Match Report: Birmingham City 2-3 Leicester City

Blues fought bravely but were undone by ruthless league leaders Leicester.

Jordan James’ brace wasn’t enough to secure a point for Birmingham City against league leaders Leicester City.

Two ruthless counter attacks, finished by Stephy Mavididi and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, either side of an excellent James finish gave the visitors at half-time.

Mavididi added a third shortly after the break following another sharp move. James reduced the deficit with 15 to go but Blues couldn’t complete the turnaround.

Wayne unsurprisingly went for an unchanged XI following the win at Cardiff City last Wednesday with the only change to the 20 seeing Oli Burke return in place of teenager Brandon Khela.

Despite the odds stacked against them, Blues started the better, James testing Hermansen’s handling from distance and his reflexes were tested by Siriki Dembele and Krystian Bielik. The latter resulted in a corner that led to James Justin crashing one against his own post.

The ball pinged to the edge of the area and James tried to move the ball out wide. Mavididi blocked the pass and within seconds, he had run to the other end of the pitch to dink Ruddy and celebrate in front of the Tilton.

In recent weeks, Blues would have wilted. However, Dembele showed quick feet to step inside and his attempted 1-2 with Ivan Sunjic ended up at the feet of James who side stepped his man and rolled the ball right into the far corner.

Blues continued in the ascendancy until Juninho Bacuna lost possession on the edge of the Leicester box. Abdul Fatawu, who assisted the first, darted away from Bacuna and Lee Buchanan before playing in Dewsbury-Hall, who sped away from Marc Roberts and Dion Sanderson before rounding Ruddy. Ruthless.

The visitors took control thereon. Blues continued to stay high but Leicester kept their cool and found a way out via the left-hand side. Chances were limited, however. Dewsbury-Hall turned Bielik in the area to find Patson Daka, who couldn’t turn home and Daka then found Mavididi, who struck wide.

Blues needed a response and the second half but it didn’t come. Within five minutes, Bielik was surrounded and loose, giving Leicester another opportunity to break. They swept the ball out to the left where Mavididi again got the better of Emmanuel Aiwu and finished.

It almost got worse a moment later when Fatawu beat Buchanan and shot wide.

Blues needed something to give people a lift and they got it when a set-piece delivery was almost turned into his own net by Dewsbury-Hall. That, and Fatawu taking out Buchanan at knee height. What followed was half hour of a more aggressive Blues backed by those in the stands.

Leicester did producer he next big moment, Dewsbury-Hall again finding Daka who couldn’t find the target, but it was Blues who scored. Bacuna switched play to Miyoshi and he quickly upped the tempo. His loose pass found James who showed excellent feet to beat Ricardo Pereira and his shot deflected over Hermansen.

Blues huffed and puffed but couldn’t produce the telling moment, Oli Burke’s cross for Scott Hogan being cut out by Wout Faes the closest they came. Fatawu almost made it a hat-trick of assists only got Tom Cannon to blaze over and Cesare Casadei ought to have finished the game late on.

A brave Blues performance but no points as ruthless Leicester continue their march towards the Championship title.

Lineups

Blues

Ruddy; Aiwu (Jutkiewicz 86) Roberts Sanderson Buchanan; Dembele (Donovan 72) JJ Bielik (Miyoshi 72) Sunjic Bacuna (Hogan 81); Stansfield (Burke 72). Unused: Etheridge; Oakley Longelo Gardner.

Leicester

Hermansen; Faes Vestergaard Justin (Souttar 89); Pereira Winks; Fatawu Ndidi (Casadei 89) KDH Mavididi (Choudhury 71); Daka (Cannon 78). Unused: Stolarczyk Ward; Coady Nelson Iheanacho

Tactics

Leicester did much of the running here with the ball. They set up in a 3-2-4-1 shape with Pereira stationed alongside Winks in midfield.

In deep possession, Vestergaard would receive centrally with Faes moving to right-back, Justin at left-back and Pereira and Winks in front. Fatawu and Mavididi would host width with Dewsbury-Hall and Ndidi either side of Daka.

Initially, they wanted to play more centrally. They tried to keep Winks and Pereira involved, Justin was coming inside and Vestergaard was taking his time moving the ball, which was allowing Stansfield and Sunjic to close down quickly and force the error.

Blues had lined with a bank of five behind Stansfield, waiting for the pass into the middle before pouncing. The back four were then man-to-man, leaving the man on the opposite flank free. If the forward pass was made, a defender would step out.

