No Cutting Edge – the BCFC v Peterborough review

Here are my reflections on the Birmingham City v Peterborough United game at St Andrews this afternoon.

1) Two Points dropped

I came away from the game today disappointed that Blues hadn’t won the game. In the first twenty minutes we looked about three classes above the Posh; by the end of the first half I was thinking the lack of ruthlessness displayed by Blues in front of goal was going to cost us – which in the end it did. I’m not sure if it’s just me who thinks this, but it does seem that Blues try to overcomplicate it. At the end of the game, we had plenty of bodies in the box often but there didn’t seem enough effort to at least hopefully hoick it into the box – all it takes is a lucky bobble, bounce or rebound and the ball can be in the back of the net – particularly when the defence is as rickety as Peterborough’s is.

2) David Murphy

I’ve been a massive proponent of Murph getting a run in the side, and for me his performance today proved why he should be in the team. Granted, he can be turned defensively but his engine going forwards rivalled Carr’s – the turn of pace to get onto the ball before he crossed for King to score was incredible. He’s another option on free kicks, he was unlucky not to score himself when he glanced it wide stretching for a header and he offers us more pace when we’re on the attack.

3) Keith Fahey

I’m normally a defender of our Irish central midfielder but today I’m going to have to criticise him. I understand his technical limitations aren’t his fault – if he’s not good enough then he shouldn’t be picked – but I lost count today of the amount of times he was caught in possession. In injury time, pressing for an equaliser, he was caught out at least three times dallying with the ball when he may have been better just putting a hopeful ball in. As Peterborough pressed onto our fullbacks, and Beausejour and Burke fell out of the game our midfield just evaporated – there just seemed to be this permanent massive gap in the middle between the back four and the front two. He needs to impose himself more on games, and to my mind Elliott has to start instead of him against Burnley.

4) Nikola Zigic

It was another curate’s egg of a cameo performance from the big Zig; he won some good balls in the build up and laid them off well with headers and touches to the side – really giving us a bit of oomph up the pitch – and then when the ball was invitingly crossed into the box, he wasn’t even close. It’s a bit worrying that only King seems to be on the boil at the moment – Zigic doesn’t look into it, Wood was off the pace somewhat today and Rooney doesn’t seem good enough in previous games. I think Blues need to see what they can get for the big Serb and cash in in the window cos he ain’t going to do it for us – it’s time to move him on and see what we can get with the 50k a week gap from where his wages were.

It’s not time to get too downhearted, but I really think Hughton needs to shake the team up a bit – we looked ace for twenty minutes but once the space the fullbacks were moving into was closed we looked a bit devoid of ideas. We don’t seem to have the confidence to really have a go at goal, and we have a midfield that seems a bit powder-puff when the going gets tough. It’ll be a test of Hughton’s skill to see how he can shuffle the pack and get the momentum going once more.

Tags: Chris Hughton, David Murphy, Keith Fahey, Nikola Zigic

DoctorD says:

November 19, 2011 at 7:19 pm

Thanks for the match report Almajir. I was stuck in front of BBC’s Final Score so I had no idea how we were really performing. Hopefully this is a slack spell and things will pick up. We were a bit spoiled with that run of six wins on the spin.

Berkshire Blue says:

November 19, 2011 at 8:01 pm

Talking of curate’s eggs I thought Beasejour also had a bit of a mixed performance. Really energetic for the first 30 mins and set up Murphy for King’s goal but then in the second half gave away the equaliser through a loose pass and a reckless challenge to try and get it back. In truth we should have been 2 or more up at half time – King had 2 excellent chances apart from his goal but blazed over both times. This game had Greg similarities with the previous one at Reading, Blues dominant in the first half but unable to take their chances and then caught out in the second half.

ScudMuffin says:

November 19, 2011 at 8:58 pm

lack of cutting edge? their keeper played a blinder. the defence were awful, resorting to diving back in the first half. they came out more in the second half, playing for a draw they had to attack all out second half.

fahey was caught in possesion in the second half because he had nowhere to go. the last time he got caught was due to a suicide pass from Carr. Carr had the following options: none.

ziggy…more a replacement for king than wood, thrown in because he’s more a defensive forward. also the look kb the backs faces said a lot. as with most teams, two men were required to deal with him.

two points dropped? any other day that performance would have been a 7-1 win. ziggy, king, the rest netting.

alexjhurley says:

November 20, 2011 at 9:35 am

If I were a pboro fan is have left the game yesterday ecstatic with my undeserved point. Agree that we lacked killer instinct in final 3rd, but also lady luck was most definately pboros best player.

BeeGeeBlueBoy says:

November 20, 2011 at 10:34 am

Defence is good as any in this division; c/mid lack heart – a leader is needed plus Mutch; we don’t force opposition defenders to make mistakes because we take too long to create openings.

I think the quality of our approach play in the opposition half is getting poorer match by match. We are now on a slump: no wins in three games. This team is finding its level: midtable

November 20, 2011 at 11:33 am

Bee gee blue, I agree we need more drive from midfield – with ndaw, mutch redmond and Elliot we’ve got good options to shake things up and its time to do so. That said I totally disagree re approach play getting worse – it was excellent in the first 45 yesterday, as well as we’ve played in the league at stans in the league this season, surely ?

Dirty Bertie says:

November 20, 2011 at 2:42 pm

Player mentality, what can you do? Game every other day and they give you the full 94 mins. 2 weeks rest, they give you 30 mins of wham bam thank you mam, have a fag then fall asleep! (mind you, whish I could last 3 mins). No wonder CH keeps his hair is so short, stops him pulling too much out.

2 games a week at least means less time for them to forget what they’re supposed to be doing.

T says:

November 20, 2011 at 7:38 pm

Although the new attacking football is refreshing, does anyone else think Hughton is a bit limited tactics wise? The reason we played so well in the first half was because Posh played with a diamond midfield which left plenty of space down the wings. I lost count of the amount of times we had 2v1 on their full backs. We played rubbish in the second half because Ferguson noticed his mistake and switched to a flat midfield with wide midfielders picking up our full backs when we were in possession. Wood was rubbish again yesterday and it should of been Elliot who came on to replace him, not Zigic. King is easily our best striker and would be perfect upfront in a 4-3-3/4-5-1, it’s just a shame that most of our fans think that anything other than 4-4-2 is defensive.