Match Report: West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Birmingham City
Blues succumbed to a first league loss at the hands of West Brom on Saturday. It's not the end of world, however.
West Bromwich Albion inflicted a first league defeat on Tony Mowbray as Birmingham City manager thanks to a late Andi Weimann goal.
Neither side was particularly dominant across the 90 minutes and the visitors looked to have taken the lead when Kevin Long hit the post but it was the on loan forward that won the game.
Mowbray made four changes from the side knocked out of the FA Cup by Leicester City. Neil Etheridge replaced the injured John Ruddy in net while Emmanuel Aiwu, Jordan James and Keshi Anderson dropped to the bench in favour of Long and full debutants Andre Dozzell and Alex Pritchard. A third new addition, Paik Seung-Ho, was also in the matchday squad for the first time with Gary Gardner and Oliver Burke missing out altogether.
There weren’t many notable chances across the 90 minutes and in particularly the first half. Jay Stansfield had the first chance, started and finishing a nice break that forced Alex Palmer into action before Kyle Bartley headed wide a long throw at the other end.
Jed Wallace struck straight at Etheridge after good work from John Swift and Brandon Thomas-Asante miskicked at the back post. Kristian Bielik failed to test Palmer but Ivan Sunjic did, his effort from the edge of the box initially spilled. That was about that for the first half.
The second half wasn’t much better. The first 25 minutes saw youngster Tom Fellows do well down the right only for Alex Mowatt to inexplicably head wide before Thomas-Asante again had an opportunity at the back post direct from a corner only to volley over.
A corner kick of Blues’ own led to our best chance, Long flicking on and watching the ball hit the post then rebound into the grateful arms of Palmer. Another near post corner, this time from the left, saw Stansfield flick on, Long just beaten to prodding home and Anderson’s effort deflected wide.
Inevitably, after two big chances, the Baggies scored their next one. The Baggies had clearly targeted Blues’ left-hand side and when James failed to win the ball from Mikey Johnston, fellow substitute Callum Marshall played Darnell Furlong in behind Ethan Laird and Long, who failed to take responsibility for the runner. His near post pass was volleyed in by Weimann, who ran across Bielik, who still had half an eye on Daryl Dike.
Blues tried to respond. Laird had a shot on target while Juninho Bacuna’s touch was excellent and his effort deflected just over Palmer’s crossbar. It wasn’t to be.
The game ended with sour scenes. Bacuna had to report some racial abuse from the crowd and things got heated post-match between players before Weimann was then shoved away from celebrating in front of Blues fans.
Lineups
WBA
Palmer; Furlong Bartley Kipre (Chalobah 70) Townsend; Yokuslu Mowatt; Wallace (Weimann 70) Swift (Johnston 62) Fellows (Dike 84); BTA (Marshall 62). Unused: Griffiths; Pipa Pieters Whitewell.
Blues
Etheridge; Laird Bielik Long Buchanan (Bacuna 57); Sunjic (Anderson 75) Dozzell; Miyoshi (Paik 68) Pritchard (JJ 46) Dembele; Stansfield. Unused: Mayo; Aiwu M.Roberts Longelo T.Roberts Hogan.
Tactics
An interesting tactical battle took place here with several amendments to the original shape.
West Brom and Blues both started, nominally, in 4-2-3-1 shapes. However, these soon moved into something else, as is often the case.
For Blues, it took on the usual lopsided shape with Dembele and Laird holding width on either flank, Bielik and Buchanan either side of Long, Miyoshi slightly inside right.
For West Brom, this took a more pronounced 3-2-4-1 shape with Furlong tucking in alongside the centre-backs, Wallace or Swift showing wide right for the ball, Townsend occupying the opposite flank and Fellows tucking in off the left.
West Brom were happy to sit off and let Blues play in defensive areas. Swift joined Thomas-Asante, one closing a defender, the other dropping onto one of Blues’ defensive midfielders, supported by Mowatt or Yokuslu while the other monitored Pritchard. They were quite happy to let Dozzell and Sunjic drop deeper to receive, happy that they were cutting off the angles for the forward pass.
Blues were similar defensively. Dembele stepped onto Furlong with Stansfield and Pritchard doing a similar job to Swift and Thomas-Asante with Dozzell or Sunjic stepping up and Miyoshi watching Townsend. It left Blues with a spare man at the back defensively.
After an indifferent start, Blues switched up. Dozzell and Sunjic both stepped forward onto their defensive midfielders, allowing Stansfield and Pritchard to engage with Bartley and Kipre. This required the Blues defence to be aggressive with their men to stop them turning and for Sunjic, Miyoshi and Dozzell to be quick to get back in and support the defence.
