Match Report: Rotherham United 0-2 Blues
Blues continued their perfect away form thanks to goals from Tomoki Iwata and Jay Stansfield, as well as a first clean sheet of the season.
Birmingham City continued their perfect record away from home in the early embers of the League One campaign with a comfortable victory over fellow relegated outfit Rotherham United.
Blues scored both goals in the first half, Tomoki Iwata firing home the opener before Jay Stansfield netted his third in two matches.
The game was comfortable thereon with both sides having chances without being overly threatening, enabling Bailey Peacock-Farrell to register his first clean sheet of the season.
Chris Davies gave Ben Davies and Lyndon Dykes full debuts in place of Krystian Bielik, suspended, and Alfie May, benched. Ayuma Yokoyama stepped back into the 18. With Bielik and May out, Christoph Klarer was given the captain’s armband. Paik Seung-Ho was the longest serving player in the Blues XI.
The start was a familiar one for Blues with Rotherham running hard early on and getting on the front foot. The best they had to show for it was a wayward Jonson Clarke-Harris volley from a free-kick and Sam Nombe shooting at a Blues defender.
Willum Willumson led the fightback, gliding past his man and sending Emil Hansson away to cut back for Stansfield, the multi-million pound man taking a heavy touch to lose the chance. He then curled over from the resulting corner kick.
The 21-year-old was involved again moments later with a telling contribution, being found by Klarer’s ball over the top. While Stansfield’s shot was blocked, Iwata was quick to pounce and put the ball in the bottom corner first time from the edge of the box.
Blues’ new forward was clearly enjoying himself and struck a half volley on target before another Klarer forward pass caused problems, Paik being found and nodding back to Dykes only for Sean Raggett to clear with the goal gaping.
Steve Evans claimed post-match that he used a different formation in order to track the runs Stansfield makes but it wasn’t working and he punished them again. Davies pinged a ball over the top of Raggett and the England U21 international wasn’t tracked. With time to assess his options, Stansfield dinked the ball over Phillips for 2-0.
Hansson forced Phillips into action with a curling effort. That was the last real open play opportunity of the half with Jamie McCart heading on target from a free-kick, Klarer unable to turn home a corner at the back post and Peacock-Farrell forced to deny an Olympic Goal.
Rotherham made a half-time change of personnel and shape with new arrival Joe Powell firing wide after Blues failed to clear. Blues then got back on the ball and in control but it was comfortable possession rather than chance after chance with the hosts opportunities coming almost exclusively from set-piece situations.
Alex Cochrane’s delivery was headed wide by Dykes before Clarke-Harris struck a free-kick against the Blues wall. Stansfield picked up a loose ball and drive into the box, finding Scott Wright whose strike was blocked.
Hakeem Odoffin headed an inswinging corner wide at the back post before Willumson did similar from a free-kick. Substitute Jordan Hugill headed over a cross from the right-hand side. A short free-kick allowed Cochrane to fire against the bar via deflection. An injury-time set-piece was bundled wide for Rotherham.
And that was it. Blues didn’t get out of second gear and comfortable saw out the victory having done the hard work in the first half.
Lineups
Rotherham: Phillips; Humphreys (Powell 46) Raggett McCart; Rafferty Tiehi (Hugill 74) Odoffin James (Bramall 74); Wilks (Hungbo 74) Nombe; JCH. Subs: Dawson; Bramall MacDonald Holmes Hungbo Hugill.
Blues: BPF; TGH (Sampsted 79) Klarer Davies Cochrane; Paik Iwata (Leonard 90); Willumson Stansfield (May 79) Hansson (Anderson 62); Dykes (Wright 62). Subs: Allsop; Yokoyama.
Tactics
Another game, another new shape.
Rotherham opted for a 5-2-1-2 here, sitting in a back five and hoping the front five could step on and stop us playing. It didn’t work.
Clarke-Harris and Nombe were tasked with cutting passing lanes into the middle with Wilks and Odoffin stepping onto Iwata and Paik in the Blues midfield. Tiehi then sat deep and was tasked with Willumson. That left the wing-backs up against Gardner-Hickman and Hansson with the three central defenders up against Blues’ two forwards.
They came unstuck for various reasons.
Firstly, when Blues were playing out from the back, the front two had little inclincation to press with any speed or switch on defensively. So when Wilks broke from Iwata and attempted to close Cochrane, for example, neither of the front two stepped in on Iwata, the man he had left, opening the pass back into the centre and for Blues to play. Or gaps would be left so that Blues could move the ball right across to the other side of the pitch and drag the entire Rotherham team over.
And because space was available, Blues didn’t have to utilise Hansson and Gardner-Hickman as much as they may have anticipated to get out, with Stansfield and Dykes able to drop off their markers and get involved under little pressure, making it easy for Blues to make the forward pass, lay it back and keep the ball in a higher area of the pitch.
Paik was very intelligent with his running, constantly stepping forward and taking Odoffin with him, or being left to drift into areas where he could receive possession and find somebody else.
