Match Report: Birmingham City 2-2 Swansea City
Tony Mowbray and Luke Williams shared the spoils in their first games in charge of Birmingham City and Swansea City.
Tony Mowbray and Luke Williams shared the spoils as they took to the dugout for the first time in charge of Birmingham City and Swansea City.
Williams’ side took the lead through Harry Darling against the run of play before Siriki Dembele quickly equalised. Jamal Lowe looked to have won the game until a late Jordan James strike gave Mowbray the last laugh.
Mowbray made three changes from the side that drew with Hull City in the FA Cup, John Ruddy, Ivan Sunjic and Scott Hogan returning to the XI with Neil Etheridge, Gary Gardner and Lukas Jutkiewicz benched. Tyler Roberts returned to the squad.
Blues started strongly and the press led to Scott Hogan bloodying the nose of Carl Rushworth as he stole possession from the keeper only for the bounce of the ball to go away from him.
Dembele was a constant threat down the left. He teed up Koji Miyoshi for a wayward strike then a 50-yard run and cross ended with an acrobatic Hogan effort. He forced a low stop from Rushworth and both he and Bielik had efforts blocked after Jay Stansfield dispossessed the shaky Bashir Humphreys.
The one area Blues were struggling was from set-pieces and Darling made Blues pay, escaping Sunjic with the help of Jay Fulton for a free header. Blues responded quickly, Hogan busy in attack and sending Dembele away to finish from a tight angle.
The winger ought to have had a brace within a minute of the second half when good pressure and an excellent Hogan flick left him one vs one only to fire straight at Rushworth.
That gave Swansea a boost. Darling had another free header that looped against the bar and Ruddy had to be sharp to deny Jamal Lowe low down. Lowe did get his goal, getting across Dion Sanderson at the near post to finish Josh Tymon’s cross.
The game died a death thereon. Swansea were happy to kill the game and Blues showed next-to-no quality, playing sidewards and backwards too often. And Jerry Yates almost made them pay.
Fortunately, Jordan James is in the best form of his career and after Juninho Bacuna fed him the ball, the Welsh wizard broke hearts in the away end, firing home from 25 yards into the bottom corner.
Both sides went for it as the seconds ticked down, Cody Drameh not quite able to get on the end of a cross while Joe Allen fluffed his lines in the box.
A score draw that could have been so much more with a more ruthless touch in the final third.
Lineups
Blues
Ruddy; Drameh Sanderson Long (Aiwu 85) Buchanan; Sunjic (JJ 65) Bielik; Stansfield (Bacuna 65) Miyoshi (Jutkiewicz 84) Dembele; Hogan (Roberts 65). Subs: Etheridge; Gardner Anderson Burke.
Swansea
Rushworth; Darling Wood Humphreys (Naughton 74) Tymon; Fulton Grimes; Parker (Allen 64) Cullen Paterson (Patino 84); Lowe (Yates 65). Subs: Fisher; Pedersen Ogbeta Bolasie Cooper.
Tactics
Both sides came into this in 4-2-3-1 shapes but different ways of utilising the ball.
Blues reverted largely back to the asymmetrical style that worked well under John Eustace with Buchanan and Sanderson showing either side of Long, Drameh and Dembele wide and Stansfield operating slightly inside and making outward runs into the channel.
Width was key to the attacking approach. Blues used the midfield two to draw on Swansea but the forward passes came from the back three. That included Sanderson and Buchanan opening up from inside and playing out to Drameh or Dembele out wide or switching play, often to Dembele. Occasionally, Blues did draw Swansea on and look to play direct in behind but this didn’t pay off despite space being available. That said, Stansfield was able to make runs into the right channel and exploit the space left by Tymon closing Drameh.
Swansea wanted Blues to play. Parker and Cullen were tasked with closing Buchanan and Sanderson while Paterson stepped up on Long. Lowe was supported by Grimes and the opposite winger in sitting on the midfield two and there were numerous occasions where they found themselves 4 vs 2 in the middle ready to pounce. Darling and Tymon, meanwhile, were sat on Drameh and Dembele ready to challenge once the ball was received making their retention important.
