Match Report: Blackburn Rovers 4-2 Birmingham City

A fifth defeat in seven for Wayne Rooney as an early second half blitz was enough to leave Blues pointless again.

Six second half goals were enough to separate Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers as Wayne Rooney endured a fifth defeat in seven since taking over as Birmingham City manager.

The sides played out an entertaining first half in which Siriki Dembele hit the bar but an early second half blitz saw a Sam Szmodics brace and James Hill finish push the hosts into a 3-0 lead.

Dembele reduced the deficit with a brace of his own but as Blues pushed an equaliser, they were punished at the other by Harry Leonard.

Rooney made three changes from the side that beat basement outfit Sheffield Wednesday last time out, Cody Drameh, Jordan James and Lukas Jutkiewicz returning to the XI in place of Ethan Laird, Koji Miyoshi and Oli Burke.

Dembele was heavily involved for Blues from the off and took less than a minute to nutmeg Lewis Travis and be on the end of a good old whack from his marker.

It was Blackburn that dominated proceedings early doors, however, keeping the tempo and keeping their visitors penned in. Two shots were blocked, a number of cutbacks half cleared and Tyrhys Dolan forced a stop from Ruddy. Jutkiewicz finished a sweeping move with a powerful effort but it took Dolan going down injured to give Blues some much needed respite.

Blues started forcing errors thereon. Dembele fired over, a JJ miskick allowed Brittain to hit the sidenetting before Lee Buchanan missed the best chance of the half, firing over from close range. Bacuna then failed to find the target with three efforts while Dembele went alone and hit the bar with his left foot.

Warning signs were provided come the end of the half with a flowing move ending with Ruddy springing to deny Brittain’s curler and Szmodics couldn’t quite connect with a dangerous low ball.

Having settled into proceedings, the hope was that Blues would build on their performance second half. Instead, the hosts flew ahead.

The first came when Adam Wharton was allowed to turn under no pressure and find Szmodics, who beat Emmanuel Aiwu’s attempt at an offside trap. The league’s top scorer then fooled Ruddy, who had stepped off his line to close the shot, by turning back, beating Aiwu then dinking over a stranded keeper.

Five minutes later and the lead was doubled, a swift 1-2 around Bacuna and the ball was played to Andrew Moran. Dion Sanderson and Buchanan half closed while Aiwu again tried to play Szmodics offside. The pass was easy and Ruddy was again dinked as he stepped off his line.

Krystian Bielik headed a corner wide before the third came, Blues dropping too deep on the left and allowing James Hill to run forward unchallenged. He struck from 20 yards and Ruddy showcased his inner Lee Camp as the ball bundled through him.

Blues responded positively. Drameh drove forward down the left and played a short pass to Dembele. He cheekily nutmegged Brittain and bore down on goal to fire home. A lifeline.

Blues dominated for a period afterwards. JJ had a shot blocked and Dembele fired over. Bacuna forced a near post stop, Buchanan’s dangerous delivery caused problems and Laird fired wide from the resulting corner. The best chance came when Jutkiewicz headed at Wahlstedt from close range.

Blackburn reminded Blues they were still in the game when Arnor Sigurdsson struck low but it wasn’t long until the deficit was reduced further. It was Dembele again, receiving a pass from Scott Hogan after excellent work from Laird, turning his man and striking over Wahlstedt with his left foot.

Blues couldn’t build on it, however. Substitutions were made but to little effect. Buchanan and Drameh both fired over from distance before Rovers settled the game. A long ball fell kindly for Hayden Carter and the home side broke 3v2. Moran showed composure to find Harry Leonard who struck into corner through the legs of Buchanan.

There was still time for Koji Miyoshi to fire over from the edge of the box but the jig was up. A fifth loss in seven matches confirmed.

Lineups

Blackburn

Wahlstedt; Hill Carter Pickering; Travis (Sigurdsson 46) Traonstad Wharton Brittain; Moran Szmodics Dolan (Leonard 17). Unused: Hilton; Gamble Duru Garrett Atcheson Markanday Telalovic.

Blues

Ruddy; Drameh Aiwu (Laird 62) Sanderson Buchanan; Bacuna JJ (Gardner 85) Bielik (Miyoshi 76) Dembele; Stansfield (Hogan 76) Jutkiewicz (Burke 76). Unused: Etheridge; Roberts Longelo Sunjic.

Tactics

Blues continued with their 4-2-4 shape but moved into more of a 3-2-4-1 shape in possession while Blackburn were nominally in a lopsided 3-4-3 shape.

Blackburn were the side that saw more of the ball here. There was fluidity to their shape in possession. Hayden Carter showed centrally with James Hill to his right and Harry Pickering virtually in a left-back position. Lewis Travis showed shorter on the right-hand side than Callum Brittain on the left.

With Lee Buchanan tasked with stopping Travis early doors, Blackburn willingly played to a runner in the right-hand channel. This was soon cut short with Dembele dropping off to cut the pass out wide and Buchanan being in a better position to support Sanderson.

Otherwise, Blackburn played into feet where possible and there was fludiitiy in their approach, often involving Sam Szmodics. While the back three split and Travis showed a little short, Wharton and Tronstad would also split. If they received possession, Szmodics would stand in the space vacated by Bielik and James, who were tasked with closing the Blackburn midfield duo, and hope nobody would close him. This is where communication became important for Blues to ensure they had somebody nearby the defence so when that pass was made, somebody could quickly nip in and take the ball from Szmodics under pressure.

