Birmingham City snatched a 2-2 draw against Bristol City on Saturday after a crazy finish at St Andrew’s. A spectacular goal from Dom Ballard had the Robins on course for three points before a controversial penalty, converted by Demarai Gray, ensured the game ended level.
Moments before Gray found the bottom corner from 12 yards, Jhon Solis had the ball in the net for Blues but it was chalked off for offside. The first of two controversial calls referee Will Finnie made in the dying embers of the match. Blues had earlier equalised through an own goal from Sam Tickle after Scott Twine’s opener.
The consequences of a change in style
In the space of two weeks we have seen the pros and potential cons of Blues’ tweaked style of play. On the one hand, Chris Davies is right to make Blues more solid away from home. They won’t get anywhere in the Championship with last season’s points return on the road and something had to change.
By making Blues a more physical team, with an emphasis on set pieces, Davies has gone some way to correcting the most glaring issue from last season. Blues have looked a more competent outfit away from home in Swansea and in Sheffield. However, those same changes aren’t needed at home.
Some will judge the selection of Paik Seung-ho in the number 10 position as a conservative one and Jay Stansfield looked uneasy on the left. His energy and pressing ability in the centre gave Blues an instant lift when Davies introduced Demarai Gray to take up the running on the left on the hour. Davies almost always picked two strikers at St Andrew’s last season and it resulted in a lorry load of goals and the third best home record in the Championship. That is the way to go.
Blues worked the ball through the thirds well enough but they lacked penetration and pace in forward areas to cause Bristol City real issues for the most part. When they went long to August Priske, Bristol City crowded him out effectively. Jason Knight stood on Priske’s toes and Rob Dickie happily challenged him aerially from behind.
The hybrid style Davies set his heart on over the summer, where Blues retain their possession-based philosophy but carry a physical edge, is the right way to go about things in the Championship. But Saturday showed that they don’t quite have the best of both worlds yet.
Jay Stansfield has to play centrally
Stansfield's best position has been a hot topic amongst Blues fans ever since the 23-year-old forward arrived at St Andrew’s three years ago. He initially declared his preference was to play in the number 10 position but buoyed by three successive in-house top scorer awards, Stansfield has started to believe his calling is as a centre-forward.
Davies agreed with him in League One and almost exclusively used Stansfield through the middle. He played plenty of football as a striker or behind the striker last season and this year he has started on the left. If one thing is clear, Stansfield is at his least effective in the Championship when deployed on the left.
You could see Stansfield come alive when he was moved into the middle midway through the second half and the crowd became more engaged, feeding off their favourite’s relentlessness on the press. Stansfield is at his best when he is allowed to play freely, not restricted to one position within a system, and when he’s on top form he instinctively wanders into goal-scoring positions.
Blues need Stansfield at his best and he hasn’t been near that level out on the left-wing in their opening three games. And he hasn't looked like scoring.
Do we need VAR?
Norwich City manager Philippe Clement has set the VAR debate raging this week after they were on the receiving end of a goal Diego Maradona would have been proud of in their Championship opener versus West Brom. Aune Heggebo nudged the ball into Norwich’s net with his hand to cap a 2-1 win for the Baggies and has subsequently been banned for two matches.
Clement turned up to his press conference on Thursday and listed every country using VAR around the world to question why the Championship hasn’t followed the Premier League’s lead. I’ve always been against the use of VAR personally, because it slows down the game and ruins the natural euphoria goals are supposed to create, but you do wonder whether it would have made the frenetic end to Saturday’s match simpler for the referee.
Finnie and his assistant on the far side managed to upset both managers – which usually takes some doing. “I’m not a big fan of VAR, I just think it should be goalline technology and offsides,” Blues manager Davies commented. “That’s what I like about VAR. Every other decision should be the subjective one of the referee in that moment, otherwise you just pass it onto someone else having a subjective decision.
“My view on VAR is offsides and goalline technology great, the rest of it I wouldn’t use.”
Osayi-Samuel switch was tactical
On a more positive note, Davies reported that Bright Osayi-Samuel’s half-time withdrawal was purely tactical, not injury-related. Osayi-Samuel has had a positive start to the season and didn’t do much wrong in the first half other than tug back Yu Hirakawa in midfield to earn a booking.
Explaining his decision to replace Osayi-Samuel with Ethan Laird, Davies said: “Bright was absolutely fine. I was very wary how much they were breaking away and their counter-attacking threat, and the pace of their winger.
“He was on a booking so I thought it was an opportunity to get Ethan on and make the sub now, rather than 10 minutes into the half and lose another opportunity to make it. Bright was fine. It was just unfortunate that he picked that yellow card up and there was a decision to make to protect him so we didn’t go down to 10 men unnecessarily.”