Blues did go long on numerous occasions and usually towards Darling but this seemed to be done with the plan of allowing him to win the first ball so Blues could win the second and Dembele could sneak away from his marker and Swansea’s most powerful defender.
Swansea typically wanted to play. They were quick to move towards a 3-2-5 shape with Parker and Tymon high and wide, almost uninvolved until the ball was in the final third. Cullen and Paterson tended to drop off into wide central positions to receive off the wide centre backs, who would take up full-back positions with Rushworth effectively at centre-back in build up with Nathan Wood.
While width was important because of the Blues press, Swansea’s aim where possible was to trust Grimes and Fulton with the ball, allowing them to get on the half turn and move the ball quickly. With Blues’ defence happy to drop off a couple of yards, it tended to give spade to Cullen and Paterson to receive in behind the midfield.
Blues pressed really well early doors. Stansfield and Dembele had clear instructions to close the wide centre-backs while cutting off the pass out wide, forcing the ball back inside where Hogan and Miyoshi could step up together, dovetailing in closing down Rushworth and Wood and cutting off the pass into midfield with Sunjic, usually, quick to support. The plan worked well down the left first half where Humphreys had numerous issues finding a team-mate and turning backwards.
Blues opted to defend corners in the same way they did under Wayne Rooney with blockers employed to stop the big men so Long and Sanderson could head clear in the six yard box. It didn’t work very well with Sunjic often blocked off when trying to stop Darling reaching the ball.
There were changes on 65 minutes that saw tweaks for both sides. Swansea moved to 4-3-3 with Cullen on the right, Paterson wide left and Grimes and Allen ahead of Fulton. Blues stayed in the same shape but shifted Miyoshi wide with JJ moving into the ‘10’ role.
Blues changed again late on with JJ moving to the right and Roberts sitting behind Jutkiewicz.
Blues same process defending set-pieces. Sanderson & Long on the six-yard box with others in as blockers. Swansea tried to exploit that by getting Darling round the back from the first set-piece.
A lot of long balls being hoisted towards Darling and Humphreys, based on us getting the seconds and Dembele being able to step off him while having another player on the other flank moving inside.
Sub: Miyoshi wide right. James as the 10.
Sub: Swansea 4-3-3. Paterson left. Cullen right. Allen & Grimes ahead of Fulton.
Players
Blues were more proactive, communicative and organised than under the previous management.
Long was excellent. He defended his box, won his headers and was generally effective. Buchanan barely put a foot wrong and Drameh had a good tussle down the right. Sanderson was fine but got it wrong for the second.
Bielik has had better days. He was far too slow to move the ball and had a tendency to kill attacks before they could get going. Sunjic was his typical self. Stansfield was bright but not the most effective. Dembele was a constant threat and Hogan full of beans up top. Tyler Roberts looked sluggish off the bench.
For Swansea, the midfield two were excellent, always showing and rarely losing it. Rushworth had a good game in goal, claiming everything that came into his box, and Harry Darling was a threat in our box. Parker didn’t look like a 17-year-old making his Championship debut. Bashir Humphreys found life tough.
Conclusions
It’s hard to draw conclusions from the first game of a managerial tenure, especially when the manager in question is expicit in that the way he wants to play isn’t the way we will play during his early tenure.
So, we have to strip this right back, just like Mowbray.
He effectively reverted to the approach John Eustace took. The structure and organisation was there and clear to all. We reverted back to 4-2-3-1 and kept the ball moving in wider areas rather than relying on players to take and keep the ball in the centre of the pitch. Buchanan and Sanderson fed the ball forward rather than cutting through the centre and we played off Hogan or looked for seconds from longer passes.
It felt like opening day, which also came against Swansea City. We concentrated on the basics and performed okay but lacked the confidence and concentration across 90 minutes to keep doing the right things, make the right decisions and respond to being behind a second time. Confidence was decimated under the previous management and it will take time to piece that back together.
We performed okay, all told. A bit of ruthlessness in the final third and we would have led or been ahead just after half-time. There were far more positives than negatives to take from this and hopefully Mowbray can restore confidence while picking up a couple of important results.