Here's how I saw it:
.....
1 point in 6 against relegation-threatened teams on successive weeks. If this isn't frustrating, I don't know what is. Losing to Birmingham's only meaningful shot at goal - and to Sicknote of all people - made it all so, so much worse.
For the nth time in a row, we made a mess of 1-on-1's with keepers or open goal tap-ins. This time round, Garcia skied (second game in a row?) with the goal at his mercy, and Hamann's low shot was well covered by Taylor (the Brummies' keeper). You can't blame luck when you can't put away open chances, and you can only but hang your heads in shame at the way we defended a needlessly-conceded corner, allowing Anderton to knock in what was perhaps his only touch of the game. Of course, the Brummies had Muzzy Izzet to thank for keeping them in the game with two goal-line clearances in the 2nd half, and Taylor had to earn his keep a bit in the 1st half with saves from Kewell and Garcia. Still, you just could be justified to feel that we didn't really have much of a cutting edge in our game today despite the few good chances, and although Rafa pushed all the right buttons and made all the right substitutions and changes in tactics as the match wore on, they came too late.
I wouldn't even give Birmingham a lot of credit for this win. They never looked like scoring the whole game, though the ease with which Gronkjaer got past Josemi probably raised some alarms. Save for Muzzy Izzet springing the offside trap in the first half and getting robbed by Kirkland, Birmingham really never got into the box except during setpieces. They did do a lot of closing down on our strikers in their half though, and that disrupted the passing and flow of our game somewhat, but they also did make a real good mess a number of times, with mixups between their centrebacks and central midfielders gifting us possession in dangerous areas which we failed to convert into points.
Defensively, I thought we did ok - not stellar, but okay, given that we really didn't have too much of a threat from Heskey to worry about. Gronkjaer was by far their most dangerous option in the first half, but we generally coped okay. Where I had problems with, was again our lack of width. When your widest offensive player is Traore - no offence to him, he tries hard and I think he'll improve over time if he keeps working on it - you have a little bit of problem. Everything gets squeezed into the centre, and the spacing of players gets compressed in that patch. Passes frequently go short, overhit, etc. as guys find themselves with little space to move into, either due to opponents' pressure, or teammates running into their areas. Granted, ball-control and judgment was probably affected by the wet pitch, but still, it's just an excuse. After a few tweaks, we suddenly played wider and opened the game up in the 2nd half, and had a sustained spell of pressure. If the Brummies hadn't floored us with that sucker punch, I've no doubt we'd have nailed them in the end.
Attacking-wise, Rafa really is in a difficult situation given the current lack of depth in the squad. Garcia has shown that he's Murphy II, relishing the chance to get into the middle whenever he wants/can, while Josemi isn't a good wingback option due to his lack of speed (a good run up, lose the ball, and he's not going to get back to cover up). Riise plays wide only up to the 2nd third of the opponents' half, which leaves Traore as the only flank player right now who really sticks to instructions and plays close to the lines and tries to put in crosses. He might not be accomplished in this area, but at least he's playing correctly (if Rafa's stated preference for quick wingers/wingbacks is accurate). Ditto for Finnan - though Finnan is frustratingly inconsistent; he can be whipping in some nasty crosses in one game, but totally shuns crossing in the next. Then you've the likes of Kewell, who's our most effective wide player who plays up front instead. Go further down the list, and you see no other options - Nunez is injured (and the recent interview showing him as preferring to play upfront is really worrying).
For the record, I thought Rafa made the right changes in the team in the 2nd half, though I thought they could've come earlier. Garcia was not doing us any favours playing in the centre when pencilled in on the right, and Rafa pushed him in to the centre by pulling out Pongolle, and inserting Finnan (slotted in at RM). Next came the Riise - Mellor swap, which allowed Kewell to slot into the left where he's most dangerous. The final swap of Biscan for Hamann further rejuvenated the side as he went onto his now trademark surging runs. . The various substitutions, I thought, had their desired effects mostly, but I'd have welcomed them a lot earlier.
One thing did strike me though - that we appeared a little lethargic in the first half, and folks weren't running as hard or as quickly. Maybe it was the midweek CL game that wore out the players - we unfortunately lack the club depth right now to rest/rotate too many players without a significant drop-off in standards.
And how about Baros? How much did we miss him? A lot, judging by what we showed today. As hardworking and as determined as Pongolle is, he lacks Baros' strength and size. We would've asked more challenging questions of the Upson and Cunningham if we had Baros' hard-nosed running in the game. Still, I'd rather he missed a game and recovered fully, than played this one and ended up half-fit all the way.
So, we didn't deserve to lose, and the Brummies didn't deserve 3 points. We did make a mess of it when it mattered though, and we've got only ourselves to blame for that.
Individual Observations:
Kirkland - Didn't have much to do the whole day; came out well to snuff out Muzzy Izzet's breakthrough in the first half, but didn't really need to do much the rest of the game - except to pick the ball out of the net. Bleah.