Another avenue for Blackburn was to build down the left and it was Szmodics again who tended to get involved with Brittain drifting inside from the left and Szmodics taking his place on various occasions, just to mix things up. Dolan and Moran, meanwhile, would put themselves into positions to receive on the half turn or make forward runs to open up the space for the ball to be received in pockets.

Once in the final third, Blackburn would attack with five with Travis quick to join the play down the tight. Rovers played for the triangles in wide positions in order to get in behind Blues and get touches in and around the box.

Blues did press high. Bacuna and Dembele tended to switch roles stepping inside to form a three-man midfield when the ball was moved into a wider position by Blackburn with Stansfield and Jutkiewicz closing the two centre halves and Bielik and James stepping onto the two Blackburn midfielders. That left us four vs four at the back with each defender required to step up with their men if they dropped in short.

The most notable thing about Blues’ build up was that from goal kicks, it was Aiwu and Buchanan who showed short for Ruddy with Sanderson sitting on the edge of the box to receive. It was seemingly a ploy to get Blues’ better defenders on the ball from deep to play and relieve Ruddy and Sanderson, who are naturally weaker in those roles, of responsibility.

Further ahead, Drameh then Laird was tasked with providing the width with Bacuna stepping inside from the right to for a three, allowing Blues to go 3-5-2, draw Blackburn bodies on and occasionally go long towards Jutkiewicz and Stansfield. It was notable that Ruddy was allowed to play longer more often, something that worked well against Sheffield Wednesday in the second half and helped beat Blackburn’s press.

With Bacuna stepping inside and Drameh then Laird having the width, it opened space for Stansfield to manoeuvre into his preferred right-hand channel, which often opened the space for Drameh then Laird to drive inside and create more opportunities.

A final note is that James and Bielik did something familiar to them this season as far as playing around the corner first time was concerned. This often worked out with Stansfield, Bacuna and even Dembele, who would drift towards the right, almost always available to receive the pass in the right-hand pocket. If Dembele did drift, Jutkiewicz would pull out towards the left, just to keep Blackburn’s defence stretched.

Blues continue to mark zonally at corners despite recent issues. Jutkiewicz, James and Bacuna were tasked with being blockers with Sanderson, Bielik and Aiwu on the six yard line. Blackburn had little interest in swinging their corners in, mind, only putting four men in the box early doors with Dolan the unmarked man as they played short or to the near post.

There was some positional changes:

- Brittain moved to RWB in the second half with Sigurdsson joining the game on the left-wing.

- Laird replaced Aiwu. Buchanan went to CB, Drameh LB and Laird RB.

- Miyoshi replaced Bielik with Bacuna stepping inside into CM while Miyoshi claimed the right.

Conclusions

I found this a weird game to judge.

There’s no denying that the general performance was a lot better. Remove the first 10/15 of each half and we showed what we could be capable of, pressing high, winning numerous possessions on the turnover and seeing some fluidity in our play, particularly through Siriki Dembele and Juninho Bacuna who had a combined 12 shots having drifted inside from their wide positions on numerous occasions.

Ultimately, what fans want is a team that works hard and it wasn’t certainly that. This wasn’t Norwich, Watford or Southampton where we sat off, watched the opposition pop the ball about and hoped for the best. We got at Blackburn. We won 21 turnovers and it felt like we were a constant threat.

It was far from a perfect performance, however, and we conceded four second half goals. Our goalkeeper is being panned and it’s understandable to a point, but then you also look at the contributions of the rest of the team for the goals and you see the picture of a team still not in tune with what they’re being asked to do.

For the first two goals, we simply don’t commit to challenging the man on the ball and good, technical footballers punish you. The third is poor from Ruddy but we’ve got 10 men behind the ball and nobody in the centre of the pitch in case their wide centre-half decides to step forward. The fourth, we’re taking a risk but it’s so soft and easy.

We had 26 shots, which can be seen as a positive, but we also had 13 of those from outside of the area and created only one big chance. We averaged around 0.05xG per shot which isn’t good. We also lost the ball on the turnover 21 times according to Whoscored, so while we caused problems with our press, we also really failed to look after the ball.

Of course, the positive is that some of this can be coached. Getting to grips with new patterns in the final third. A little more composure. Retaining the ball better. Decision making when defending. This isn’t like Middlesbrough where players were playing completely alien roles.

Recruitment will be key of course, and that’s perhaps the biggest concern. I think people are looking to January to be a month where we rectify our problems but we have to wheel and deal in order to get the right players in, something that isn’t easy to do in the middle of the season. Rooney is likely going to be working with a lot of the same players so it’s about who steps up and gets with the programme but with tweaks being made for the benefit of those so that we can get through the season intact.

It’s Rotherham on Saturday, which is an important game. Firstly, it’s a home match against one of the worst sides in the division. Secondly, we travel to Coventry, Cardiff & Plymouth away after with a home tie with Leicester inbetween. Three points on Saturday puts us into a comfortable mid-table position which should see us through to January and take the pressure off games over the next month.