BFTG Birmingham

[Ian Royal]

Gunter looks so much better when his first movement is forwards rather than stop and go backwards or sideways.

That was a frustration all evening for me. The full backs seemed to gather the ball in decent areas and instead of pushing forward, they went sideways or backwards which killed any momentum when the opportunity looked there to stretch them. Obita was particularly culpable. The centre backs were pushed wide enough that they could cover.

Gunter does virtually nothing except for this in the first two thirds of the pitch, unless it's a hopeful long ball. We need people who look for the quick positive move, not check back and bottle it every time there's a hint of pressure.

[Ian Royal]

With a striker in form we'd be pushing the automatics ATM.

Sorry, what?

Just further compounding the notion that you are in fact mental.

So with a striker in hot form, we wouldn't be one point better off (the play-offs)
or 2-3 points better off (14 points, one behind the automatics)?

I don't for a second think we have a chance in hell of competing with the likes of Newcastle,
and I don't think we'll make the POs, either, but currently, facts are facts. We DON'T have a red-hot
striker in form, we AREN'T scoring goals despite the possession stats, and it is perfectly logical to imagine
(even it was temporary and a false dawn) that if we had someone doing really well goal-wise, we would be
"pushing the automatics".

Or are you saying if we had a Long or a Doyle or a Kitson at their best, we would NOT be comfortably in the PO positions and pressing 14-15 points?

So you should have said, we'd currently be pushing the automatic places, at a time position is irrelevant, but would never be able to sustain it across the season.

Horrah, you both agree in the long run.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

You don't think Alfie would have got on the end of 2-3-4 of those flicks?

You don't think Kermie could have headed forward for Long on a run?

God knows why the wingers aren't in there picking up the pieces,
maybe cos they are wingers, but they don't look like they are gambling
on the flicks, and there are plenty of them. kermis wins almost every header.

I'd like to see Harriot have a go on the wing and maybe McCleary at ten if Swift isn't there.

Of course, but that's not the point and you know it

We're a 1-up front team under Stam, so dreaming of having extra strikers on the pitch is pointless. My point was swapping Kermie with a top class striker will make very little difference unless the team attacks more and actually creates chances for our (only) front man

[No Fixed Abode]

You've got to hand it to Stam so far.

10th in the table after his first 7 games in charge. Looks to have a established a solid foundation on which to build on for the rest of the season.

[Ian Royal]

You don't think Alfie would have got on the end of 2-3-4 of those flicks?

You don't think Kermie could have headed forward for Long on a run?

God knows why the wingers aren't in there picking up the pieces,
maybe cos they are wingers, but they don't look like they are gambling
on the flicks, and there are plenty of them. kermis wins almost every header.

I'd like to see Harriot have a go on the wing and maybe McCleary at ten if Swift isn't there.

Of course, but that's not the point and you know it

We're a 1-up front team under Stam, so dreaming of having extra strikers on the pitch is pointless. My point was swapping Kermie with a top class striker will make very little difference unless the team attacks more and actually creates chances for our (only) front man

Glad someone said it.

Personally, I think we should wait through the first ten games patiently to see where we are in the table when it has meaning. And then measure the next 10 against the first. If we're creating better chances, attacking with more tempo and purpose and scoring more in game 11 to 20, then there's a clear plan that's working. If we've got the same problems with no sign of improvement, then that's an issue.

[paultheroyal]

You've got to hand it to Stam so far.

10th in the table after his first 7 games in charge. Looks to have a established a solid foundation on which to build on for the rest of the season.

Your most accurate post EVER!

Well done. See, you can do it Kes.

[genome]

You've got to hand it to Stam so far.

10th in the table after his first 7 games in charge. Looks to have a established a solid foundation on which to build on for the rest of the season.

Are you ill?

[Brum Royal]

5th game of the season for me (Plymouth, Wolves, MK, Ipswich and last night) and probably the best performance of the five and most fluid up to the edge of their 18 yard box, after that we struggled to fashion a really clear cut opportunity. The Stam style is improving game by game in my eyes, the passing was more mobile and with a more obvious intention against Blues than it was against Ipswich - when we shuffled it across the back, it was a) quicker and b) with the idea to either switch wings or wait for an option to open up in the midfield. This is what we want to see, and to be fair, the crowd went with it last night.

The final third was a little disappointing, and as others have said for all the dominance we had in terms of territory (for long periods of the second half there were 21 players in the Blues half) we should have created/scored more than we did. However, we looked much more solid and less nervy on the ball at the back and as mentioned above we showed an idea of what we were trying to achieve. This is progress in my opinion. If we keep doing that the goals will come, but the fact we're not giving away as much in dangerous positions (like at the Molineux) gives us a more stable foundation to build from going forwards in the season.

