City looking 'to the future' not the past in bid to change home form

The Reds welcome Cesar Peixoto's side to Ashton Gate on Wednesday evening for their penultimate game before the November international break. Wolves currently sit third in the Championship, just four points adrift of early leaders Middlesbrough after 13 matches.

City find themselves 11 places and six points further down the second tier, having won five, drawn three and lost five games in the league so far this term. Only two of those victories have come at home, against Portsmouth in August and Watford in September.

At the time of writing, only Bolton Wanderers have lost more games in front of their own supporters in the second tier this term than the Reds. While Skubala's side sit fourth in the Championship's away league table, they're the division's sixth-worst side at home.

Picking up points at Ashton Gate is an issue that pre-dates Skubala's arrival in south Bristol earlier this summer - City had a similar problem under Gerhard Struber last term. Although the Robins boss recognises the need for fortunes to change, he is eager not to get bogged down by what's come before.

"It's been great on the road, I must admit," Skubala said on his side's away record this season. "I think we've been excellent on the road away from home this season. I can't remember all the games that we've played but you look at them and we've had good performances and good results.

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"Of course, like anything, we want to be better at home. We want that, the lads want that, the fans want that; we all want that together, but it doesn't mean it's easy to do. Teams come with a slightly different way of playing that we spoke about and we have to be better in those moments.

"It's been a bit of a challenge when teams have home and sat back a little bit, but every game has a different story. I don't think Wolves are going to do that, so it might look different again.

"For sure, we want to keep improving our home form, but we have to look forward and like I say, whether we win or whether we lose, we look to the next game. I always have the same process: how are we going to attack the game? How are we going to go and find those weaknesses? And try to put in a performance on the pitch, as always, that we can be proud of.

"Winning games helps everything right?" the City manager added to Bristol Live. "There's no doubt that we want to win football matches, but I'm a strong believer in that you can't look to the past.

"We've spoken about it before. For me, now, we just look to the future of every game because if you keep speaking about the past, so often, you're living in the past.

"Every game we win, we lose, I come in on Monday and look to the future and look to the next game; that's all we're going to do. The form is form - you can't change it, but we'll look to change the form for the future. If it goes well on Wednesday, great.

"If it doesn't we go into Saturday with the same mentality."

Saturday lunchtime will see the Reds welcome Norwich City to the West Country. The Canaries are in action on Tuesday evening against Derby County at Pride Park, so will have an extra day to rest and recover than City, whose game against Wolves is the latest played in the Championship this midweek.

Of course, the majority of the Robins' attention will be directed to the meeting with the Molinuex-based side, rather than the weekend's fixture. Although Skubala is more than aware of the threats Peixoto's side will carry, he is backing his squad's ability to cause what may be viewed as a bit of an upset.

"They're a very good team full of quality," he explained. "Andre in the middle of the pitch is an exceptional play-making midfielder. Lopez can carry the ball well of the left. Armstrong up top is a great dynamic mover. Of course, Kieran Trippier everybody will know about.

"There's no doubt they have quality in their side and we're going to have to be good with the ball, when it turns over and we're going to have to be better in those moments at keeping hold of it when we get it. As individuals, we'll have to be cleaner; we're going to have to have a plan that's very solid, for sure, to be able to make sure their strengths don't hurt us too much.

"But also, we have to go after their weaknesses and they'll have weaknesses like every opposition. We have to make sure that we get that right on the day to try and exploit their weaknesses, like any team."

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