Match Report: Birmingham City 0-2 Hull City

Back-to-back defeats for Wayne Rooney's Birmingham City as boos rang out around St.Andrews

Goals from Liam Delap and Jaden Philogene were enough to end Birmingham City's unbeaten start at St.Andrews.

The match marked Wayne Rooney's first appearance in the home dugout but he was left to watch on as his former assistant Liam Rosenior walked away with the three points.

Rooney made three changes from the side he openly criticised after Saturday's loss against Middlesbrough, bringing Juninho Bacuna, Koji Miyoshi and Oliver Burke in for Ivan Sunjic, Gary Gardner and Scott Hogan.

The game started in open fashion. Siriki Dembele couldn't turn home Burke's low cross, Delap turned Dion Sanderson only to see his shot lack pace, Dembele had an effort blocked and Scott Twine curled over a free kick.

It was a little better from Blues compared to the weekend but disaster awaited. A long kick from John Ruddy was headed back to Emmanuel Longelo. Under a little bit of pressure, Longelo tried to play safe and return the ball to his goalkeeper, only Delap read a pass that was short, rounded Ruddy and put the ball into an empty net.

Bacuna responded positively, linking up with Miyoshi and curling over before volleying Burke's cut back over.

The rest of the half didn't go well. Hull could well have been awarded a penalty when Sanderson was caught leading to Delap finding Twine. The referee decided Ruddy didn't take the forward out. Blues were robbed of possession again leading to Philogene firing wide. Adama Traore (not that one) volleyed over a wide free-kick. Dembele did at least get a shot on target before the half was up.

Blues came out positively in the second half with Bacuna, Dembele and Miyoshi all having efforts blocked. Normal service resumed when Blues messed up a short corner routine, fortunate that Philogene and Delap fluffed their lines ten seconds later.

Sanderson and Long were caught leading to Philogene hitting the side netting. Burke fired over. Delap forced a save from Ruddy from distance and then things petered out, a Sean McLoughlin header on target aside.

That was until 15 minutes to go anyway. Philogene had been allowed to go 1v1 with Cody Drameh on too many occasions and was bound to win one eventually, cutting inside and firing in from 20 yards. Too easy.

Nothing else happened. Hull were able to see the game out with the closest either side came to a result being speculative efforts from substitutes Jason Lokilo and teenage debutant Romelle Donovan.


Lineups

Blues

Ruddy; Drameh Sanderson Long Longelo; Bacuna Bielik (James 70) Miyoshi (Gardner 70); Burke (Donovan 83) Stansfield (Jutkiewicz 59) Dembele. Unused: Etheridge; Roberts Aiwu Sunjic Hogan.

Hull

Allsop; Coyle Jones McLaughlin Greaves; Seri Morton (Lokilo 75); Twine Traore (Doherty 62) Philogene (Christie 87); Delap. Unused: Ingram; Vinagre Tufan Vaughan Sinik Connolly.


Tactics

This one isn't easy.

Let's start with Hull. They were a 4-2-3-1 nominally but transitioned to a 3-2-4-1 in possession.

Greaves would tuck inside from left-back. Lewie Coyle and Jaden Philogene would stand on the touchline. Adama Traore and Scott Twine would pick up half spaces either side of Krystian Bielik with Liam Delap leading the line.

They had two primary avenues of getting out. The first was through Greaves, who had Philogene showing on the touchline, Traore dropping off and Delap moving into the channel, predominantly. Sanderson was being tasked with stepping onto Traore, so the deeper he dropped, the more space opened up for Delap. The other was finding the pass into Michael Seri and James Morton, who would play short and sharp and find Scott Twine, who could then turn out or infield.

Blues' press was a little more coordinated than Saturday. Stansfield was tasked with McLoughlin. Dembele and Burke would be responsible for cutting the pass from the wide centre-back out wide. Bacuna and Miyoshi would step onto Seri and Morton. Full-backs were responsible for wing-backs. That left Sanderson, Bielik and Long vs Twine, Traore and Delap. When Traore dropped, Sanderson would step out. When Twine dropped, Bielik or Long would.

Unfortunately, for the most part, we didn't switch onto the pressing triggers which meant Hull constantly had an out. And as the game wore on, our press got worse and worse. Confidence sapped and we simply stopped bothering to step up. Unlike this group.

As for Blues...

It was different. A lot of changes, in truth and I did find it difficult to work out exactly who was supposed to be doing what.