And finally, Evans’ attempts to halt Stansfield didn’t work because nobody wanted to track his runs. Blues put the ball over the top of Raggett on a couple of occasions and a lack of communication or lack of awareness meant nobody picked him up.
It was also telling how easy it was for Klarer to drift down the right-hand side with barely a challenge laid on him. Nombe and Clarke-Harris simply didn’t pick him up and space just opened as Rotherham wondered whether to stick with their men or challenge.
In possession, the hosts had two ways of trying to hurt us.
The first was to find the channels, as has been common. Put the ball towards the big man and play for seconds or go right over the top and let somebody chase the ball. A lot of the dirty work was put on Nombe who did try but struggled to succeed.
The other was to play for the set-piece, and they did this quite well to be fair to them. Blues’ defenders want to be aggressive and win the ball, meaning that if Rotherham could play it right, they could back in and make the most of the obvious contact, which they did, allowing them to hoist a ball into the box.
Almost every set-piece was hoisted towards the back post by design with the big men looking to evade their blockers and challenge for the ball. On corners, there was always a man on Peacock-Farrell looking to block his attempts to claim such balls. To their credit, they did quite well but couldn’t turn the ball home under defensive pressure.
They switched to a diamond at half-time and this did stop Blues a little. I say diamond, it was more of a 4-2-2-2 with Odoffin and Wilks still up against Paik and Iwata but Powell and Tiehi now responsible for Stansfield and Willumson. When Blues built through a wide centre-back, somebody would step out with the expectation still being that cover would come in from the opposite flank.
This did at least force Blues at points to go longer with James stepping onto Gardner-Hickman, which allowed space for Stansfield then May to race into the channel and look to get the better of McCart.
In terms of further personnel changes, Blues’ first two were Anderson and Wright for Dykes and Hansson. Stansfield moved from attacking midfield to up top, Willumson moved central with Wright on the right.
A Rotherham triple change saw them move Powell to the base of midfield, Hungbo entered as the left central midfielder while Nombe played behind Clarke-Harris and Hugill.
Players
I’m conscious that I’m going to be repeating myself a fair amount in this section.
Klarer was fantastic and showed no issues having donned the captain’s armband for the first time. Cochrane was Cochrane. Paik and Iwata ran the show in midfield. Stansfield was a livewire. Willumson is looking comfortable stepping in from the right. Gardner-Hickman had another good showing and Hansson was tidy down the left.
Peacock-Farrell had another overall decent game. The set-piece situation was tough today but he did okay. My concern if anything is that he involves himself too much with the bloke marking him.
For the new lads. Davies was better than he was against Walsall – unsurprising given he’s had a couple of weeks with the club now. He was more confident on the ball, remained calm under pressure and wasn’t really tested defensively. Dykes’ job was to rough up the Rotherham backline and get the best out of others around him, which given their performances, he achieved. A quiet full debut, but a solid hour of work.
I’d normally discuss the opposition players here but truthfully, nobody really stood out. They did very little from open play that caught my attention.
Conclusions
If you had told me before the season that we would be sat in here in mid-September having won five and drawn one of our first six league matches, I’d have snapped your hand off.
My concern was always that we may start slowly because of the amount of change. Yet we’ve found ways to win matches while learning on the job. We’ve held on to a lead, we’ve come from behind, we’ve been totally dominant. It feels like we’re getting better with every game.
It speaks volumes to the recruitment done this summer and the job Chris Davies is doing. A new group all pulling in the same direction and winning not just because we have good players, but because of an improved mentality and work ethic. It feels like nobody is working harder than us.
It’s telling that the 18 selected today contained 16 new signings with only Paik Seung-Ho (January 24) and Keshi Anderson (July 23) signing last season. That is caveated by Krystian Bielik and Ethan Laird being absent at present, but even their involvement would mean our 18 containing 14/15 new additions, while it’s also telling that the captain’s armband goes to Alfie May or Christoph Klarer in their absence – a show of faith in the new guys that are helping set a high standard.
A bit like Wrexham, this felt like a big win on paper but not necessarily a case of us beating very good opposition on the day. We didn’t have to get out of second gear in the second half and it was all quite comfortable. Rotherham huffed and puffed but I never felt like we were in trouble at any point.
Next week is the big one. It begins with Peterborough United at home, Huddersfield Town at home on Tuesday and then Charlton Athletic away on the Saturday.
In Peterborough United, we face opposition that will try and play through the thirds and have plenty of pace and dribbly forwards. In Huddersfield Town, we face opposition seen as the most likely to challenge us at the top of the table. In Charlton Athletic, we face opposition that are dull to watch according to their fans but very strong defensively.
Given how we are performing, it’s not out of the question that we walk away with nine points. I’m going into each game fancying us to win right now, which is lovely. But I think we have to understand that we aren’t going to win the next 40 matches and finish with 136 points.
My thought process is that I want to see us continue to play the right way, do the right things in possession and if it doesn’t come off, then let it be because the opposition have worked extremely hard to deny us rather than simply not turning up.
Minor note - it was Thor, not Davies, that chipped over to Stansfield for 2-0