Match Report: Sunderland 3-1 Birmingham City
Birmingham City lost for the fourth time in five matches as Jobe Bellingham inspired Sunderland gave Wayne Rooney more to think about.
Wayne Rooney’s winless run as Birmingham City manager extended to five matches after a 3-1 loss at the Stadium of Light.
Jobe Bellingham was the inevitable scorer of the first before Koji Miyoshi finished a fine move to equalise. Captain Dion Sanderson put into his own net before Adil Aouchiche killed the game in the second half.
Blues were excellent for an hour against Ipswich Town last time out and Rooney opted to keep the same XI as a result. The only changes in the 20-man squad saw Kevin Long (injury) and Krystian Bielik (suspension) drop out for youngster Marcel Oakley and Brandon Khela.
The hosts were comfortably the better side early doors and had a chance within two minutes, a Sanderson header dropping for Nazarii Rusyn who shot wide. Chances continued to come with Patrick Roberts twice finding team-mates for efforts, firstly Jack Clarke who teed up Niall Huggins to force a clearance off the line then Rusyn, who hit the post off balance. Dan Neil also volleyed in between.
After John Ruddy was forced to save a free-kick, the Black Cats won a corner. A zonal marking system allowed Rusyn to jog away from Sanderson and Emmanuel Aiwu to flick on a near-post delivery to an unmarked Bellingham as Burke stood and watched.
Blues had their first notable effort of the game after kick-off when Juninho Bacuna stepped in from the left and tested the handling of Anthony Patterson. Déjà vu almost struck a moment later, Aiwu this time getting to the near post but missing his header leaving Bellingham free six yards out but he could only hit the post.
Eventually, Blues did get into the game. Koji Miyoshi and Ethan Laird showed nice link-up play down the right leading to Oli Burke and Jay Stansfield miskicks. Sunderland were playing too slowly and the Blues press was causing problems, Bacuna wasting a chance from distance before the equaliser came.
Stansfield did brilliantly to dispossess Pierre Ekwah with Ivan Sunjic then funnelling the ball wide. Miyoshi’s through ball didn’t quite reach Stansfield as intended but the striker was alert and cut the ball back for the man from Japan who finished confidently.
The rest of the half played out with Blues full of running but lacking quality in the final third, the best opportunity wasted when Burke’s pass was too short for Stansfield and Niall Huggins was able to nick the ball.
Sunderland started the second half as they did the first – in the ascendancy and they were ahead by the hour. A short corner from the right wasn’t read by Blues and the deep cross was headed back into the danger area by Trai Hume after Jordan James let him go. John Ruddy pulled his arm away, assumedly thinking he wasn’t reaching it and Aiwu could only clear on to the arm of Sanderson leading to an own goal.
Numerous chances followed. Clarke found Neil who was denied at the last moment. Bacuna tested Patterson and Cody Drameh saw a shot deflect wide. Two sharp Sunderland moves ended with Ruddy denying his own team-mate and Clarke firing wide via a touch. And then came the deciding third.
Clarke lined up Laird and support arrived in the form of Sunjic whose tackle was weak. It gave Clarke the opportunity to move down the line and find Aouchiche, who was never picked up by Aiwu.
Blues huffed and puffed over the next period. Scott Hogan had a rare crack from distance that narrowly passed the post. Drameh blazed over from 30 yards, Dembele found Lukas Jutkiewicz who forced a decent stop and Bacuna had an effort on target from 20 yards.
That was about the best Blues mustered and the scoreline could have got worse. Mason Burstow followed a cross wide, Eliezer Mayenda hammered an effort off the face of Ruddy and Burstow curled narrowly wide of the target.
Lineups
Sunderland
Patterson; Huggins Seelt Triantis Hume; Ekwah; Roberts (Mayenda 74) Neil Bellingham (Aouchiche 74) Clarke (Burstow 88); Rusyn (Ba 60). Subs: Bishop; Pritchard Dack Taylor Semedo.
Blues
Ruddy; Laird (Oakley 83) Sanderson Aiwu Drameh; Miyoshi (Gardner 83) JJ (Dembele 72) Sunjic Bacuna; Burke (Hogan 77) Stansfield (Jutkiewicz 77). Subs: Etheridge; Roberts Longelo Khela.
Tactics
Blues set up in the same narrow 4-4-2 that worked well against Ipswich. The design is less about man-for-man and more about squeezing the pitch in key areas to force the ball one way.
Sunderland were allowed to play the first pass before the press took action. Burke and Stansfield would step onto Triantis and Seelt and if the ball was moved back to Patterson, Stansfield would step on and force the ball towards the left. Miyoshi would then step onto Hume while Bacuna, James and Sunjic would step up onto Neil and Ekwah.
Sunderland navigated this excellently early doors. They found that with their defensive players pressed in areas rather than man-for-man, space would become exposed if they kept composure. They drew Blues on, played short and sharp and looked for two options. Either Neil straight away, who could send the ball wide with a cross-field pass. Or Bellingham or Rusyn, who would drop off the front and either hold the ball under pressure or simply be unmarked, drawing a headless Blues midfielder towards them and allowing Neil or Ekwah to make the switch.
Blues did respond to this in the first half. Bacuna eventually stopped going in so narrow, meaning he and Drameh were 2v2 on the opposite flank. It halted the number of switches or at least ensured Blues were in a better position to deal with them.
Once forward, Sunderland tended to have five bodies up the pitch, Clarke and Roberts on each flank with Rusyn, Bellingham and either Neil or Huggins forming the quintet. Whichever of Neil and Huggins weren’t in the attacking phase were sat alongside Ekwah, probing from the edge of the box.