That said, some of the less positive notes from last night:
Williams - not one of his better evenings I didn't think, a very slow start, lost possession quite frequently, and although he grew into the game I think he should have gone off at half time for Swift, but with an improved second half performance admittedly.
G Mac - lots of ball and link up play with Gunter, didn't get the job done with his crosses despite creating some good positions for himself with some good skill
Crossing generally - we put only one really good cross in last night, a first half effort from Obita whipped in along the 6 yard line crying out to have someone flying in on it
Corners - similar to the crossing comment, for all the corners we had I thought we only really put one really decent on in - a second half one with some real pace. The floaty corners for the other 11 or so we had were more easily dealt with and didn't really threaten.
Numbers in the box - linked to the crossing is the number of players we get into the box. 433 is fine, but it needs more support from the wingers or centre mids to get more bodies in the box for the crosses to be aimed at - we were putting crosses in last night with only Kermit or Kermit + 1 to aim for, up against at least 3 if not 4 Blues defenders. An extra man or two makes the defenders jobs that much more difficult.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how we're developing, and if we continue to progress I think we can become a decent team in this division. We've had a tough start, and 11 points and 10th place from our opening 7 games is a decent return and probably a bit better than we expected at this stage given the complete change of style and personnel over the summer. Barnsley, Brighton and Huddersfield is another strong set of fixtures next week so hopefully we can continue our progress through them ahead of what looks to be a slightly more favourable set of fixtures in October and November.

[Maneki Neko]

You don't think Alfie would have got on the end of 2-3-4 of those flicks?

You don't think Kermie could have headed forward for Long on a run?

God knows why the wingers aren't in there picking up the pieces,
maybe cos they are wingers, but they don't look like they are gambling
on the flicks, and there are plenty of them. kermis wins almost every header.

I'd like to see Harriot have a go on the wing and maybe McCleary at ten if Swift isn't there.

Of course, but that's not the point and you know it

We're a 1-up front team under Stam, so dreaming of having extra strikers on the pitch is pointless. My point was swapping Kermie with a top class striker will make very little difference unless the team attacks more and actually creates chances for our (only) front man

pretty sure wed play differently if we had a different striker

[CountryRoyal]

You don't think Alfie would have got on the end of 2-3-4 of those flicks?

You don't think Kermie could have headed forward for Long on a run?

God knows why the wingers aren't in there picking up the pieces,
maybe cos they are wingers, but they don't look like they are gambling
on the flicks, and there are plenty of them. kermis wins almost every header.

I'd like to see Harriot have a go on the wing and maybe McCleary at ten if Swift isn't there.

Of course, but that's not the point and you know it

We're a 1-up front team under Stam, so dreaming of having extra strikers on the pitch is pointless. My point was swapping Kermie with a top class striker will make very little difference unless the team attacks more and actually creates chances for our (only) front man

Glad someone said it.

Personally, I think we should wait through the first ten games patiently to see where we are in the table when it has meaning. And then measure the next 10 against the first. If we're creating better chances, attacking with more tempo and purpose and scoring more in game 11 to 20, then there's a clear plan that's working. If we've got the same problems with no sign of improvement, then that's an issue.

+1 to everything above and everything else that generally disagrees with Snowbellend's narrative.

My point wasn't that good striker that scored us goals wouldn't propel us up the table - that's just silly. But that a good striker (with the way we play offensively at the moment) wouldn't necessarily score goals anyway.

It's fukking simple stuff really but obviously beyond that of "Oh I'm a writer" Noballs. Ftr one of my mates from uni is a freelance writer now and he was an absolute retard. A profession which holds as much modern esteem as being a P.E teacher. I'm sure you're used to drowning your sorrows on every one of your boring, self-loathing filled nights.

Maybe you could try blogging?

[savage 4 england]

Glad we look hard to beat, while we play a new a style of football.

It means we won't hit the panic button and we can see this through.

[genome]

5th game of the season for me (Plymouth, Wolves, MK, Ipswich and last night) and probably the best performance of the five and most fluid up to the edge of their 18 yard box, after that we struggled to fashion a really clear cut opportunity. The Stam style is improving game by game in my eyes, the passing was more mobile and with a more obvious intention against Blues than it was against Ipswich - when we shuffled it across the back, it was a) quicker and b) with the idea to either switch wings or wait for an option to open up in the midfield. This is what we want to see, and to be fair, the crowd went with it last night.

The final third was a little disappointing, and as others have said for all the dominance we had in terms of territory (for long periods of the second half there were 21 players in the Blues half) we should have created/scored more than we did. However, we looked much more solid and less nervy on the ball at the back and as mentioned above we showed an idea of what we were trying to achieve. This is progress in my opinion. If we keep doing that the goals will come, but the fact we're not giving away as much in dangerous positions (like at the Molineux) gives us a more stable foundation to build from going forwards in the season.

