BRUM IS BLUE!

Davies suffered his first Home Defeat since joining Blues last night as we were knocked out, by League One’s Port Vale, in a shock result in the Carabao Cup. It was potentially the biggest shock of the Tuesday night (And Man U, the gift that keeps on giving, was probably the biggest shock this week) and to be fair to them Vale came, knew what they needed to do, were tidy with it and fair play to them.

Blues looked poor throughout much of the game, especially when comparing it to the first round when we were energetic and dominating over Sheffield United. There were ten changes and throughout all of them there seemed to be a distinct lack of interest, no one seemed to play as though it was an opportunity to throw your hat into the first team.

I find it frustrating when we pass around the back and last night it seemed to be all the lads wanted to do. I hold my hands up and admit I watched it from the sofa as the wife was already out, so perhaps my perspective was different, but there were times we were passing back when there was a clear forward pass. Instead we seemed to amble at the back passing the ball closer and closer to Beadle.

I get the whole possession based football thing, I’m not a huge fan of it for the most part but it does have a place, what I don’t get is a sheer reluctance to press forward. I feel they should always look for a forward pass first but they didn’t seem to last night, once they did make the pass too often the player didn’t move or Vale were quick to close them down. We tried to play down the wing but couldn’t get a cross in off Sampsted, yet we kept on trying this same routine to the same end.

Leonard had a particularly bad game I thought. I do like Leonard as well (Which is probably why I’ve singled him out) so I felt bad for him but he just couldn’t seem to control the ball, couldn’t make a pass, couldn’t win a challenge but it summed up most players night. There was a brief uplift in energy as the subs were made but none of it seemed to amount to anything. Ultimately Port Vale stuck to their game plan and were the better of the two teams.

So, the big question is what went wrong? I’d been quite confident that our bench would be strong enough to deal with Port Vale, in fact I was quite sure that we had strength in depth. Last night would suggest otherwise. If game time is an issue, and it was just caused by them not having played much football together then how will they step up when the time comes.

Davies was fuming throughout the game, it’s certainly not the performance he wants from the lads, he was animated on the touchline, he was vocal after the match and rightly so. It’s not so much that we were desperate to progress in the cup, I’m sure deep down the players will appreciate not having to play in every competition, but if Blues are setting high standards they need to be maintained across the entire squad.

All in all I’m not at panic-stations as it wasn’t our first choice team, I am however questioning what happens if a player gets a sustained period of injury, will any of the players from Tuesday night manage to step up and offer a like for like stand in or not? With Stanno suffering an ankle injury during the game as well it could be we start to see the answers to this question sooner rather than later!