Jump to content

Birmingham City vs Derby County Matchday Thread


Tombo

Recommended Posts

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. We've had some of both at DCFC , and a bit of the "best of" wouldn't go amiss right now.

We got a glimpse of both aspects last night - after how things went at the end of last season, I am much happier with how we are trying to play this season than what we were doing last time out. And yet the way we are playing was a direct contributor to the result at Birmingham.

The first twenty minutes showed all that is good about the new pattern of play, and the difference between the to sides was almost embarrassing. There was only one team seemingly playing football. Unfortunately, much a I loath what he stands for, Lee Bowyer is a smart cookie and quickly realised how to deal with our style of play. All he had to do was start pressing our guys at the back, initially just a small amount, and our plans started to unravel. I know the mistake for the first goal came while we were still doing all right, but Birmingham had already moved a few yards up the field and were starting to move in on our defenders as they tried to play the ball around. And yes, Buchanan had time to play safely, but once the pressure starts to build up, it affects the mindset, and we were already prone to keep going backwards in order to be safe.

To be honest, we are a lot better at playing out from the back than were last year, and Davies does seem to be more comfortable with the ball at his feet. But what the pressure does is affect our mindset, and suddenly we were keeping the ball passing round at the back. The midfielders were not showing for the ball, and when it did reach them, instead of turning and playing the ball forwards, they would play safe, going back to the defenders. Whether Buchanan originally intended to play backwards I don't know, but he was signalled to by Curtis Davies, and then didn't play the ball well enough. Actually Davies did that to Williams in the match against Sheffield United, and his pass wasn't good enough. What we have got to do is shake off this "play it out from the back at all costs" mentality.

Knowing that we would have to come at them more having gone behind, Bowyer simply increased the press, and it was effectively game over. Some comments are that we couldn't find our way out of our half after that, but it isn't true, it was just that until Jason knight came on, we were too slow getting forwards that our attacking attempts were easy to deal with, all because our defenders were being put under pressure. 

Bowyer has shown that he can turn teams around, and some want him here, but I don't want him anywhere near our club, because of what he stands for. Morrison and Lawrence were booked for petulance, and both should be better at controlling their emotions. But they ere under sever provocation. Morrison let rip at the ref, gesturing with 4 fingers after the latest tri/pull back, none of which the ref had done anything about. Lawrence was also being poked and cajoled all match long, with the full blessing of the officials. However, he has less cause than Morrison for his silly behaviour, especially as the captaincy is supposed to mature him. He had got the players winding ours up all match long, and it is a standard tactic by those with insufficient scruples.

Because of recent responses I had intended commenting on the match officials with an "I couldn't possibly comment". But to hell with that. Yet again they were utter rubbish. In many ways they didn't cost us the match, because we did that ourselves with the aforementioned tactics and the resultant pressures we brought on ourselves, with the resultant mistakes. But they failed to wrest the "worst ref of the season" award from the bozo at the Forest match. How tow defenders sandwiching a forward without getting near the ball isn't a foul I have no idea, the same as with a huge number of fouls committed all match long. But as I mentioned earlier in this thread, there were a couple of possible chances he thwarted, and how many more might have been if our attacking threat wasn't nullified by the constant trips and pull backs? I will repeat my thoughts from then: it would have been nice to have had the chance. If Sibley had been able to shoot instead of there being a free-kick, who knows? Most likely he would have sent it way over the bar. He is capable. But we will never know.

The apparent leniency would seem to come from an EFL/FA instruction to "let the game flow", even though that doesn't seem to apply in the Premiership. DCFC cynics might se it as a smokescreen for loading the game against Derby. Match after match a torrent of fouls go unpunished, while Derby players get yellow cards, often for first offences. Last nights stats bore this out, with Birmingham committing way more fouls, and that ignores all the fouls which weren't given, while Derby get the most cards, a pattern which is all to familiar, and has been for a number of seasons.

Regardless of whether the match officials are affecting our fortunes or not, or is it just a misguided deflecting from the truth that the Rams aren't as good as we think they are, our fortunes are still in our hands. I am ok with the idea of playing the ball out from the back, even though we don't have Manchester City quality of players (yet?), but we must not insist on that being our only MO. We have to be prepared to "change it up a bit" as Rooney said as the need arises.

And finally, do the Sky Sports guys take their trousers and underwear off to avoid stains while they "wet" themselves about whichever team happens to be playing us? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having given it much reflection after yesterday I think the person who got the nail on the head best was Micheal Johnson. 
 

Even though both goals started from poor mistakes from our side, (Buches and Lawrence) and those players are the main reason we ended up conceding, we actually might not have conceded at all if we were more thoughtful with our fullback attacking positions before we have ‘secured the ball’ as Johnson put it. 
For both goals, coming at the back post that the right full back would have been covering, Byrne could have and should have been putting a challenge in on their player. 
For both goals he was no where near due to his taking up of an attacking position way too early. 
I have no problem with us playing the way we are trying and it is easier on the eye than all of the last two years, but if we are under pressure or haven’t even cleared our lines then that right fullback can’t be so out of position. 
similar situations happened v Forest when we lost the ball needlessly. Once he got back to challenge, the second time he got a yellow. It is definitely something we need to look at, especially if we still haven’t made the possession part of it ‘secure’ as Johno said. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would be interested to know what percentage of our passes are

a) backwards

and

b) to Roos

What seemed particularly ludicrous against Birmingham was occasions where a defender, under no pressure and with the whole pitch to aim at, passed the ball back to Roos under pressure who then lumped it aimlessly to their giant defenders.

If the keeper is going to do that, the defence might as well save him the bother!
 

Still comes down to the fact that Morrison apart, no one really looks like they want the ball. Too many treat it like a hot potato and lack the nous and strength to hold it until a clever pass is on.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

watched this game in a bar with my friend as been at hers all weekend. I thought we looked pretty toothless going forward and frail at the back. That's predominantly the issue with our team atm- we don't score many and are always likely to concede. The team struggles to manufacture chances and we lack clinical finishers at this level. The solution is either we need to work a lot more on our chance creation or we get in someone who can score goals. At the back I think it's likely to get worse before it gets better- the ageing pairing will tire as the games start coming thick and fast and if we get any injuries or suspensions then our lack of depth will definitely show. 

I'm not necessarily blaming Rooney atm for these issues as there are mitigating circumstances but at what point do the results continue to be bad enough for the club to do a rethink on this appointment. Adapting to the squad we've got is going to be necessary if we want to stay up, it doesn't look like he's doing that and it's 1 win in 6 and 2 wins in 22 for our boss. I can easily see us slipping into the relegation places by our 10th game and I don't necessarily see us climbing our way out of it again. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/09/2021 at 21:56, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

He's the manager,he spends all week training,coaching and then picking them to play.

They play to the system that he lays out and that's one that invites pressure and causes players to rooster up under that pressure.

Well let’s clear the players paid handsomely to play football of any responsibility then. 
 

I don’t buy ‘pressure’ for that first goal. He played the ball without looking. He wasn’t tackled. He just played a pass with no idea who was there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account.

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...