What often happened was that Blues’ high press led to sprinting matches and Blues being out of shape, the midfield and defence needing to sprint back to their prominent positions in order to cut the space in the centre of the pitch. And when Blues did gain shape, a forward run would be made to shift the defence and leave Ekwah free on the edge to receive possession from the winger to open things up once more.
One thing that became evident during the game was communication problems between defence and midfield. Whenever a Sunderland play dropped off and a switch was needed, players didn’t respond to the switch, leaving midfielders and forwards free in half spaces between the lines. It all felt chaotic.
Sunderland kept things much more simple out of possession. It was 4-1-4-1 with Bellingham dropping in to support either Ekwah or Neil, whoever stepped up onto Sunjic and James. Clarke and Hume were fluid with Miyoshi and Laird down the left while Huggins was quick on the cover for the centre-backs, leaving Roberts with Drameh. They were happy to the spare man to be one of the centre-backs.
Blues didn’t show many signs of creative build-up. The most obvious one was looking for Laird from goal kicks, John Ruddy happy to punt the ball out to the right-back behind Clarke, trusting he could win the first ball and find Miyoshi, which would allow Blues to play. The aim was then to get Bacuna involved in half space on the left or continue the build up down the right-hand side.
However, the attempt at getting the 2-3-5 into play remains, just in a more direct manner, hence the ball to Laird on the right. Whether in transition or build-up, Blues would find themselves in a 2-3-5 in which Bacuna would tuck inside from the left, Sunjic would be inside right with Laird and Drameh bombing out wide. That left Stansfield and Miyoshi off Burke in what became a front three. There were flickering moments of this but nothing sustained.
Set-pieces are worth mentioning. Blues have often been man-for-man with big players marking big players and the striker, previously Deeney or Jutkiewicz, then Hogan or Stansfield, on the six-yard box ready to head clear. That has changed. Blues have moved to a zonal approach in which blockers are used to stop the opposition’s bigger players with Sanderson, Aiwu and Burke marking the six-yard box. It wasn’t particularly effective here.
Players
I guess positives first. I thought Drameh was fine. He struggled early doors having been left completely isolated vs Roberts but got to grips with the 1v1 duels. Aiwu was okay in general play but has work to do as far as marking and communication goes. Laird did okay but had a tough outing against one of the best in the league.
Sanderson had an excellent start to the season but is struggling as more of an isolated figure, a little akin to when Harlee Dean was given a similar role. Ivan Sunijc looked more like the Sunjic we saw under Lee Bowyer. Burke provides pace but so often comes up short with his reading of play.
For Sunderland, it’s hard not to praise the wingers who never stopped looking to commit their markers. Niall Huggins was superb at right-back with his incisive runs and a couple of big challenges. Dan Neil is a classy footballer.
Conclusions
I’ve put this off because I’m struggling to find the words right now.
This was better than the first three games. It was poorer than Ipswich. But I also think we should acknowledge that the Sunderland team we faced on Saturday were far more up for it than the Ipswich side we faced last week, irrespective of league positions. We played the same shape and style but were outplayed by a better team.
The game showed some of the frailties this team continues to have. The press was aggressive but it’s clear some of the players within the system are struggling with it. The general expectation of a manager is to showcase the strengths of their players and hide their weaknesses but so many players’ weaknesses are being exposed at present.
Whether that is Sunjic running around like a headless chicken. Or Sanderson stepping out without the support of his team-mates around him in duels. Or Dembele rarely getting the chance to size people up 1v1 out wide and instead finding himself in the centre of the pitch. Or Burke playing with his back to goal. We don’t have the best individual players in the league so being better than the sum of your parts is the starting point for progress in the short-term.
My initial reaction post-match was that this felt like Lee Bowyer’s Blues and there was some of that second half. However, I’m probably doing Rooney a disservice. The Bowyer rein ended with 11 footballers running around a football pitch and no shape or substance at all, just a tactic of “he’s your man and when you get the ball, just do something”.
I don’t think this is quite at that level. You can see the players stepping into their roles in possession. You can see the full-backs timing their runs. You can see the 2-3-5 shape when we look to play. There are signs and to get it right, it will take time. But the longer the game continued, the more chaotic things got, the less we saw the positives and we ended up going toe-to-toe with a team more in tune than we are in what they’re doing. We were punished for it.
How does this continue? Do we see further tweaks week on week until a result comes? Or do we hope to get through to January when we can sign four or five players to make this a more cohesive unit? How does it affect the likes of Aiwu, Sanderson, James and Stansfield, the younger crop who are being somewhat heavily relied upon at present?
And what does January look like? As we all know, prices rocket up and teams don’t want to lose key players, so you’re left trying to sign cast-offs or kids on loan. Or waiting right until the end of the window in hope of something good before you inevitably panic. We already have four players in the building on loan, so there is only space for one more as far as the weekly 20-man squad is concerned, and Rooney’s complaints about fitness aren’t likely to mesh well with players that haven’t played much football. Perhaps we pull something out of the bag but I don’t think we can just assume we’re making it to January then all of our problems will be solved.
It’s now one point from five matches. It’s four goals scored and 11 conceded. Ruddy has made 27 saves in the last five matches, compared with 28 in his first 11 and our goals against tally has doubled in that time. Defensively, we look vulnerable and it’s not being made up for by a consistent attacking threat. The comparison to Bowyer would be that if a team turns up and is organised, they’ll probably get the better of us.
I think some are able to write off the last five games in a way. It’s been a tough run of fixtures on paper. That ends after the international break when we play Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham United at home either side of a trip to Ewood Park. If we walk away from that group of fixtures without a win, we’ll likely find ourselves in 20th place having given two sides below us a much-needed confidence boost. The reaction then would be very interesting.
With Ashey Cole and John O’Shea on international duty, Rooney, Pete Shuttleworth and Carl Robinson will be relied upon to find a winning formula over the next two weeks.