Match Report: Southampton 3-1 Birmingham City

A third consecutive defeat for Wayne Rooney's Birmingham City, this time at Southampton.

Wayne Rooney became the first Birmingham City manager ever to lose his first three matches in charge at St.Mary's in the weekend's early kick-off.

On-loan Manchester City defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis opened the scoring and it was two before half-time when Carlos Alcaraz prodded home.

Blues got back into the game when Jay Stansfield made the most of a defensive error but Adam Armstrong's late strike secured the three points for the hosts.

Rooney made four changes to the side that struggled in midweek, bringing Ivan Sunjic and Jordan James into the side, giving a first league start of the season to Lukas Jutkiewicz and a full debut to Emmanuel Aiwu. Juninho Bacuna was suspended while Kevin Long, Koji Miyoshi and Jay Stansfield had to make do with a spot on the bench.

The early stages were dominated by the hosts and they took the lead within ten minutes, a short corner routine ending with Adam Armstrong finding half a yard to cross for an unmarked Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

It took Blues 12 minutes to have meaningful possession in the Saints half and 22 minutes to muster a meaningful shot at goal, Oli Burke firing into the side netting. Thirty seconds later, it was 2-0.

Southampton escaped a half arsed press and worked the ball to James Bree. He found Kamaldeen Sulemana who played a swift 1-2 with Stuart Armstrong. He beat Cody Drameh and crossed for Alcaraz to tap in at the far post.

Blues had a strong penalty shout on half hour when Galvin Bazunu poleaxed Burke. Incredibly, nothing was given. That was as close as Blues got in truth. Southampton popped the ball about and almost added a second with Harwood-Bellis heading wide after being left free again and Armstrong finding Armstrong to clip wide.

Blues were a little more aggressive second half but still second best. Adam Armstrong came close with a header from a Walker-Peters cross.

Walker-Peters was then at fault for the Saints conceding. A long ball was headed on. The right-back read the ball but failed to control, giving Stansfield the chance to nick in and finish ruthlessly.

The goal got Blues tails up. James found the run of Jutkiewicz who saw his shot deflected and saved before a flurry of crosses came to nothing. Then Alcaraz tested Ruddy from distance.

Blues huffed and puffed to little avail and with a few minutes left, the third was scored. Substitutes Shea Charles and Ryan Fraser linked up to cross to the back post where Samuel Edozie nodded down for Adam Armstrong to finish.

Fraser almost had a goal himself when Gary Gardner and Dion Sanderson failed to work on the same wavelength only for his 35 yard lob to be wayward. Scott Hogan curled over at the other end.


Lineups

Southampton

Bazunu; KWP THB Bednarek Bree; Smallbone (Charles 82) Downes Armstrong (Edozie 82); Alcaraz (Aribo 69) Armstrong Sulemana (Fraser 75). Unused: McCarthy; Holgate Manning Mara Amo-Ameyaw.

Blues

Ruddy; Drameh Sanderson Aiwu (Roberts 76) Longelo; Sunjic Bielik (Gardner 69) JJ; Burke (Hogan 69) Jutkiewicz (Miyoshi 76) Dembele (Stansfield 57). Unused: Etheridge; Laird Long Khela.


Tactics

Southampton were very clear in what they wanted to do with the ball.

They were nominally 4-2-3-1 but would skew this in possession with James Bree slightly infield from the left and Kyle Walker-Peters (KWP) higher and wider on the right. Kamaldeen Sulemana was high and wide on the left with Carlos Alcaraz stepping infield to support Stuart Armstrong.

They had a clear avenue out to get high up the pitch, KWP being given possession to travel as high up the pitch as he could before being caught up. He would then turn back and find his nearest midfielder or defender. From there, they would play.

Now closer to halfway, Taylor Harwood-Bellis (THB), Jan Bednarek, Flynn Downes and Will Smallbone would stay in close proximity, taking their time, playing between each other and coaxing Blues to step on. Time and again, the same thing happened. James or Sunjic would step up and either the pass into Smallbone or Downes would open up, allowing them to turn out and play forward, or the space for THB and Bednarek would open up so that they could step out with the ball and play forward.