From the back, it seemed to be 2-3-5 again. However, Drameh was stepping into a midfield position rather than staying high and wide like Saturday. Burke was the man that provided the width. Bielik always showed in the centre. The rest was pretty rotational, which if by design, isn't a bad thing.

The third player to drop in was a mix of Miyoshi, Bacuna and Longelo, the latter tucking inside from full-back. Bacuna and Stansfield would switch in regards to who would drop into a half space on the right to receive the pass outside of Drameh. The other would stay central and occupy. If Miyoshi dropped in, Longelo would provide the width and Dembele would stay inside. If Longelo dropped in, Miyoshi would take a half space and Dembele would provide the width.

Hull's pressure was reminiscent of Eustace's press in charge of Blues - a 4-2-4. Traore and Delap would sit off and block the pass into midfield before stepping onto Long and Sanderson. Philogene and Twine would sit on the full-backs. Once the press started, Seri and Morton would step onto their men. Coyle was responsible for Dembele, Greaves v Burke and Jones and McLoughlin vs whichever two had stepped forward.

Blues had a clear in early doors. The pass to Bacuna or Stansfield who would be met with a swift ball in behind Greaves to find the run of Burke, who would deliver early into the box where Dembele and one other would be nearby. Hull managed to snuff this out by being more aggressive out of possession, McLoughlin often tasked with stepping up.

Afterwards, Blues had to find something else. A moment of brilliance under pressure after the pass had been forced through, but those moments were rare. Ruddy went longer because of Hull pressure. Players hid a little more, lacking confidence in the roles they had. The lack of positioning across the pitch meant players were unsure of their next pass, which made it more difficult for the game to flow.


Players

Difficult to say. Many of them simply don't look comfortable with what they're being asked, so it became about moments for many.

Bacuna played a couple of lovely sweeping passes and had six efforts at goal, but was also erratic at times. Dembele and Longelo were occasionally bright motoring forward but decision making wasn't their strong point. Miyoshi was tidy but became uninvolved.

I thought Drameh did well up against Philogene but the battle commenced so many times that he was always going to be beaten eventually. Long and Sanderson never really looked comfortable, particularly when stepping onto the attacking midfielder, but also posted 90% pass completion rates from 60+ passes, which can't be a bad thing going forward.

For Hull, their entire defensive unit were excellent. They just never gave the ball away, even under tight pressure. McLoughlin, Seri and Morton were superb in how they beat any attempted Blues press and then found the forward pass. Philogene struggled against Drameh at times but never gave up the ghost and got his reward.


Conclusions

This was better than Saturday. There was more energy and zip about our play in moments. We looked more coordinated. We at least tried to lay a glove on our opponents.

It still wasn't good enough.

The players looked confused. And after bright starts in both halves, Hull took control and confidence drained. Players weren't sure of their next move in possession. Some started going it alone. Some started hiding.

My big concern is that it doesn't get easier. We visit pass masters Southampton next. Then it's a ruthless Ipswich side. Then it's Sunderland before the international break. It's not inconceivable that if players don't pick things up, we could lose Rooney's first five games in charge.

After the international break, we play Sheffield Wednesday at home, followed by Blackburn Rovers away and Rotherham United at home. If we don't get a result over these next three games, there is going to be huge pressure from fans to get results in what all of a sudden will like pivotal games.

Rooney's first game at home was met with audible boos at half time and full time. That's how quickly things have turned. The expectations set by the board with this change, along with talk of world class appointments etc. has decreased the tolerance levels for poor performances. And while I'm loathe to compare the situations, every fan will have the Rowett-Zola scenario in their heads watching this, hoping we aren't about to go through the exact same thing.

I have to remind myself that this is only two games. No manager should be judged on two games. I haven't listened to the full interview but I've seen the quotes from Rooney discussing whether things are too complicated for the players and the players acknowledging that they are. He's been very naive to date and maybe this is the positive man management side we've heard spoken of. Maybe we will see some adaptation in order to see this process through more gradually.

Here's the thing. This isn't a bad squad. It's not a squad incapable of playing decent football. And the work ethic is there. But most of these players haven't played regular football across their careers or in recent seasons. Many have made their name playing a simpler style. Our academy prospects haven't played elite academy football. To play this open, expansive, high pressing, high possession style of football with fluid positions that is being asked, time and coaching will be needed, as well as recruitment. They've had two weeks of it so far.

Rooney can't abandon his principles. He has to see it through. But that also doesn't mean he can't make adaptations to make it easier on the players, providing more structure and simpler messages early doors and feeding new information through bit by bit as confidence increases.

Onto Southampton we go.