December 2008 Archives

Would you rather Blues played like Swansea City and be in their position, or didn't and weren't? Funny one, isn't it?

No question, the contrast in performances on Sunday left many jaws dropping.

Those who saw Swansea on their patch in November knew they were very pleasing on the eye, dynamic, fluid and quick but struggled in front of goal and had a tendency to over-play.

We saw all that at St Andrew's and it was, to be frank, embarrassing watching Blues trying to get a grip on them.

Regular readers of Birmingham Mail match reports and various articles, and those who have watched most Blues matches at home and away, will tell you that against teams who move the ball swiftly and have mobility, especially up front and wide, they get in a muddle.

Blues have not always come a cropper because of their inner-steel, strength, character, a moment or two of quality - in defence of attack - and opponents' lack of end product.

The goal less draw showed again Blues resilience, but at home it is they who should be setting the agenda, dictating the tempo, getting the full-backs bombing forward and piling players into the box.

Today I spoke to Alex McLeish about the game and the issues that arose from it, including his tactical mindset, for a piece in the New Year's Eve Mail.

More from Alex McLeish post-Ipswich, in his own words.

On the win:

"We got the victory and it was a bit of a character performance. I asked for the character and I got that, I asked for the work rate and I got that, I got the organisation and the compactness of the team was good. We could have added a bit more quality to it, but we got the victory. We protected our lead in the second-half and could have shown a bit more composure and picked Ipswich off. After back to back defeats, the boys were a bit edgy and this is a difficult place to come, but we showed a lot of character."

On penalties:

"I couldn't believe how long it's gone on without us getting one. I think Cardiff have had 12 this season. It's a measure of how often they are getting in the opposition box and maybe we are not doing that enough. But it was certainly a very dangerous pass from Kemy Agustien and we had guys in the danger area. The referee was right up there to see the handball and James McFadden showed good composure to stick it away.

On Maik Taylor having little to do:

"Yes, but he didn't really in the Reading game the other week either. Reading scored three goals, yes, but two of them were set-pieces and the third one was when we were trying to get back in the game. He's guy who loves shut-outs as do the defenders as well. I'm pleased for Maik because the defence, in my opinion, wasn't at its best last week. But the concentration was there and they stood firm in the second-half."

On the victory instilling confidence:

"It should give them confidence but I am looking for these players to go on a run of outstanding performances individually because that's what you need when your team is competing for a championship. It's not one or two games that are not bad, we need consistent outstanding performances, with outstanding application, especially for these fans who came down here. I'm sure they're happy with the way the team has applied themselves but we know that we can do better and when you see players in the dressing room, see some of the disappointment on the faces, they know they can do better too.

On Damien Johnson:

"I thought he was excellent. I brought back his English nous and I thought it was important to the team. It was a calculated gamble as he has only played in one reserve game since coming back from a potentially career-threatening injury. But that game t I watched he was running from start to finish, his fitness is a good level. When you're Damien's age and you've trained all these years, you've done all the pre-seasons, it's in the bank. He will have an inner fitness player have until they retire. What you have to worry about is 'have the legs gone?' and Damien showed that he was efficient in all departments. He was running all over the place and getting stuck into challenges from the first minute to the last."

On leaving Kevin Phillips on the subs' bench:

"A lot of people may think I'm off my head but I wanted to rest Kevin Phillips because of playing two games in 48 hours. We've got to have trust and faith in other players."

On Swansea City:

"They are a good side, they play good football. We need to be tactically ready for them when we don't have the ball. But we have got to be a big threat in their box."

Alex McLeish isn't going to be the big spender in January.

That much was reiterated in his most recent media conference, ahead of the Ipswich Town Boxing Day game.

McLeish would like the facility to splash the cash - as would any manager - but it's highly unlikely.

The deal for Jordi Lopez has been thrown into doubt because of concern over his medical.

That's the kind of route he is going to go down in January: loans or those available on a short term basis who won't break the bank and might just help out.

Central midfield and centre-half are the main requirements and Bobo Balde has come back into the reckoning.

Sure, it would be preferable to spend £5 million - £10 million on a finished article to bolster the defence. But that's not going to happen.

Balde would be a quick fix and McLeish - as regular readers here and of the Birmingham Mail know - has designs to do his big pieces of business in the summer when more funds should be available - assuming Blues win promotion.

