Alex Dicken lists his Birmingham City talking points after the 0-0 draw with Rotherham United at St Andrew’s
Birmingham City played out a drab 0-0 draw with Rotherham United at St Andrew’s yesterday in front of owner Tom Wagner and investor Tom Brady.
The Americans must have been disappointed with what Wayne Rooney’s team served up against the Millers, who doubled their away points tally and were unfortunate not to take all three back to Yorkshire. Rooney was seething in his post-match press conference after a seventh winless game from eight in charge.
Blues rarely threatened Rotherham’s goal and were extremely fortunate to keep a clean sheet at the other end. With four points from the last 24 on offer, Blues are languishing in 15th place – seven points off the play-offs, but seven off the relegation places too.
From one disappointment to the next
Those of us who travelled to Ewood Park on Wednesday to watch Blues’ 4-2 defeat to Blackburn Rovers returned with increased optimism. You could see some of Rooney’s vision playing out on the pitch. Dreadful defending let Blues down in midweek.
The defending against Rotherham wasn’t much better. Emanuel Aiwu and Dion Sanderson are far from a convincing partnership at present, and John Ruddy isn’t the playmaking goalkeeper Rooney’s system requires.
Whilst the attacking element was on point at Blackburn with 26 shots – albeit only six on target – it was missing on Saturday. Blues had four shots on target and Rotherham goalkeeper Viktor Johansson had four routine saves to make.
We still haven’t seen anywhere near a 90-minute performance from Rooney’s Blues. When the attacking play is good, the defensive work is bad, and vice versa. Blues were poor in all areas on Saturday.
Rooney’s pointed message to defenders
The Blues manager pulled no punches in his press conference. He criticised almost every aspect of the performance and shared the frustrations of those in the stands.
Blues’ playing out from defence was a hot topic and Rooney said the players were taking too many risks for his liking. Rooney also bemoaned the lack of communication between his back four.
“I saw (Sean) Morrison come on for Rotherham and I think he did more talking than the whole of our back four, which is an issue,” said Rooney. That felt like a pointed message from Rooney, who is growing tired of his defenders’ mistakes.
Jordan James has to start
And he will against Coventry City on Friday. The 19-year-old wanted to get on the ball and drive Blues forward after entering the field in the 59th minute.
James seems to be the one player really thriving under Rooney. He should have started against Rotherham, but Rooney admitted afterwards that the starting line-up was decided at the beginning of this week.
Wagner is ready to fund a rebuild
Tom Wagner alluded to next summer’s transfer window as being the time to make major changes to the squad during his address to supporters at this week’s Open House. How much those comments will motivate the current crop of players is open to interpretation, but many of them won’t be around for much longer by the sound of it.
In the last eight games we have seen that a large number of these players are not suited to Rooney’s playing style. They felt comfortable and secure in John Eustace’s more pragmatic regime.
By the sounds of it, Rooney is here to stay and his ideology is the one Blues’ owners believe will get them out of the Championship. For the cynics amongst you, they are aiming for the Premier League, not League One.
At this point, it feels inevitable that Wagner will fund the purchases of players more to Rooney’s liking. It won’t all happen in January, but next summer promises to be as busy as the last.
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