Gerhard Struber has used 19 different Bristol City players in his first five Championship matches as the Robins head coachBristol City boss Gerhard Struber has had a positive start at Ashton Gate(Image: EFL)

Gerhard Struber has shed light on the “honest conversations” he’s held with the members of his Bristol City squad whose game time has been limited this term, with competition at Ashton Gate ensuring it isn’t easy for the Reds boss to name a starting line-up.

The Robins have made an impressive start to life under the Austrian, winning three and drawing two of their opening five Championship matches ahead of Sunday’s clash with Oxford United in BS3.

Over the course of those first league games, Struber has made limited changes to his squad between matches. The only major alteration has seen Rob Dickie replace George Tanner in the back three after serving his suspension against Sheffield United on the opening day of the campaign, whilst Yu Hirakawa and Mark Sykes have split the load at wing-back.

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In the majority of areas, however, the City boss appears to have settled on a regular side, so much so that a player of Max Bird’s quality has struggled to force his way into the starting fold consistently, having returned from a calf injury in August.

While the standard of players waiting in the wings gives Struber a bit of a selection headache, he has aimed to be open with his squad so that they know where they stand with so much of the season still to be played.

“I think in every football team, you need in the end a big roster,” the head coach explained in his pre-match press conference. “You need players that are also ready from the bench.

“I know this; I was also a professional football player and it’s not a lovely situation when you’re on the bench but I think right now, we have players that are ready from the bench, they left everything on the field and their attitude in the training week is also on a really good level.

“Then, of course, it’s not always easy for me to realise the first starting 11, but the season is so long and we need every single player, and I would say everyone would deserve, at the moment, game time from the starting position but the reason is we can only let players on the field like the other ones and this is 11.

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“That’s the reason why we have sometimes a little bit of disappointment, but I think the boys still do very well in this direction at the moment and see the long season for our chest.

“I think, of course, it’s not always easy with players to speak that have, at the moment, not so much game time,” Struber added to Bristol Live. “But I prefer always an open conversation with these players, and I have with my whole team, and especially with my players that are not so much involved in game time, a good exchange and really honest conversations.

“I think this is also what they expect from me, especially when someone trains so hard and invests so much, like my whole group, that they want to know why they don’t play or why they don’t play so much.

“In this direction, we have, I would say, right now a really good exchange.”

So far this term, the Robins’ schedule has been fairly straightforward. Since they exited the Carabao Cup at the hands of Fulham late in August, Struber’s side have had to navigate one game a week, with the only mid-week match to come between now and the October international break seeing Ipswich Town travel to BS3 on September 30.

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On the other side of that break, however, things step up a gear with six games to be played in the three weeks before November’s international fixtures and then a run of seven matches in the lead-up to the congested Christmas period.

With an awful lot of football to come between now and the new year, Struber is under no illusion of the important role those currently on the periphery of his squad will have to play over the coming weeks and months.

“These are the moments where we have to rotate and these are the moments where we have to use our roster,” said the City boss. “I think in this way, I am open for that.

“Right now, we have not so much stress with games, but the time will come, especially when we look on the schedule for November and December – it’s crazy – and then of course, it’s much more important that we have much more players available.”

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