That said, some of the less positive notes from last night:
Williams - not one of his better evenings I didn't think, a very slow start, lost possession quite frequently, and although he grew into the game I think he should have gone off at half time for Swift, but with an improved second half performance admittedly.
G Mac - lots of ball and link up play with Gunter, didn't get the job done with his crosses despite creating some good positions for himself with some good skill
Crossing generally - we put only one really good cross in last night, a first half effort from Obita whipped in along the 6 yard line crying out to have someone flying in on it
Corners - similar to the crossing comment, for all the corners we had I thought we only really put one really decent on in - a second half one with some real pace. The floaty corners for the other 11 or so we had were more easily dealt with and didn't really threaten.
Numbers in the box - linked to the crossing is the number of players we get into the box. 433 is fine, but it needs more support from the wingers or centre mids to get more bodies in the box for the crosses to be aimed at - we were putting crosses in last night with only Kermit or Kermit + 1 to aim for, up against at least 3 if not 4 Blues defenders. An extra man or two makes the defenders jobs that much more difficult.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how we're developing, and if we continue to progress I think we can become a decent team in this division. We've had a tough start, and 11 points and 10th place from our opening 7 games is a decent return and probably a bit better than we expected at this stage given the complete change of style and personnel over the summer. Barnsley, Brighton and Huddersfield is another strong set of fixtures next week so hopefully we can continue our progress through them ahead of what looks to be a slightly more favourable set of fixtures in October and November.

Sums my feelings up perfectly

[ladida_gunner_graham]

[McCleary]made some mistakes,(agree on the floaty nonsense) but pretty much won every one of our twelve corners, and delivered most of our crosses. and along with beerens was our only attacking threat.

It's not limited to the floaty nonsense. It was also not seeing Gunter's runs when better placed to cross, over hitting straight-forward crosses for a goal kick, failing to clear the first man on crosses, carelessly losing the ball when played into his feet and relinquishing possession equally carelessly. And I'd like to see how many of the corners he did win was due to failed crosses being cleared.....not a total positive that.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

[McCleary]made some mistakes,(agree on the floaty nonsense) but pretty much won every one of our twelve corners, and delivered most of our crosses. and along with beerens was our only attacking threat.

It's not limited to the floaty nonsense. It was also not seeing Gunter's runs when better placed to cross, over hitting straight-forward crosses for a goal kick, failing to clear the first man on crosses, carelessly losing the ball when played into his feet and relinquishing possession equally carelessly. And I'd like to see how many of the corners he did win was due to failed crosses being cleared.....not a total positive that.

I think he's a shadow of his former self unfortunately. Not quite the pace he once had which puts more emphasis on technique and that was pretty poor last night. On top of that he just doesn't have the instinct to get maybe 10 goals from that position. The Obita cross that was mentioned earlier was perfect for the right winger to arrive in the box and score but McCleary was best part of 30 yards away from it.
Beerens is quite similar in terms of goal scoring although it's early days to judge him. It will be interesting to see if Stam sticks with wingers or plays the likes of Mendes and Samuel down the sides in order to get more goals from the team. Harriett also looks very promising from the glimpses we've seen so far.

[Winston Smith]

McCleary > Gunter so I can see why it looked like he missed the overlap when in fact it may have been that he just preferred to keep it himself. after 10 floaty crosses to no one you would think he would start varying it a bit more though.

[genome]

I think within 2 minutes of coming on Harriott picked the ball up and ran at Brum's defence which put them on the backfoot. It's exactly what we needed to do more of, shame he didn't see much more of the ball.

[Ascotexgunner]

I thought last night we were ok. Didn't think it was exceptional. We are heading in the right direction though.
I have no gripes about our delivery into the box, we put some really decent crosses In......its just no one is ever on the end of them, which is mega frustrating.
Maybe its me but we do prod and probe and like to pass the ball on the ground with this new style...which is great), but our pitch just slows it down as the ball seems to bobble so much the players have to be really extra careful with the first touch.
Overall Im happy with the progress, Brum are a decent team and you cant argue with the fact we are unbeaten in 4 which after the last few seasons is almost new territory (cant remember if we managed that last season at the start).

[Ascotexgunner]

I think within 2 minutes of coming on Harriott picked the ball up and ran at Brum's defence which put them on the backfoot. It's exactly what we needed to do more of, shame he didn't see much more of the ball.

Agree with that, remInds me of an Ian Wright kind of player, wonder if you could play him in that kind of role instead of pushing him out wide.

[genome]

BTW Al-Habsi got out of jail a bit last night. He dropped it twice only for the Birmingham player to fluff the rebound. I think one of them was offside anyway but it was classic Ali.

[Sutekh]

I think within 2 minutes of coming on Harriott picked the ball up and ran at Brum's defence which put them on the backfoot. It's exactly what we needed to do more of, shame he didn't see much more of the ball.

Agree with that, remInds me of an Ian Wright kind of player, wonder if you could play him in that kind of role instead of pushing him out wide.

It would help though if he got more than a handful of minutes game time.... give him half an hour, would have been ideal last night given McCleary's exhausting playing and travelling schedule over the last week.