Matchday Thread Birmingham City v PNE | 13.10.26 | KO:8PM | Championship

[OB1]

It’s shocking what’s happened to Small and Devine….if we keep putting Mills in the position he was in last night he will soon be on the same trajectory.

Devine's performances are down to one person - Devine

 

[Randall Flagg]

It’s shocking what’s happened to Small and Devine….if we keep putting Mills in the position he was in last night he will soon be on the same trajectory.

Small even struggled to control the ball with his hands yesterday when he dropped it over the hoardings before taking a throw. He's gone to absolute rat shit. Looks like he's never kicked a ball in his life.

 

[milkyken]

Should they havee re taken the throw but to give them a drop ball and then we know what happened after that

It wasn’t even a drop ball he threw it towards him. I always thought it should drop naturally not be thrown.

However doesn’t stop the awful defending

 

[Yoowell]

Devine's performances are down to one person - Devine

I’m just highlighting the club’s inability to develop young talent.

 

[jakehake]

Just home after another poor tactical display from Heckingbottom. If only we sacked him three games ago, we could have really kicked on. Trivial things like making subs on 60th minute, playing Offiah on the left for 30 minutes, and not giving Andrew Moran game time are really costing us.

Less pillow talk. Hit us with the Xg.....

 

[jonilonglegs79]

It wasn’t even a drop ball he threw it towards him. I always thought it should drop naturally not be thrown.

However doesn’t stop the awful defending

Didn’t look great…but absolutely inexcusable that from that we can leave a guy on his own on the box! It’s schoolboy defending. We can all have our opinions on whatever formation to play etc….but when you are repeatedly conceding goals from individual like we have all season…you are gonna be in trouble. We’ve spent more money than we’ve ever done and in both boxes we are an absolute joke. Brum won’t have an easier win all season….how many times are we saying that after games! The minute we concede the heads drop….no quality…no character. Big trouble.

 

[OB1]

I’m just highlighting the club’s inability to develop young talent.

You can't develop someone that doesn't want to put the work in to develop. Footballing history is full of those players - and they're more often than not attacking midfielders. Ravel Morrison, Josh Harrop, Marcus Maddison, Adel Taarabt, even Dele Alli. Not to sound like Westley, but ability means nothing without the right attitude

 

[Jack78978]

Normally with relegation teams, they have one player who could always do something or a player who you think could win them the game.

There is nobody in this team I look at and think you could do that for us. We are an embarrassment to the league and everybody should be laughing at us.

We make chance creation look impossible and we are genuinely just a team of cloggers who aren't really good at anything.

 

[No Danger]

You can’t blame the club for the fact Devine has used coming back here permanently as an excuse to be out on the piss with his mates every week

IF that is true it is inexcusable.

 

[No Danger]

Normally with relegation teams, they have one player who could always do something or a player who you think could win them the game.

There is nobody in this team I look at and think you could do that for us. We are an embarrassment to the league and everybody should be laughing at us.

We make chance creation look impossible and we are genuinely just a team of cloggers who aren't really good at anything.

Embarrassment to ourselves at the moment. Sod the rest of the league.

 

[Yoowell]

You can't develop someone that doesn't want to put the work in to develop. Footballing history is full of those players - and they're more often than not attacking midfielders. Ravel Morrison, Josh Harrop, Marcus Maddison, Adel Taarabt, even Dele Alli. Not to sound like Westley, but ability means nothing without the right attitude

Ok…can you name me any young player we have developed, surely they all haven’t had bad attitudes?

 

[Bodney Rewes]

1 v 1 defending not 2 v 1

Offiah is a centre half who cant defend, positionally inept and can’t head a ball 🤷🏻‍♂️ the fact he steps out with the ball now and then doesn’t make him a “rolls royce”. His pace covers up many frailties imho.

I don't think Offiah is completely useless but I also don't think he's a centre back. He's a right back in a back four and I think that's all he is.

 

[Dirty Harry]

You can’t blame the club for the fact Devine has used coming back here permanently as an excuse to be out on the piss with his mates every week

He must have been doing it during his loan spell though, for him to want to come back to do it again more often? So maybe the club should have known something?

 

[Doc Brown]

You can’t blame the club for the fact Devine has used coming back here permanently as an excuse

I love that this has just become established fact in the space of 24 hours.

