Dr Balls

Nothing in terms of a few it would seem: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/breaking-birmingham-city-koji-miyoshi-27175128

Well that’s the other part of the same problem, and why we seem so useless and ponderous “going forward” as that usually involves a lot more of going sideways and backwards, than actually going forwards.

But if we are dependent on our central defenders as the only ones willing to play balls forward, then surely that points out the problem with our midfield. No Scott, no midfield attacking intent is the plain and simple truth right now. The only other player willing to play it forward when he came on was Naismith, and unfortunately it was one of his misplaced passes that set up their second goal on the break.

Dave agree with a lot of the especially the first half but 2 observations stand out for me are: Cornick cannot maintain possession. He can’t keep the ball and also often gives it away when trying to pass. Many attacks floundered on his inability with the ball. We don’t get the ball into the box quickly enough generally. We also are playing the wrong tactics for having either Wells or Bell as a centre forward , as both are better at running onto balls played through the middle, yet we seem Intent on trying to play wide and putting crosses inti the middle. The other reality that I would suggest hasn’t changed from last season, despite Nige promoting that we have become a possession team, is that we do better when we don’t have lots of the ball to play out slowly for the back but hit quickly on the break. Again over 50% possession and we lose. It’s why our home record remains so bad from season to season.

Birmingham were physically stronger in midfield (why can’t we ever seem to buy a tall dominant midfielder like Bielik) plus had players willing to run past others and create chances (Dembele and Bacuna). By comparison, our midfield looked physically small, our 2 wide starting forwards (Cornick and Mehmeti) offered nothing, while the comparison between Hogan and Bell upfront really showed up that we started with a relatively weak and inexperienced 20 year old, compared to an experienced striker who has been successful at this level for some time.

We don’t have 2 fit quality players for each position. And even when fit, I would question whether we have enough depth through the squad. All areas through the spine of the team look at risk of significant problems if there were injuries or a suspension to a particular player (GK, central defence, attacking midfield, centre forward).

Unfortunately the evidence so far suggests that kind of xG will only be possible with different players and potentially a different formation/style of play. We just don’t look like scoring and our only 2 league goals this season have come from long throws from a player whose best ability on the pitch appears to be long throws. (Which would be fine if for all was like American Football, where we could have a specialist player we just bring in and out for long throws but obviously it’s not!)

I don’t think we have shown any signs of being world beaters at any point recently. Unless by the rest of the world you mean Oxford United!

More than 1 or 2 on target per game would be a significant step forward. You can’t expect a conversion rate of 100%. Our xG stats would surely bear out the problem right now, which appears to be better than League 1 teams, but will struggle to score in the Championship.

Can’t blame Max for the 2 goals conceded. He actually made 2 goal-stopping saves today. It’s not that he’s the weakest link, more that we don’t have a viable Championship level keeper if anything happened to him.

It’s “stick or twist”. Unfortunately SL went twist on LJ and Ashton, and it left us no better off in a footballing sense and far worse off financially. Once bitten, twice shy? But the reality is that just hoping to stand still in this league is not an option. Improve or face a relegation battle. And improvement requires investment. Bringing in funds from transfer fees is essential but either spaffing them on inflated wages or sitting on them in the bank is not going to bring success.However our squad is clearly short on goalscorers and with the Scott transfer our midfield creativity has gone. Tightening up at the back was needed but that alone won’t save a club if the team can’t score. And currently we are more toothless than your average Irn Bru drinker!

Well the pay cut when he’s got no contract come 1st September will be even more noticeable. Every player has their price and clearly the valuation of wages for Kalas is affected by his injury problems. He may not like that but it’s the reality of the situation.

Doesn’t help if they have Tom Brady throwing missile balls 60 yards up the pitch. I presume that’s why Birmingham have called him in as a specialist goalkeeper substitute or at least coaching on goalkeeper distribution… (I’m kidding!). To be fair to the EFL programme, they did ask if bringing over Tom Brady was just a publicity stunt. God knows what Brady thought of St Andrews when he arrived. It’s been like the Championship version of the Mem with large parts sectioned off that can’t be used etc. Hardly the trillion dollar stadiums of the NFL! As for Brummies in Weston, you have to remember that these people have no idea what seawater is supposed to look like, having been brought up in the Midlands, so they all flock to the first place going south with a “sandy” (I.e. sand laid down on top of a load of estuary mud) beach.

