Birmingham

KVetch

Key Player
When Cooper started he used his substitutions but what happened over the end of last season where he's not using them or sending them on in the last 10 minutes.
 

KVetch

Key Player
A point. Glad we didn't concede. Rodon and Guehi played well, came out strong at the start. Could have used a couple more fresh legs. Passing was decent, needed more creativity and shots on target. Could get ugly agaonst stronger teams.

Without any drastic changes in addition to lots of luck we could fight for 6th place again. I am afraid they will sell Ayew at some point. Guehi, Cabango, Rodon is a strong and young defense.
 

jasper_T

First Teamer
A point. Glad we didn't concede. Rodon and Guehi played well, came out strong at the start. Could have used a couple more fresh legs. Passing was decent, needed more creativity and shots on target. Could get ugly agaonst stronger teams.

Without any drastic changes in addition to lots of luck we could fight for 6th place again. I am afraid they will sell Ayew at some point. Guehi, Cabango, Rodon is a strong and young defense.
Guehi had one of those days where I was waiting for the mistake, and he made quite a few under no pressure. If he can cut that out of his game he can be a very good defender at this level. But he's no Joe, immense again.

Bidwell too high for me, Guehi was at left back for long stretches and the ball kept coming back to the right because we had no outlet in space on that side to stretch them. Not sure about Grimes playing ahead of Smith either. Grimes can't get the ball, Smith doesn't seem to want it.

Cullen on 10 minutes earlier and Peterson with him would've been nice. Ran out of puff and ideas going forward, and invited unnecessary pressure.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Cooper hasn't got a clue! Our play was predictable; movement, minimal; passing, poor; creativity zero; pace almost non-existent and Cooper was way too late with his substitutions. But I hope even he got a sniff of the energy that Cullen produced in the nanosecond cameo he was allowed. Cullen exists to score goals, his raison d'etre in life, but he needs game time to get up to speed.

All in all a waste of two hours of my life, which I wouldn't begrudge if I could see signs of genuine progress with our game. I don't.
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
Cooper hasn't got a clue! Our play was predictable; movement, minimal; passing, poor; creativity zero; pace almost non-existent and Cooper was way too late with his substitutions. But I hope even he got a sniff of the energy that Cullen produced in the nanosecond cameo he was allowed. Cullen exists to score goals, his raison d'etre in life, but he needs game time to get up to speed.

All in all a waste of two hours of my life, which I wouldn't begrudge if I could see signs of genuine progress with our game. I don't.
Totally agree Ivor, I too feel it was a waste of 1hr-45mins of my life didn't watch the final 15 mins, as it seemed it was going to be a 0-0 or 0-1, got myself a beer instead and got in the spa.
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
WTF goes on on the training ground, If that's Coopers best excuse for attacking football then it really is time he was replaced, we play well out of defence, but it all comes to nothing either from a too long cross, or losing possession. Not once did Cooper get out of his armchair to do anything about it. Again the consistent wide play makes it so easy for the opposition to read our game. I don't think we mustered one attack down the middle, where Ayew is probably at his best, and the B/ham defence at its worse.
We claimed to have 62% possession, but allowed B/ham more shots, and conceded more corners to them. If our shots on goal include those feeble headers ( I've seen stronger back passes to a keeper.} A final word from Cooper "well it was a clean sheet and a step forward". He should be too ashamed to make statements like that.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Some stats from what was an uninspiring performance:

POSSESSION: 61-39 SHOTS: 8-10 OT: 5-3 CORNERS: 5-8 FOULS: 10-13 GOALS: BUGGER ALL!!

You will note that, despite our much greater possession, Brum managed two more attempts on goal than we did and three more corners. That tell you something? Yes, our football is ineffective. Okay, we had more on target but only a couple that actually threatened the net. Cooper says he's desperate for a striker, well he's got one. Whilst it's early doors in the season, I'd give Liam at least a couple of starts to find out where he's at. No harm done if he doesn't click immediately because we're not clicking up front anyway. But he just might surprise us.
 
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