West Brom also made a change. Fellows and Wallace switched flanks. Wallace was now holding some width on the left, dovetailing with Townsend as to who made the inside run and who held the touchline, while Fellows started drifting inside from the right, more at ease dovetailing with Swift, who was stepping out to the right-hand side. This caused an issue for Blues with Buchanan switching men and needing to follow Swift while Long was being dragged out to deal with Fellows – not where he wanted to be and how the goal would eventually come.
Blues switched up their own attacking game plan. Dembele started drifting inside more often, joining Pritchard and Miyoshi in wanting to receive the ball between the West Brom defensive midfielders, which should have opened up space for Buchanan. While this worked in some respects, Blues weren’t quick enough to engage down the left, making life easier for West Brom out of possession to close the gaps.
After half-time, West Brom made another adaptation. This time, Furlong was tasked with being braver down the right, effectively matching Blues by having three attacking midfielders and the full-backs pushing forward. Mowatt and Yokuslu started joining the centre-backs in possession, Mowatt having a tendency to step towards the left of the back three and receive.
There were some positional changes throughout the game.
1: Buchanan was withdrawn. Ethan Laird moved to left-back and Juninho Bacuna came on at right-back.
2: Kipre was withdrawn. Okay Yokuslu moved to centre-back and Nathaniel Chalobah in central midfield.
3: Sunjic was withdrawn. Jordan James moved from attacking midfield to a deeper role with Anderson taking his place.
Blues became more disjointed as the game went on. Dembele was firmly in the centre of the pitch but Blues lacked anybody regularly on the other flank, which meant that while we were finding the first pass forward, we weren’t stretching West Brom once in possession.
After the goal, Blues made another tactical change. Paik moved to the left hand side with Anderson on the right. Bacuna moved into the centre of the pitch with James and Dozzell with Bielik and Laird either side of Long at the back.
Players
An indifferent day for many.
I thought that Sunjic started well with his tenacity and aggression and appreciated that he was picking on Buchanan playing backwards within three minutes. However, the longer the game went on, the sloppier he got.
Dozzell showed flashes of his technical ability. He can play the forward pass, he can play round the corner, being left-footed but playing on the right of the midfield two made little difference.
I felt Buchanan had a really tough afternoon. He was stepping up with his man but being turned quite often. He played backwards more than once and was sloppy in possession. It wasn’t a huge surprise when he was withdrawn and this was clearly a learning curve for the youngster.
Long and Bielik, for the most part, defended their box well. Etheridge had little to do. Laird showed flashes of his quality and the hope has to be that he gets fitter with more game time. Miyoshi and Stansfield didn’t really get into the game. Dembele was lively but wasteful.
For the Baggies, I thought Swift and Fellows were excellent. Technically sound and gave Buchanan and Long a tough time. Mowatt and Yokuslu did their jobs well.
Conclusions
A frustrating game to lose. Neither side had true control of proceedings, there was barely a big chance all game and yet we’ve come away with nothing.
I think my main take overall is that West Brom looked more comfortable with what they were doing than we did. When they made in-game changes, they happened fairly naturally with players knowing their roles and movements of other players. They knew the triggers. We didn’t. We became messy for a period of the game in possession and struggled to get the best from our important players.
The decision making was frustrating throughout. Buchanan immediately passing backwards rather than forward. A number of players searching for the run of Stansfield when he was nowhere near ready to go. Passes being made too late. Players making poor runs. The failure to respond to Dembele drifting inside and ensuring we had width on the left. The second half felt complicated and messy at times and I can’t imagine Mowbray wants that.
It means that while we did enough to stop West Brom scoring, we didn’t do enough to win the game. And when that happens, you have to anticipate that a team around 15 places higher than you in the division are the more likely to find a route to goal.
It’s not the end of the world. Sure, we’ve lost two in a row without scoring but we haven’t been poor in either game. We’re showing more bravery with the ball. We’re playing passes through the centre of the pitch. We had midfielders dropping off to take the ball as opposed to being mobile mannequins. Small signs of progress with the ball.
Mowbray is still learning about his group. Who can do what. Who is willing to do what. How he can adapt in-game to ensure we have control of the centre of the pitch. The nerves from fans will come from the five-point gap to Queens Park Rangers in 22nd, but I don’t think we need to worry just yet.
And with Drameh, Ruddy and Sanderson expected to return in the next couple of weeks, Anderson looking fitter, Hall potentially returning and our new signings having time to bed in, we should start to see a more cohesive unit going forward.
Famous last words and all that, but I honestly think we’ll be fine.