Solidity vs attacking intent. Considering our problem over recent seasons has been conceding too many goals, tightening up in midfield and at the back is not necessarily a bad thing. One downside is that our attacking play becomes even more dependent on speed and breakaways from the front 3, which links to having previously struggled when we have had more of the possession against teams which are happy to sit back.

For so many seasons we have said that the central midfield is the problem. That was masked to a large degree last season by the efforts of Scott, but since the days of Pack and Smith at their best, we have struggled to find the right combination. We had minimal movement and zero creativity yesterday, with no one willing to carry the ball forward other than Pring, Vyner and Dickie. That shouldn’t be just their responsibility, and it wouldn’t be if we had some half decent midfielders.

Positives - we didn’t lose. Negatives - team selection and tactics, plus another injury. That said, the Preston formation was basically 3-5-2, but with at least one of the 3 central defenders pushing up into midfield and one of the forwards dropping back, so increasing their numbers there further. We were basically outnumbered in the middle of the pitch, exacerbated by our relative immobility and lack of creativity, plus our full backs were pushed back into defensive roles, so instead we resorted to ineffective hoofball. Millwall set up in a very similar way to Preston, plus are another big, physical team, so Nige really needs to work out how we set up to counter that. Playing away, I would suspect that he will attempt to allow them more possession and soak up the pressure, then try hit them on the counter attack.

The alternative view is that at least it wasn’t the usual suspects hogging the limelight, which this season will presumably be Leeds, Leicester and Southampton as the newly relegated clubs, whose games are more likely to be shunted around to accommodate Sky live coverage. Plus a chance for the Janners to enjoy their moment back at this level, plus beating Colin in the process!

Agree. The poor bloke had nothing much to play with today with high balls against an enormous centre back. The couple of times he was put through in the first half, he had a shout for a penalty and then played in Bell for a 1-on-1 against their keeper. Not his fault that we were so useless in midfield…

He was absolutely a Scott-like player and the longer the game went on the more he was getting the ball in deep positions and driving it forward. It was a complete contrast to our game, where no-one was willing to commit their players other than Pring. And if you are reliant on your left back to be the one beating players in midfield, then you should realise you have a significant problem.

I don’t think we can blame that performance on the pitch considering our main tactic was hoofing the ball in the air to their centre backs. That’s like the Parachute Regiment blaming their special formation team being useless on the basis of the state of the landing site!

There was no X-factor today just a lot of “why”s!

Poor team selection given the opposition. Poor performances across the pitch from most of those who did play. All the positivity from pre-season dissipated in less than 45 minutes. Which makes me question our pre-season build up. After the “walks in the park” against League 2 teams, our last 2 pre-season matches were against League 1 opposition. We drew against Cheltenham, who today lost to Shrewsbury and beat Portsmouth 1-0, who needed a 92 minute equaliser to draw with the Sags. Hardly testing opposition. So come, the first physical and competitive Championship team that we face, we look pretty toothless, and pretty similar or possibly even worse than last season. Without a major improvement, anyone hoping for the playoffs needs to take a bit of a reality check.

We were outplayed for long periods of both halves. Zak had his dodgy moments being indecisive. Dickie looked fine but clearly had no one in midfield willing to take a forward ball from him. The midfield remains the worry. Supposedly we are a counter-attacking team but that’s because our midfielders, with the exception of Scott, have minimal creativity. It’s why we are essentially a “long ball” team. At home, against strong, physical but relatively unsung teams that seems even more frustrating. We hardly won a single second ball because we were constantly out-muscled. I don’t mind playing counter-attacking football per se, especially away from home, but just pumping hopeful long balls towards 3 enormous centre backs is not likely to be a fruitful tactic, as we found today.

Sorry mate I think you meant without Alex Scott. But otherwise agree that without him we have no one in midfield willing to take the ball from the defence and drive it forward.

Does anyone really think that a Premier League team won’t come in for Ward-Prowse before the end of the transfer window?