Traore - Wasn't as solid today as he'd been in the past games, but still, he contributed. Made some really good runs to support the attack, and that move when he ran into the box, checked his run, brought the ball to the right foot (from the left) and dinked a neat chipped pass to a teammate was very well done. Riise wouldn't have been able to do that, we know (the right foot and all). Traore disbelivers would probably have a field day sniping him for his inability to win the header at the far post; the ball eventually falling nicely for Sicknote to bundle home. I see it otherwise though - he simply lost out on a header - he did challenge, and it was the job of his teammates to cover the backdoor. I'd continute to keep him in the starting lineup.
Josemi - Oh dear. I know Gronkjaer, with all his pace, isn't the easiest guy to deal with, but Josemi not only lost out in speed, he lost out in intelligence as well. He resorted to fouling several times to stop his man, and deserved a yellow card for that. Got better in the 2nd half, as the Brummies chose to pack it deep in their halves to gain a point. Josemi showed up as a hard strong man with decent pace when he first joined, but he's now a major liability at the back. I don't want to make a scapegoat of him, but Josemi, in his over-zealousness, needlessly conceded the corner that led to the goal. Carra had his man covered, and being the excellent man-to-man defender he is, Carra perhaps didn't need Josemi charging in like a bull and crashing the ball into the bye line.
Carra and Hyppia - One hairy moment when they somehow allowed Muzzy Izzet to slip through, but otherwise solid games for both of them. I'm not sure what happened for the Brummies' goal - Carra and Finnan were nearest to Anderton, so it's possible between them both, they lost the guy. They looked shocked when Sicknote appeared from behind them to bundle the ball home.
Riise - I'm going to stop writing about growing a right foot, because I'm repeating this ad nauseam. Having said that, I thought Riise did fairly well - nothing spectacular, but helped out in the defence pretty well, while also contributing to the attacks down the left. Crossing needs to improve, as usual.
Garcia - I was utterly disappointed - how can you continuously stare golden opportunities in the face and let them slip away? He just wasn't in the game today. I liked the fact he worked to win the ball, taking the ball off opponents' feet, etc. but his attacking play was woeful today. Passes were to nobody in particular, tried to do too much, like taking on a few people at once in tight spaces, and the greatest sin of all - forsaking his place on the right, and drifting into the central area too much, therefore narrowing our play and making it easier for the Brummies to defend against us. If not for the lack of players we have now who can play RM (Finnan is serviceable but inconsistent), I'd have called for him to be relegated to the bench for the next games until he realizes what those white lines on the field are for.
Xabi - Played well, sweet passing as usual, but his tackling and ball-winning needs more work. Again, I think the Xabi-Hamann combo is serviceable, but the combo everyone's really waiting for is still a couple of weeks away. We missed Stevie G's strong runs today (though Biscan has fancied himself as Stevie G's twin recently, and has done a good impersonation, to be honest).
Hamann - Thought he was quiet today (well, he usually is effectively and efficiently quiet). Like in the midweek game, wasn't at his best today as well.
Pongolle - A lot of hard-running, but some woeful ball-control undid the good work he did in getting into positions. He's a small lad, which means that unlike Baros, it isn't too difficult to muscle him off the ball. I don't think it's fair to comment on his linkage with Kewell, Garcia, etc. since it's really his first meaningful game with the lads.
Kewell - Folks would've hated the way he was so easily pushed off the ball at times, or the way someone could seemingly easily step in and stop him in the midst of a run. However, I liked the intelligence in his game today. He might've lost his pace (and I'm beginning to fear it's permanent), but he showed great football smarts in the way he laid on passes to teammates, or dummied. I still think he's our best wide threat, but his lack of pace these days might be why he isn't getting much time in that position (LM). Plus, Riise's been doing ok there (not great, but serviceable), and moving Kewell to the left would mean having to bump Riise off. With the way Traore's playing, Riise isn't getting into LB, which means it's bench time. With his improved play this season (over the last), Riise probably wouldn't be too pleased with that.
Finnan - Did a lot more from the right in a much shorter time than Garcia did. One thing you won't get from Finnan is an overwhelming tendency to leave battlestations. Put him on the right, with specific instructions to stay wide, and put in crosses or draw defenders up and open the centre, and he'll do that. I thought his introduction really opened up the game for us in the 2nd half.
Mellor - Good to see the lad getting a run-out. Didn't really touch the ball much.
Biscan - Came in, and immediately went on his mazy runs (actually Carra had a simiar but shorter one before that - what's up with these crazy guys pretending to be Maradona... Very Happy). I thought Hamann should've been brought out earlier; Birmingham wasn't being too much of a threat, so swapping out defensive ability for offensive potential was perhaps what we needed to do earlier in the game.
It seems that someone put a curse on us from the Roy Evans era onwards, and we haven't recovered since. Each season, we keep choking a few times against opposition we ought to be beating convincingly. Granted, Birmingham probably isn't as bad as their current position shows, but there was no reason to lose today, especially given the way they played too. 5 points dropped in 2 games, and I think we're probably ready to kiss a top-2 finish good-bye at this rate.
