During the 0-0 draw with Rotherham United, a clearly irritated Wayne Rooney berated his Birmingham City teammates for causing their own issues.

In front of owner Tom Wagner and investor Tom Brady, the Blues stuttered to a dull draw at St Andrew’s against the Millers, who were in 23rd place. During his most vehement press conference to date, Rooney lamented the shortcomings of the Blues while letting Rotherham earn only their second road point of the year.

“The game wasn’t very good,” Rooney remarked.”I believed we were playing well for the first twenty minutes, but after Ethan (Laird) left for an unknown reason, we became sloppy, slowed down, and the game lost all sense of pace. Today, we made a lot of our own troubles.

“In the end, we were lucky to win by a point. From our perspective, the game was not good, and I have a lot of things to solve since the fundamentals of the game—heading the ball and defending—were lacking today.

Blues repeatedly played themselves into difficulty. Blues’ vain attempt to play out from the back would have awarded Rotherham a goal or two if not for some careless finishing and desperate defending.

Rooney gave the following explanation: “We decided it’s not something we’re going to overdo after having this chat with the players early on, which I also told you guys about. When it comes to game management, we naturally participate if it’s enabled and there’s room for it. We’re not skilled enough to handle it if teams are rushing us and it’s not on.

“Players make judgments sometimes, and we are discovered. We don’t appear at all at ease. We have been attempting to play more in the opponent’s half and in their half. That frustrated me.

We might have given up a goal or had a player dismissed for being careless. We gave them excellent opportunities twice or three times.

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