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

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

Hate to say it…it’s a squad game…time for a change with what we got..
Rest Iverson..bring back Lindsay..Play Moran from start…Small as a forward player (can’t defend)..with all injuries introduce a few youngsters….it can’t be any worse than it is now 🤔
 
Jürgen Krapp said:
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.
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A back 5 indicates an intention to sit back and absorb pressure catching teams on the counter. Having not kept a clean sheet since January surely highlights that we haven’t got the mental strength to sit back.
No one would blame GA for trying other shapes and getting beat.
I’ll start with the Hollywood Taffs.

Iversen
Offiah Storey Gibson Vuc
Leroy Potts
Lang Devine Moran
Kenny
 
I think we’ve got to go full on defensive, and just give up on any idea of attacking football until (hopefully) we can panic buy some reinforcements in January. We need to grind out enough 0-0s and hopefully a few lucky wins to stay in touch until then.

That means a proper flat back 5 (not with wing backs), another robust (as possible) bank of 4 in front, and one poor bastard up top.

Don’t really think there’s any room for the ‘10s’ (Moran and Devine) who are pretty useless in our current situation. At best the can cover the wide midfield when we are inevitably chasing a goal.

If I was GA I’d be going with something along the lines of the following when the relevant players are available:

Iversen

Offiah/Clarke
Storey
Lindsay (I hate the guy, but no alternative and he must score his annual goal at some point)
Gibson
Hughes

Mills/Small (think he’s marginally better on the right)
Thompson
Leroy
Vukcevic/Wiley (if the latter is ever fit)

No idea who to put up top. They’re going to have a shit time regardless. I’d fancy Lang (if fit) to have the best chance of scabbing a few goals.

I think Burgzorg and Erabi are completely shite and stink of the crap we had last time we got relegated.

All of what I’ve said sounds horrible and painful to watch. But in my opinion the only way we get to January with a fighting chance.
 
OB1 said:
Nope. Its a fundamental issue for a club that used to thrive on it.

Its just not the issue with Devine
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It's been an issue since the Alex Neil era really. Developing young players is effectively a volume game, for every David Nugent there's a Dave Hibbert, Joe Anyinsah and a Simon Whaley. For a few seasons now we haven't been recruiting many younger players.

Grayson was signing players like Pearson, DJ, Browne, Brownhill, Hugill and Robinson. Players that we could develop and sell. Then Alex Neil came in and the focus was, understandably, on trying to get some experience to get us over the line. Since then it's just been constant sticking plastics because we haven't been selling anyone.

In the background however we couldn't develop from the academy because it's a category 3. Any player talented enough to maybe go professional possibly make it from that academy stagnates as soon as they get a pro contract because we didn't have an under 21's. Without our under 21's we weren't even developing players recruited from elsewhere.
 
I don’t really like singling anyone out but Burgzorg is woeful. Like really bad.

I can just about stomach Erabi as his hold up play is decent even though he doesn’t really look like scoring recently after a promising start.

Whoever thought Burgzorg would be good loan signing needs to give their head a serious wobble. If he was that decent Boro wouldn’t be loaning him out at all never mind to a Club in the same division.

God knows why they signed him in the 1st place but at least they realised he’s dreadful & got rid of him. Unfortunately it was to us.
 
Yoowell said:
A back 5 indicates an intention to sit back and absorb pressure catching teams on the counter. Having not kept a clean sheet since January surely highlights that we haven’t got the mental strength to sit back.
No one would blame GA for trying other shapes and getting beat.
I’ll start with the Hollywood Taffs.

Iversen
Offiah Storey Gibson Vuc
Leroy Potts
Lang Devine Moran
Kenny
Click to expand...
Is Kenny fit ?
 
Benito said:
I think we’ve got to go full on defensive, and just give up on any idea of attacking football until (hopefully) we can panic buy some reinforcements in January. We need to grind out enough 0-0s and hopefully a few lucky wins to stay in touch until then.

That means a proper flat back 5 (not with wing backs), another robust (as possible) bank of 4 in front, and one poor bastard up top.

Don’t really think there’s any room for the ‘10s’ (Moran and Devine) who are pretty useless in our current situation. At best the can cover the wide midfield when we are inevitably chasing a goal.

If I was GA I’d be going with something along the lines of the following when the relevant players are available:

Iversen

Offiah/Clarke
Storey
Lindsay (I hate the guy, but no alternative and he must score his annual goal at some point)
Gibson
Hughes

Mills/Small (think he’s marginally better on the right)
Thompson
Leroy
Vukcevic/Wiley (if the latter is ever fit)

No idea who to put up top. They’re going to have a shit time regardless. I’d fancy Lang (if fit) to have the best chance of scabbing a few goals.

I think Burgzorg and Erabi are completely shite and stink of the crap we had last time we got relegated.

All of what I’ve said sounds horrible and painful to watch. But in my opinion the only way we get to January with a fighting chance.
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Did you forget Kenny ?
 
StLedger's Halo said:
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.
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I wonder what you think of our league one manager and his league one tactics with 24 % possession ? IMHO that’s the problem that needs our attention soonest
 
We are lacking in every respect. Fight,heart,steel, concentration. fitness,quality etc This is a build up over the years of the incompetance of the owners and their employee. Their motto is "do it on the cheap" and the club is suffering badly from this policy. I can only hope that the"takeover "happens and is now concluded quickly to give us a slight chance of staying up.

Not overly optimistic.
 
Doyler said:
Straight to the point, Jake. Love it.

First half alone, Birmingham's xG was 1.40 to our 0.37. They had three big chances, to our zero. Seven shots to our four.

Those numbers show that Heckingbottom really got it wrong. He just needs to go and we will be fine.
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Doyler said:
Straight to the point, Jake. Love it.

First half alone, Birmingham's xG was 1.40 to our 0.37. They had three big chances, to our zero. Seven shots to our four.

Those numbers show that Heckingbottom really got it wrong. He just needs to go and we will be fine.
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Changing the manager may not work as too much damage has probably been inflicted.
Keeping Heckingbottom wasn’t the answer though as he was complicit in extending the contracts of those sub standard central defenders.
It is currently a shit team with a bad attitude which started under Lowe and got worse under Heckingbottom
 
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