Match Report: Birmingham City 0-0 Rotherham United
A bore draw against relegation favourites means Blues have picked up 5 points from 24 under Wayne Rooney.
Birmingham City and Rotherham United played out a pitiful goalless draw at St.Andrews on Saturday afternoon.
In a game where little happened, it was the visitors that created the better chances but captain Ollie Rathbone and experienced forward Jordan Hugill couldn’t find the net.
Rooney made three changes to the side that lost 4-2 in midweek, recalling Ethan Laird, Koji Miyoshi and Oliver Burke to the starting XI in place of Cody Drameh, Jordan James and Lukas Jutkiewicz, reverting to the same XI that beat Sheffield Wednesday.
Blues did start the better side with Jay Stansfield forcing a low stop from Viktor Johansson while Dion Sanderson volleyed a corner into a Rotherham man having been unmarked. Otherwise, this became a frustrating afternoon for freezing cold supporters who were treated to very little quality.
Sam Nombe was denied by a brilliant John Ruddy save low down having gotten the better of Sanderson and he came close again, only to be blocked at the near post. Siriki Dembele fired over and Blues got two potential breaks from corner kicks wrong, Juninho Bacuna and Dembele overhitting their passes. Rotherham hit the bar, meanwhile, after Nombe beat Ruddy to a cross.
The second half was livelier in terms of chances but a lack of quality was obvious. Like in midweek, Blues came out of the traps slowly and ought to have been punished when Emmanuel Aiwu’s needless and short backpass let Rathbone in only for the midfielder to hit the only part of the goal blocked by the retreating Sanderson. Nombe then fired wide twice, first after some good work cutting inside from the left and the second after Daniel Ayala won a header from a long ball under no pressure.
Blues’ first decent move of the half ended with Jay Stansfield shanking wide and things turned end-to-end after Rotherham made a bold substitution, perhaps realising they had a chance.
A moment of brilliance from Dembele saw Drameh fire on target before Jutkiewicz volleyed over. Nombe was then played in behind from the right and denied by Ruddy before Dembele and Miyoshi linked to set up Stansfield who again fluffed his lines. Hakeem Odoffin failed to connect with a right-wing cross having been left alone in the box and from the other wing, Seb Revan found Hugill who headed just past the woodwork.
Jutkiewicz saw a goal disallowed correctly for offside before Ruddy was tested by Odoffin, who was clearly enjoying a more advanced role having started the game at centre-back. Blues broke quickly down the other end and Bielik struck straight at Johansson.
The game quietened down from there. Neither side could muster the energy or quality for one last chance and the final whistle blew to end a waste of 90+ minutes.
Lineups
Blues
Ruddy; Laird (Drameh 26) Aiwu Sanderson Buchanan; Miyoshi Bielik Bacuna (James 60) Dembele; Stansfield Burke (Jutkiewicz 60). Unused: Etheridge; Roberts Sunjic Gardner Donovan Hogan.
Rotherham United
Johansson; Peltier (Hugill 72) Ayala Odoffin Bramall; Appiah (Lembisaka 58) Rahtbone Tiehi Lindsay (Morrison 72) Revan; Nombe. Unused: Phillips; Hall McGuckin Kelly Eaves.
Tactics
This will be one of the shorter tactical reports given that it was pretty uninspired from all involved.
Blues again lined up in a 4-4-2 shape with Bacuna in central midfield and Miyoshi back out on the right. Meanwhile Rotherham lined up 4-2-3-1 with left-back Cohen Bramall in a more advanced role.
Blues moved to their usual three-at-the-back in possession with Buchanan stepping inside, Aiwu pushing towards the right and Laird stepping on. Unlike normal, Bacuna was tasked with playing slightly further ahead of Bielik at times leaving Blues playing more 3-1-4-2 as opposed to 3-4-2-1. Jamie Lindsay was marking Bacuna and the idea was clearly to keep him pinned back.
With Arvin Appiah up against Lee Buchanan, Rathbone and Nombe found themselves 2v3 against Sanderson, Bielik and Aiwu and the plan was seemingly to draw Rathbone or Nombe on, find Aiwu on the right and play forward from there. Blues did find a way out of this on numerous occasions in the first half.
The problem arose when the forward pass was made. Laird and Drameh were quickly snuffed out by Bramall which ensured they couldn’t run forward. When the forward pass was made, by whichever player, it often came after the individual had taken too many touches or the forward receiving the pass simply wasn’t strong enough in their duel to keep hold of it. Blues wasted passes time and again.