 

[Jürgen Krapp]

Even with a back 5 and 2 sitting midfielders (that’s a back 7) we haven’t kept a clean sheet since January.
We were meant to be working on a new formation over summer and were expecting a new central defender to fit into it but he didn’t appear.
I would try something like a 4-2-3-1 but all I know is that GA has to find something else.
We are more than likely down anyway so why not explore different formations.

I respect your opinion, but personally I don't think moving to a 4-2-3-1 would result in too much of a difference. We saw what a back four looked like with these players when Heckingbottom was here with his, admittedly baffling 4-4-2, and our defense was still exposed and our attack still toothless.

We just don't have the quality out wide to make wingers work or the creativity in attacking midfield to consistently provide our one striker with opportunities. When we are able to create chances we don't have the quality up front to put enough chances away to compensate for a defence that seems to concede from half chances.

I love a 4-2-3-1, it brings a lot of versatility and you only need minor tweaks to accommodate for different circumstances. But we there just isn't the quality in this team, without those EPL loanees, to make it work.

It's not really a shape problem at the minute, it's a 'there's no quality or mental resilience' problem and changing shape just means you're moving your mentally shot and technically limited players into new positions they aren't accustomed to.

 

[Joanpne]

You can't develop someone that doesn't want to put the work in to develop. Footballing history is full of those players - and they're more often than not attacking midfielders. Ravel Morrison, Josh Harrop, Marcus Maddison, Adel Taarabt, even Dele Alli. Not to sound like Westley, but ability means nothing without the right attitude

Absolute common sense. You cannot put ambition into someone that believes they have already hit their personal heights.

 

[OB1]

Ok…can you name me any young player we have developed, surely they all haven’t had bad attitudes?

Nope. Its a fundamental issue for a club that used to thrive on it.

Its just not the issue with Devine

 

[joycey]

You can’t blame the club for the fact Devine has used coming back here permanently as an excuse………

Be careful what you say unless you have facts 💯

 

[Mick M]

Leroy has shown a few nice touches and looks classy on for ball at times but just doesn’t positively affect the game in any way most of the time. Whether this is down to him or the fact we’re generally utter shite is up to debate.

I fear he’ll be another foreign player who won’t be able to adjust to the intensity of the championship à la Mads and Thor.

At least Mads and Thor created chances and scored goals .Leroy for all his silky touches doesnt look at the moment like he could do either.Could be do to the fact though that Eurabi Lang and Burzoig are absolute crap and offer no outlet for him to pass to.

 

[Bodney Rewes]

I respect your opinion, but personally I don't think moving to a 4-2-3-1 would result in too much of a difference. We saw what a back four looked like with these players when Heckingbottom was here with his, admittedly baffling 4-4-2, and our defense was still exposed and our attack still toothless.

We just don't have the quality out wide to make wingers work or the creativity in attacking midfield to consistently provide our one striker with opportunities. When we are able to create chances we don't have the quality up front to put enough chances away to compensate for a defence that seems to concede from half chances.

It's not really a shape problem at the minute, it's a 'there's no quality or mental resilience' problem and changing shape just means you're moving your mentally shot and technically limited players into new positions they aren't accustomed to.

It's depressing when you think that the lone striker options are Erabi, Burgzorg, Lang, or Kenny. Kenny might be able to do it but if he's not fit, he's no use.

I think Alex Neil said it that there are basically three fundamental ways of attacking. You either go over the opposition, round the opposition, or through the opposition.

I don't think we have anyone who can help us go over the opposition. None of our players seem capable of beating an offside trap to get on the end of long balls behind the opposition's defence like Osmajic could do (although Osmajic was also often caught out by an offside trap). None of our players can be the big physical presence and win the aerial duels that even Smith could do (he had his other limitations though).

In terms of playing through the opposition; we don't have a Dobbin whose tight control helps them fashion chances. Even if it's just about passing our way through; Devine has been crap this season and Leroy seems to offer nothing in the final third and they're probably the best passers in the team.

This means we're stuck going round the opposition which is what we've been trying to do. Wingers or wing backs bombing forward trying to pump balls into the box to players who can't seem to find space to get on the end of the crosses.