NFR - Stale Birmingham plod towards relegation – and they won't be missed

[ImperialWhite]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/dec/23/birmingham-city-relegation-nikola-zigic

Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City have been stitched up. The least entertaining team in the Premier League is Birmingham City. What is more, they will probably be relegated. None shall mourn their passing. The memory of several other aspects of their game, however, may continue to cause sobbing.

Birmingham can pass the ball in basically competent fashion, albeit mostly in front of the opposition, and they retain a certain defensive sturdiness which is padded out by a fine goalkeeper, who occasionally enables his team to scrape improbable victories such as the one over Chelsea. Beyond these qualities Birmingham offer nothing. They have little creativity and no cutting edge. They have no pace. They do not even have the power of Blackburn and Stoke, nor the dynamism of Wolves, who inflicted an emphatic 1-0 defeat on them in their last outing. And Alex McLeish can do little about these shortcomings, since he has been told that there is no money for purchases in January.

Birmingham need at least one effective striker. Nikola Zigic has been a flop so far, lacking the strength, nous and, despite his huge height, the aerial prowess to be a dangerous target man. Cameron Jerome lumbers around diligently but does not have the class regularly to trouble even middling Premier League defences. Kevin Phillips is on the wane.

Birmingham's next match is away to Everton. At St Andrews in October Everton won 2-0 and the home side could not muster a shot on target. That has been symptomatic of their season: they have managed fewer shots on target (and off target) than any other team in the league. That is only partially the fault of the blunt strike force. It is also because of the poverty of the play behind them.

Barry Ferguson remains influential, but he rarely penetrates. Lee Bowyer, too, looks to be in decline. Birmingham's principal supplier to the forwards has been the inconsistent Sebastian Larsson, who can deliver a mean set piece. Defend the Swede's corners and free-kicks and you have nullified Birmingham. And you don't have to defend them regularly: Birmingham have won fewer corners than any team in the league.

When Larsson's deliveries fail to arrive, Birmingham's fall-back option tends to be to launch long balls towards Zigic, irrespective of the fact that the Serb seldom makes meaningful use of them. That is not something Birmingham did when Christian Benítez was up front, which is not to say that McLeish should have kept the Ecuadorian, who, for all his admirable energy and trickery, was infuriatingly wasteful.

McLeish has been unlucky with injuries. Alexander Hleb was a worthy acquisition and would probably have brought some unpredictability, but he has featured only fleetingly. Injury and loss of form have also afflicted James McFadden, who was once the team's chief conjurer. Craig Gardner has brought much-needed vim – plus shooting of rare ferocity – to midfield when he has been able to play, but that has not been often enough.

In the absence of these players, and with Jean Beausejour yet to make an impact, the Blues have plodded. This is also backed up by Opta statistics: Birmingham have completed fewer dribbles and through-balls than any other team in the league, and have the lowest tackle success rate.

There is a staleness about Birmingham. Without the injection of a lot of new blood, it is hard to see how they can finish above at least three teams.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

It is pretty damning, I would argue unfairly so, even if the comments from fans below the article seem to agree with it.

It might be my italian coming out but I have always liked teams that are solid at the back - this is very underrated. They should stay up though for exactly this reason.

[SmithyFFC]

Fear to think what they think of us then!

[ImperialWhite]

Fear to think what they think of us then!

Exactly! I don't buy into the idea London clubs are favoured by the media (Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs excepted because they're successful), but it does seem that our adventures last season have bought us a little goodwill. We're worse than Birmingham, this season.

The relegation battle has shaped up quite clearly now - West Ham, Wigan, Wolves, Fulham and Birmingham. Blackpool and Blackburn are very welcome to join us.

[jarv]

Fulham are miles better than Brum, but yet to prove it with points on the board.

[jarv]

One more comment. McLiesh has a history in management of starting well and then sliding rapidly. He did it at Hibs and Rangers and was not around long enough with Scotland for the latter to happen, which it did after he left for Birmingham.

[BalDrick]

Quite amusing, for all McLeish's talk last season of wanting to emulate Fulham under Hodgson, he's doing a great job of emulating us under Hughes!

I for one will be far from sorry to see them go.