Rotherham were happy for the ball to either be funnelled out wide to the right where they had the pace to deal with things or into the centre where they had bodies on the front foot ready to nick the ball. We played into their hands.
For Rotherham, they didn’t too much deep play and were instead happy to play forward at every opportunity. It wasn’t direct in terms of playing towards a target and winning seconds but more about opening the pitch and finding the runner. Width was key to everything they did, looking for the full-back and winger to make moves then switch out to the other flank within a pass or two.
The main problem Blues were caused was that Sanderson was tasked with Nombe so whenever he made the run out wide, Sanderson would be dragged out and it would leave Aiwu alone to man the box with the Millers looking to play the cross as soon as possible.
Rotherham made a change with 20 to go that saw several changes. Sean Morrison came on at centre-back and Hugill up front. Odoffin moved from centre-back to central midfield. Lembisaka moved from right-wing to right-back. Nombe moved from striker to right-wing.
Conclusions
A very, very frustrating afternoon.
It’s a difficult one. Teams sometimes have bad games. It felt quite quickly like the energy and zip that we saw at times on Wednesday night was lacking. It could be the weather, it could be an awkward bounce on the pitch given the conditions, it could be a bit of tiredness, it could be that the players didn’t fancy it. Whatever the reason, it looked terrible.
There were too many frustrating parts of our play. Players not taking responsibility with the ball, the Aiwu gift to Rathbone one instant and another when Bielik had 30 yards of space to move towards and decided to try and play Stansfield, marked by two players, in behind. Bielik and Bacuna took far too many touches with the ball and stopped us playing with any momentum. We occasionally whacked long balls down the pitch for Stansfield to challenge aerially against giant centre-halves. Miyoshi, Stansfield and Dembele had trouble holding onto the ball under pressure, constantly overpowered. And as for Oli Burke, the less said the better.
And it’s not as if it was a poor performance but one in which we still exerted a level of control on the game through our off-ball work. We lacked intensity in our press and in duels. Too often, we lost possession and looked vulnerable until the realisation hit that Rotherham had a half-fit winger and full-back as their wide threats – a better team would have exploited us badly. We gifted the only big chance of the 90 minutes, our goalkeeper and centre-halves looked shaky again and for the 8th game in 8 under Rooney, we lost the xG battle.
The positives? We kept a clean sheet for the first time under our manager. Sure, we probably should have conceded, but the 0 is a positive. And Jordan James came on with a purpose and probably deserves the Man of the Match award he received for his half hour cameo.
I don’t think Rooney was wrong in his assessment of the game. We weren’t “really good” first 20 but we did start okay and moved the ball well. And we definitely did stop doing what was working early doors, “taking our foot off the pedal”, “lack of care” and “got complacent and sloppy”.
However, his post-match comments about players making the right decisions were interesting.
Rooney talks game management, players making the right decisions and that we don’t look comfortable. But he’s expecting that from an ever-increasingly young team that have already played five different styles of football under a man that has taken charge of eight games.
For players to make the “right” decisions, they need to know what the right decisions are based on the job you’re being asked to carry out. What have the players been taught to do in each scenario? When things are going wrong, what are the decisions players should look to take to simplify things and give themselves a foothold in the game? Factor in results and fan pressure and it’s little wonder that players are going back into their shells or are unsure of what the right decision is.
I’m not personally sure what the basic and core principles of a Wayne Rooney team are supposed to look like. Do the players know what they are? Again, I’m not sure they do.
Now, I don’t have a problem with that as such given Rooney has been employed mid-season, has new coaching staff on his books compared to previous jobs and hasn’t had a pre-season to implement what he wants to do. It takes time to learn. And Rooney, to his credit, is insistent that they will learn.
But it’s hard not to feel a little queezy about his brutal post-match assessments in which he’s comfortable passing the buck to the players rather than taking it on himself early doors as he puts things together.
And again, January isn’t likely to be the golden goose we’re crying out for. Funds are apparently limited by FFP, we’re going to struggle to offload ageing players on big money unless we pay the majority of their remaining wages and fees and a bloke who keeps talking about fitness levels will be signing guys who, most likely, are unwanted and cheap because that’s who you sign in January.
The players aren’t blameless. But neither is the manager. And fans, who were already nervous about the change, are even more concerned now, especially with three tough away trips coming up, a home game against the leaders and the bottom three starting to pick up points.