.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
He's just the wrong kind of midfielder for some I think. He's not one for the slide rule threaded through balls that always show up in highlights reels or social media clips. What he does is different but equally important, arguably more important.
Cullen/Knight/Azaz in a midfield three this spring. Worth a shot.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
He’s the kind of player every team needs. If he keeps on his current trajectory and doesn’t make another appalling career decision like staying at Derby like he did last season then I’ve no doubt he’ll be a premier league player and I think he’ll have a long premier league career at that.
To be honest, I would agree. I think he's an excellent player and an absolute work horse, but I don't think he has what it takes to cut it in the PL.
He could make it at other top leagues in Europe, but if we're specifically talking about the PL, then I don't see it(at this current time).
I think he can make it in the Premier League. In fact I think it's a league that would suit him more than other (arguably) more technical European leagues. Not every Premier League midfielder needs to be technically perfect on the ball. There's plenty of room for a player like Knight who will do the heavy lifting to allow the more technical types to stand out. He won't be playing for Man City or Arsenal, but he can definitely play 100+ games at that level for an Everton or a Crystal Palace. If James McCarthy, Jeff Hendrick or David Meyler could do it, then Knight absolutely can too.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Please don't. This behaviour isn't representative.
Jason Knight scores against Notts Forest in the cup. Not watching and havent seen the goal but the match texts talk about it being a lovely finish. Always nice to see him score, I think he's a premier league player in waiting.
Always has been. League 1 seemed to suck the life out of him, but I think he could go to a mid table Premier League team and be every bit as effective as he is for Bristol City. If he had joined another English team instead of Derby when he first went over he could easily have 60 or 70 Premier League appearances under his belt already.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Scores away to Boro.
While that's possible, I'd suggest he's doing fine. Closing in on 200 appearances, only last season at league one level the rest championship. Not a bad record for a guy of 22, and arguably better than being in PL2 team.
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