Blues were 4-1-4-1 in the press. While compact, it was straight lined. Dembele and Burke were half and half between the centre-back and full-back. Bielik, James and Sunjic were close to Jutkiewicz, waiting for their moment to step up. When they did, and they were beaten, it meant Alcaraz and the Armstrong had huge space to receive possession unchallenged and play.

The challenge for the Blues backline was step up on whoever received the ball. The problem was, there was two of them and three Southampton players, so they had to read which pass would be made and hope they could step up in time. We weren't forcing them where we wanted them, they were dictating it to us.

Once in the final third, the width would take shape. Sulemana would do things quickly, looking for the chance to go 1v1 with Drameh. On the other flank, Smallbone would join in and he, KWP and Alcaraz would play keep ball waiting for the gap to arrive.

The rest of the game was chaos. Blues were 4-2-3-1 in possession on the rare occasion they had the ball and the long ball to Jutkiewicz or Burke was often sought, or switches out to the wing, particularly to Dembele.

Southampton did shape up in a 4-2-2-2 but they never truly looked bothered about their out of possession shape. It was as if they knew they didn't need to put too much pressure on. The most notable aspect was that Stuart Armstrong would move to the left-central position with Sulemana joining Adam Armstrong in the attack when out of possession.

There were some positional changes to note:

- JJ moved to the base of midfield after Bielik was replaced by Gardner. Gardner moved to the left and Sunjic to the right.
- Miyoshi replaced Jutkiewicz and moved to the right with Hogan, previously on the right, now up top
- Edozie replaced Stuart Armstrong. He played RW with Aribo stepping infield.


Players

I guess we have to discuss Emmanuel Longelo. He's been bright recently but struggled Saturday. He failed to mark sufficiently for the first. He switched off and let Alcaraz run off him for the second. He was beaten in the air by Edozie for the third. These things were always the worry with the youngster at left-back and it showed here.

Otherwise, nobody really performed well or poorly. It was just... Meh. Stansfield provided a brief spark before disappearing from the game as Blues failed to build. Emmanuel Aiwu did okay on debut and put in one cracking challenge.

For Southampton, they all just looked so comfortable. Smallbone and Downes are probably the two that impressed most. Never looked fazed.


Conclusions

Red socks don't suit our blue kit.

Alright, football conclusions.

It's depressing coming into a game knowing you will lose. No faint "if we get this right it could happen". Just wondering how many you will lose by.

Rooney is three games into his reign and I already have the numb feeling I had towards the end of the Steve Cotterill and Lee Bowyer reigns. My missus is mentally preparing for the worst when she knows the result and she's shocked to see I'm alright this week. I'm not angry. I'm not hurt. I'm actually laughing at some of what I'm seeing. I've got no expectations right now and I'm watching with more of a curious mindset to see if I do see anything worth clinging to.

What weirds me out is how quickly that feeling has come about. It can't be right that three games into a manager's tenure, this is how I feel.

I'm on board with the ownership and their grand plan. One day, we will reap the rewards of that. I'm confident.

But as fans, we get our kicks from watching what is served up to us on any given matchday. We want to see a team that is cohesive, committed & expressive. Sometimes we'll have a bad day at the office but so long as you know it's just that, it's alright.

This week, we've played three matches. We've set up to play in three different ways. We've watched the confidence drain from the players at points. We've looked inept out of possession in every game, playing into the hands of our opponents.

We've created one big chance - and that came from an error after our goalkeeper pumped the ball forward to Jutkiewicz. We've conceded eight. We've created a combined 1.4xG while giving up 5.6. John Ruddy has made 18 saves in his last 3 matches - he'd made 28 in the first 11. We're all over the shop.

I think my biggest concern above all else is how quickly Rooney has backtracked on what he's trying to do.

I do agree that he tried too much too soon. But at least against Middlesbrough and Hull, there were signs of what he wanted from his team with the ball, even if not always executed well. There was next-to-none of that on show today, and we were under very little pressure from our opposition.

I don't want to write off Rooney. It's been three games. You can't judge a manager on such a short period of time. But he has to be brave and commit to something now. He wants the fans to be patient and understand there's a process but that will only happen if they've got reason to get behind him and it.