Here's what McLeish said: "The way we work here is that if I see somebody I feel can enhance the first eleven, I will knock on the board's door and they will see what we can do about that.

"We don't say 'there's a 20 million war chest for you'. It's more 'see, what you think, if there's anything there we will do our utmost to help you'. That's the relationship we have."

As for numbers: "There's one or two positions I think where we could be better.

"But until I see people who really stick out within our budgets, then I don't think we're going to do anything."

Not anything per se, but anything much.

The loss to Reading was a huge blow, and may act as a wake-up call. Yet it also showed up problems that have been there all season.

Namely sides who get the ball forward early down the channels and run Blues to have them facing their own goal pull them out of kilter.

Southampton, Norwich City and Nottingham Forest (at the end) to name but three, did it, but can't finish. That's why Blues were able to come away unscathed.

One of the depressing things for me was that until the first goal it was even, then Reading got a huge surge of confidence to go on and continue to attack. Blues just didn't respond and seemed inhibited, until a late rally.

The contrast in the mobility of the teams was great and Reading have players who can quickly go beyond the front men and swarm into the box. Habitually Blues just don't do that, too often they are formulaic and play obvious football.

It's not that Blues, when they are in mood, cannot impose themselves. With a bit of luck, for example, they would have won comfortably at Wolves. And they have admirable, doughty qualities which, when it comes to the business end of the season and it's about bottle, should be beneficial.

McLeish, believe me, is well aware of the limitations of his team and is trying to address them. It's a slow process, granted, and it's important to note that his positive comments of support should not be simply interpreted as blind faith, or denial.

He is from the school of management where you protect your team publicly, even if it's to your own detriment and you give them what for in-house.

Ipswich will present Blues with similar sort of problems, as will Swansea. Both have movement and energy. And two games in three days doesn't help an elder statesman team like Blues.

But now's not the occasion for revolt. Two years ago Blues went eight points clear at the top of the Championship on Boxing Day. By Easter they were four point adrift of the automatic places. In May they were promoted, only two or three missed chances on the final day costing them the title itself.

There is still a long old way to go yet.

Finally from me, here's to wishing you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Enjoy.

For Jordi Lopez, read Oubina?

Possibly. By the accounts of people who have seen him play, the Spaniard is more of a technician than a scuffling scrapper.

One person I spoke to said he's more of a Mikel Arteta, another a type of Pedro Mendes figure.

Lopez has been kicking his heels of late, trying to find a club after losing his way at Real Mallorca.

In the the couple of weeks he has been with Blues - he played in the Sheffield United friendly, not the Cheltenham Town game, as earlier thought - there have been plenty of
nods of approval.

Steve Bruce signed Oubina as that kind of move-it-on passer, comfortable in possession, to bring a little more craft to the midfield. Then he snapped his knee ligaments on his
first start at Liverpool.

So we never did know whether he would have made a difference and become the modern-day Mark Ward general.

Alex McLeish has constantly stated that he only wants to sign players he believes would improve Blues or 'enhance the team'.

He added the rider that if someone else came along, and showed up well, then he wouldn't rule them out either. Like Lopez, whose short term contract - with a view to a three-year deal - is subject to a successful medical.

People expecting £5 million players and the like in January are going to be disappointed.

The big funds for McLeish should be available in the summer, and that's when he's likely to do his major business, and bring in some marquee players - assuming Blues secure
promotion.

At present, he is acting very pragmatically, trying to fashion a team and squad that will get Blues out of the Championship, then take stock and go on from there.

He called it short-termism in the video feature he did with me to mark his first anniversary in charge. But there are also long-term goals.

"I want to change the style, but it doesn't happen overnight," he remarked to me this week.

McLeish, without question, wants someone in the middle of the park who can unlock a defence, who can receive the ball and move the team forward, with the ball or by passing it.

Levan Tskitishvili was another short-term target he tried for a year ago, only to be thwarted by work permit issues. He's a similar type to Lopez. Sean Davis and Teemu Tainio came into the equation late on when money earmarked for Gary Cahill could be shifted elsewhere.

McLeish was offered other players but, not being 100 per cent sure they were right, ended up going what what he had left.