Leicester worked this out. They started moving the ball quicker in the defensive third, for starters. They were sharper with the forward pass and Mavididi and Dewsbury-Hall were having success up against Aiwu and Roberts to escape and play forward. The pair dovetailed nicely and stretched Blues’ defence. On the other flank, when utilised, Fatawu was up and down against Buchanan but had enough success to make it work.

It took a poor challenge from Fatawu and a change of personnel for Leicester (confirmation of that below) to give Blues a chance to get on top again with the ball moving a little slower and Blues more aggressive in the challenge against the forward pass.

Blues in possession tried to do similar. Buchanan would be tasked to push on down the left with Dembele wide right. Sanderson and Aiwu would flank Roberts with Bielik in the middle and Sunjic slightly to the left. James would sit just ahead in a false-right position with Dembele wide right and Bacuna stepping infield.

Leicester’s plan to respond to this was to go man-for-man across the pitch, pretty much. Daka vs Roberts. Ndidi vs Sanderson. Mavididi and Fatawu vs the full-backs. Dewsbury-Hall and Winks would back up whichever side the ball was being played. Faes vs Bacuna. Vestergaard vs Stansfield. Justin vs Dembele.

Blues were bright early doors and often found James in space, the one man who was able to escape as Leicester pressed. This led to the equaliser. Otherwise, we were played into the trap of being forced out wide with Fatawu quick to bounce on Buchanan, who often found himself trapped on the touchline, or by Justin and Vestergaard being aggressive against their men.

There were tactical and personnel changes.

1) Leicester replaced Mavididi with Choudhury. Dewsbury-Hall moved to the left-wing. Pereira stepped from RCM to LAM. Choudhury stepped into the RCM position.

2) Blues made a triple sub. Bacuna dropped to the base of midfield in place of Bielik. Miyoshi joined in on the right and Donovan on the left.

3) Blues made a change to 4-4-2 by bringing on Hogan. Hogan joined Burke up top. James and Sunjic held the midfield.

4) Jutkiewicz replaced Aiwu and joined Hogan up top. Burke moved to RB/RWB. Buchanan started stepping inside. Donovan out wide left.

5) Souttar replaced Justin. Faes moved from RCB to LB.

Players

James is the obvious one. Two goals, the first very well taken, and the only player that really found himself in space regularly.

I think Stansfield and Sunjic deserve credit for their application. Certainly early on, they set the tone for the press. Buchanan had an indifferent game but certainly livened up once he received the whack from Fatawu.

I’m loathe to criticise individuals defensively as I think the issue with the goals we conceded was more to do with the shape and style rather than individual mistakes. The plan requires the press to be perfect and we’re outnumbered once the midfield is bypassed, especially against quality and pacy opposition.

The obvious players to discuss for Leicester are the wingers, who were simply electric. Dewsbury-Hall looked a cut above too and has a nice turn of pace. Vestergaard and Faes were pretty unflustered. Hermansen didn’t lose the ball all night, it felt.

Conclusions

This is the most positive I’ve felt about Blues post-match under Wayne Rooney.

Despite the result, it felt like the players were carrying out much of what they were being asked to do out of possession and, for the most part, it felt as though the system and style itself caused problems as much as the individual players.

We haven’t got anywhere near to perfecting it yet. I think there is still a hesitation in when to step up and continue the press. But we were outnumbered and there is understandably a protective element to finding yourself 2v1, especially when you’ve already been cut open two or three times with ease, and especially when you need to trust the rest of your team-mates to step up too. We aren’t a cohesive defensive unit yet.

Still, we went toe-to-toe with Leicester at times rather than being fearful or letting the confidence drain out of us. It was better than Middlesbrough, Hull City, Southampton, Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers. I also thought this was better than Cardiff despite the result, just because the quality of opposition forced us into doing more and we did a fair amount of it okay.

I also think Rooney’s comments pre and post-match suggest he’s getting more of a handle on the job. It’s no surprise to hear that he has taken more responsibility on the training ground and he’s also taking more responsibility for performances rather than leaving everything at the players’ doors. It feels like there is a little more unity within the group, perhaps helped by improvement to results and performances compared to those opening matches. Fans are also getting behind him as they look to support the ownership’s decision, which is helping.

This isn’t to say we are ready to take on the world. We have a long, long way to go under Rooney. We still didn’t react quickly to Leicester’s change of pace. We still don’t look after the ball well in key areas. We still don’t move the ball into good positions from the defensive third. We are still far too open defending in transition or against the counter-attack.

Heroic efforts against the best teams are fine in isolation. The challenge now is to take the positivity from Cardiff and Leicester into games fans will see as winnable: Plymouth Argyle, Stoke City and Bristol City. Results and performances in those games will give everybody a necessary lift ahead of January.