Match Report: Cardiff City 0-1 Birmingham City

Wayne Rooney's second win as a Birmingham City manager came thanks to a Juninho Bacuna moment of brilliance in Cardiff.

A moment of brilliance from Juninho Bacuna was enough to give Wayne Rooney a second win as Birmingham City manager.

This was Blues’ first victory on the road since seeing off Bristol City in August and also the side’s second clean sheet in three games – both most welcome for Rooney and his team.

The Blues gaffer made two changes for the trip to South Wales, bringing back captain Dion Sanderson and Ivan Sunjic into the starting XI with Lukas Jutkiewicz and Koji Miyoshi dropping to the bench.

Blues started the brighter with Siriki Dembele, moved to the right-hand side, forcing a stop from Alex Runarsson while Jay Stansfield got the wrong side of Dimitrios Goutas only to fire wide.

The hosts got on top after that. Yakou Meite drove past Lee Buchanan but Kion Etete put over the cross at the near post. Ryan Wintle’s free-kick found the head of Goutas who was denied by an excellent John Ruddy stop and the pair combined from the resulting corner, a near post flick almost turned home by Mark McGuinness.

The half looked to be dying a death, Buchanan blazing over after good work from Bacuna and Goutas heading over another Wintle set-piece.

Yet Blues would go in at the break leading. Kion Etete played for a free-kick that wasn’t given and Blues broke. Dembele got the better of McGuinness and found Bacuna who gleefully dinked the ball over Runarsson and waited for Goutas to run past before prodding home into an empty net.

Cardiff came out of the blocks in the second half, Etete out running Sanderson only to be denied by Ruddy before Jamilu Collins’ bounced volley reached Ruddy before Goutas.

The referee blocked off Sunjic to give Colwill a run at goal but he blazed over. A double Cardiff substitution opened the game up. Stansfield wasted an opportunity having been played in by Bacuna, Meite headed wide, Emmanuel Aiwu somehow failed to score after Jordan James’ sweetly struck volley was reflected into his path and Krystian Bielik couldn’t head home under pressure at the back post.

That was pretty much that. Blues didn’t need to offer much and Cardiff continued to waste possession. It was until the 93rd minute that a notable incident occurred, James firing on target after Blues kept the ball alive.

Ruddy was called into action right at the death, but Colwill’s low free-kick was tame and comfortable for the Blues keeper.

Three points. A clean sheet. That’ll do.

Lineups

Cardiff

Runarsson; Ng (Romeo 13) McGuinness Goutas Collins; Siopis Wintle (Bowler 59); Meite (Ugbo 75) Colwill Grant (Tanner 75); Etete (Robinson 59). Subs: Alnwick; Panzo Adams Rinomhota

Blues

Ruddy; Aiwu Roberts Sanderson Buchanan; Sunjic Bielik JJ; Dembele (Miyoshi 90) Stansfield (Jutkiewicz 86) Bacuna (Donovan 95). Subs: Etheridge; Oakley Longelo Gardner Khela Hogan

Tactics

Blues reverted to a 4-5-1 shape out of possession which turned into a fluid 3-3-4 / 3-2-4-1 in possession, depending on James’ involvement.

Once in possession, Aiwu and Sanderson would show either side of Roberts with the three in front containing James on the right, Bielik central and Sunjic on the left. Buchanan and Dembele would then hold the width with Bacuna given license to drift infield and support Stansfield.

James’ involvement allowed for some fluidity. Dembele would either hug the touchline with James generally showing as a short option to go back, or the winger would show or step inside with the ball, with James taking his position on the right. On the other side, Stansfield and Bacuna would dovetail between dropping off or looking to play down the side of Goutas.

Cardiff never really exerted any pressure out of possession. Etete and Colwill sat off Blues’ back three, looking to block the pass into midfield. Meite would track right back with Buchanan with Romeo or Goutas watching Bacuna and following him infield. The lack of pressure allowed Blues to regularly find James and Dembele, which gave Blues an out.

Cardiff were 4-2-3-1 but Colwill had license to float, often making it 4-3-3. In possession they would Siopis and Wintle dovetailing to show in front of or inbetween the centre-backs, while the other stepped forward to occupy a Blues midfielder.

They did show some fluidity. The full-backs would step away in possession and move infield, allowing wingers Grant and Meite to show deep for possession, which would draw out the full-backs and open space for Collins and Etete to move in behind.

It felt like Cardiff were looking to target Sanderson through Etete, allowing Goutas to go long in that direction or play into the channel.

Blues lined up 4-5-1 out of possession. Stansfield would sit on the deeper midfielder with the other five lined up narrow across the middle, looking to block passing lanes. There was more communication and marking, however, as shown by Bielik stepping up with Colwill or Wintle on occasion. Blues didn’t exert too much pressure.

Blues did encounter an issue early doors, Bacuna stepping in too narrow, which allowed the ball to be played over him to Ng then Romeo. This was cut out with Bacuna less inclined to close Goutas and look to cut off that route instead.

Cardiff made a second half change that saw Wintle and Etete replaced by Bowler and Robinson. Meite moved up top. Robinson and Colwill played as advanced midfielders with Siopis now alone at the base of midfield. This caused Cardiff more issues playing out with less rotation and passes being forced more from deeper areas. When Colwill drifted, he generally received possession but would take too many touches and slow the move down.

Later on, Tanner entered the pitch in place of Grant and took the right-wing position with Bowler moving to the left.

Players

Praise has to go to Marc Roberts again, who won his battles and did the basics well. Emmanuel Aiwu was solid at right-back, barely putting a foot wrong.

Siriki Dembele and Juninho Bacuna produced the key moment of the game and always tried to make something happen.

Genuinely, I can’t praise a Cardiff player.

Conclusions

I received some stick on social media for using the word “terrible” to describe the game.

Maybe “terrible” was a little harsh, but this wasn’t me suggesting Blues were terrible, just the quality of the game itself. Our opposition were awful, we wasted numerous openings through poor decisions or quality and I just felt the game lacked much in the way of good football.

I thought Blues did okay. We were pretty solid. We seemed to have more of an idea of what we wanted to do with and without the ball and carried much of that out. But it’s also hard to be anything more than okay when your opposition are so bad.

And Cardiff were bad. Aside from a few minutes in either half, they looked completely clueless when it came to having the ball. It was like watching the worst of Blues over recent years. Overhit passes. Players stood waiting for the ball to come to them. Players taking 4/5/6 touches before moving it. Players not knowing what to do with the ball. Baffling decisions from the management team. It was hard not to be organised playing against it. You didn’t have to force the ball off them, just stand in position until they give it to you.

It’s why I’m finding it difficult to draw conclusions about what this result and performance means. I don’t think I learned a huge amount about Rooney or the players.

But I’m okay with that. Rooney spoke about the result being the most important thing and we’ve got it. We showed a moment of quality to win the game. Players looked relatively comfortable. Nobody did anything ridiculous to cost us the game.

All we can ask is that this is built upon. Leicester feels like a free hit but you have to hope we pick up results against Plymouth, Stoke and Bristol City, none of which will be easy but all of which will be seen as winnable.