Keith Fahey (who didn't play against Cheltenham either) has been added to the mix, an exciting, ball-playing midfielder described to me as 'easily the best player in Ireland'
the other day by a respected scout.

Whether he is able to make an impact remains to be seen. McLeish is taking a bit of a punt on him, for £300,000, in truth, supplementing his other business and plans.

There have been plenty of trialists who have passed through the Wast Hills gates in recent weeks, and two more who played in the Cheltenham game will be named in tomorrow's Birmingham Mail. And no, Robbie Fowler (!) wasn't anywhere to be seen, nor was Seamus Coleman.

Robin Shroot, of Harrow Borough, impressed in that match and - dare one say it - he's more one for the future, should Blues proceed with his signature.

Someone should tell Preston that their play-off victory over Blues was in 2001 - seven years ago.

They're still glorying in it at Deepdale.

There was a re-run of the penalty shoot-out on the big screen at half-time, which brought more cheering from the home support - all 9,000 or so of them - than was heard during the game that they had actually come to watch!

The save from Marcelo's kick, Darren Purse hitting the post . . . hurrah!

And when the footage panned to TF in a huff in the dug outs, the decibel levels raised even further.

Now remind me, how did they get on in the final that season?

It struck me that Blues were a bit like Albion on Saturday. No, not exactly like them, but in some way.

One of the best Blues resources on the internet for information and, er, intelligent debate (about all sorts really) is www.smallheathalliance.com.

But I have to take issue one of the posters on the forum in regard to Damien Johnson, described as 'unprofessional' amongst other things for volunteering to take a place on the substitutes bench because of the injury crisis

Johnson has probably sparked more debate than any other recent Blues player, R***** S***** apart.

Like him, loathe him or just simply respect him, he has never intentionally let Blues down.

Yes when that switch flicks inside his head, he has got himself stupidly sent-off and he should never have lobbed the captain's armband and shirt away that time.

But he's no Big Time Charlie concerned about himself and raking in pots of cash.

He put himself forward, got on a plane to Exeter, the coach to Plymouth Argyle and then back again, knowing it was unlikely he would be used (he wasn't), but he wanted to be there for his team, his manager, his club.

He has trained for four weeks, hard, and was due to play in a private friendly last week but fell to the virus that is doing the rounds at Wast Hills.

If he had only just come out of the treatment room following back surgery, of course he wouldn't have been involved.

Johnson has limitations as a footballer. He's no technician. But it's about a balance of styles and attitudes; the manager's job is to mould his team so that it functions properly and has a bit of everything.

Johnson felt it, badly, when Blues were relegated. In 2006, he was like a man possessed trying to drag less enthusiastic team mates out of the mire.

I remember at the awards dinner, when he scooped the lot, he could barely conceal his distaste for some of the people he shared a dressing room with that season.

Johnson is happier with the kind of characters Alex McLeish has got around the place now.

He recognises kindred spirits, not so much in style and ability, but attitude and will to win and do well. I can't see what's so wrong with that.

Remember St Andrew's in the 'dark' ages? By that I mean the Ken Wheldon St Andrew's, on night games about as illuminated as a winter's afternoon in Finland.

Well, Home Park, Plymouth was pretty grim last night. It was a dank evening and the lights on the old Grandstand stand (circa 1940s) were dire.

Blues players complained that it contributed to a catalogue of miskicks and poor clearances. After Plymouth's first corner, Maik Taylor told referee Kevin Wright that he couldn't see the flight of the ball whatsoever.

Blues managed to repel eight corners in a fraught first-half; night vision goggles were sought from kit man Denis Butler at the interval apparently.

Alex McLeish was relatively sympathetic to their plight, but he certainly wasn't at the time when Plymouth pinned Blues back deep into their own territory.

He wore away the technical area stomping and stamping about in apoplectic fashion. Get a bloomin' grip is probably the nicest version of what he was shouting.

It was shabby from Blues but Plymouth did not capitalise and it's like that in the Championship. Every team has a dominant spell in every game; when Blues are in control, they usually make it count.

Plymouth recalled their player-of-the-year Krisztian Timar and record signing Simon Walton, giving them freshness and beef, and Rory Fallon put himself about to unsettle the unsteady defence.

Local scribes in the press box kept asking what was wrong with Birmingham, was this the best they could do, how many players were missing again etc? You could only shrug and suggest you'd seen it all before and let's see what had happened by the end . . . and then begin the Hail Mary's under your breath.

Sure enough Blues pulled themselves together and fought fire with fire. Quincy was like a relay sprinter powering down the back straight on the far left (the bright side) and
Blues at last began to ask questions of Plymouth's defence.

Maik Taylor was again in sharp, sound form. He has had a new lease of life since Dave Watson came in, unquestionably.

Even though Radhi Jaidi posted a contender for miss of the decade - three yards out, lashed as wide as high (maybe he should have headed it) - Blues had that steely, dangerous look about them.

Lee Carsley drilled in what turned out the only goal of the game, and Blues could have picked Plymouth off as the spaces opened up.

Another three points, a clean sheet for once - although Blues have defended far better before and not managed a shut-out - and off they went, leaving Plymouth, appropriately in their tangerine shirts, Tangoed Blues style.

On the subject of their kit, Plymouth decided not to play in their usual green shirts because they have had difficult in picking one another out before in night games because of those floodlights.

So they wore the away strip and if they didn't get Football League permission, then they are in trouble.

Football League regulation 35.1 states that each clubs' home kit shall be worn for all home matches during the season and no changes to these colours shall be permitted during the season.

Notwithstanding this, each club is authorised on one occasion per season to play a home match in an 'away' or 'alternative' strip.

There has been a precedent, at Blues funnily enough: in 1995 in the League Cup, Barry Fry's team took to St Andrew's wearing their third kit, a black-and-sliver striped number.

It was a blatant marketing ploy, and it brought them a slap on the wrists.

Next time it could be luminous jackets all round for the Pilgrims and carrots on the pre-match menu.

It was only natural, I suppose, to check and double-check the detail of Blues free admission offer to season ticket holders to the Wolves FA Cup game.

And what's all this '10 point pledge' stuff, the guarantee of a big screen, and free tickets for under-8s in the family stand?

This is Blues, right? Recently up for sale, recently relegated, where the customer care is measured by the regularity of the 'ker-ching' of the cash till.

Well, it does seem that even if it's not quite on the scale of a Damascus Road Conversion, there is change in the air at St Andrew's. And change for the better.

Blues have, as David Sullivan put it, lost their core support - the season ticket holders.

Since the last day of last season, when the confirmation of relegation was marked by anti-board protests and broken goals, there has been much introspection.

Remember Sullivan floated a request via these pages to find out why fans were unhappy and what could be done to get them on-side again? People didn't half let rip.

In fairness to the board and the senior management at the club, including the marketing and communications team, they have responded and realised a different outlook is
needed.

In my conversation with Sullivan about the 'New Year . . . New Start' campaign, he didn't bang on about by how much money the club was apparently overdrawn , he didn't moan
about fans not turning up, he didn't carp about quitting, he didn't slaughter players about performances or their wages. And believe me, he has in the past!

His tone was earnest and sincere; you sensed he genuinely wants the club to start over again in terms of working with fans - not least the season ticket holders, who have
suffered the thin end of the wedge too often - and implement policies to bring people back into the Blues 'family'.

Random thoughts post-Wolves . . .

* Not sure what game Mick McCarthy was watching, describing the first-half as about 'even'. There were enough doom merchants beforehand expecting Wolves to blow Blues away, but it was like men against boys in that opeing period. Blues dominated and should have been a couple of goals clear, at least.

* Nigel Quashie, I have to admit, has surprised me over time. He kept the ball brilliantly, I don't think he ever wasted or misplaced a pass. After so long out battling to save his career because of an ankle injury, I wondered if he had the mobility and sharpness, anything left in the tank. He's improving with every outing and he's one of those 'strong characters' we've talked about.

* James McFadden. Not interested, wants to be in the Premier League, look at his body language blah, blah, blah. These accusation are tiresome and need to be put to bed. Yes he skulks and sulks, but that's his way, he's as committed as anyone. He was a cut above in terms of ability. The pass with the outside of his foot that put Marcus Bent through was sublime. And what about when he chased down Michael Kightly after Mehdi Nafti was left trailing, won the ball then backheeled it behind Kightly to Nafti?