Often Partisan @often-partisan-blog - Tumblr Blog

Are Birmingham City going to finish in the play-offs?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: Okay, so it’s not impossible for this to happen (pretty much nothing is impossible in the Championship). But it would require an absolutely brilliant season and probably very good luck with injuries.

Here’s my reasons why I don’t think we’ll finish in the play offs:

I generally think our back 4 is pretty good, and in the holding midfielder position the team is pretty good as well (LB - Grounds, CB - Morrison, Spector, RB - Caddis, CDM - Kieftenbeld and Gleeson). However, though he didn’t do much wrong against Burnley I am not really convinced that Kuszczak is the answer in goal because he doesn’t look confident or commanding enough. I think that strikers will get chances off rebounds and that we will concede too many goals this way if we are not careful. While Randolph last season did drop the odd clanger as all goalkeepers do I just felt much more confident with him in goal.

The second problem for Blues is in the attacking areas. Both Gray and Cotterill are capable of doing damage to probably any defense in the Championship. The difficulty is the consistency of these players, sometimes Cotterill is good and other times he’s dreadful, and Gray is still young and that generally means inconsistent, and he dropped off the pace for the second half of the season last season. Toral looks decent but again as he is only a loan player we do not know how good he is going to be. The other problem is Donaldson. Not Donaldson himself, who is a pretty good, hard working striker who contributes both goals and in other ways to the team. The problem is if he gets injured. While we have signed a new Danish striker from their league, we have no clue of how he is going to adapt to the English game. Unless this lad adapts quickly, we could struggle up front without Donaldson. It’s not just goals - its the hold up play that he does - it’s vital.

The third possible weakness I just hinted at is the depth of the squad. Pretty much self explanatory really, if we pick up long term injuries to key players we could be in trouble. Centre midfield is not too bad because we also have David Davis in that position, but I’m not sure on other positions. For example, I don’t think we can rely on Paul Robinson simply due to age - he might be okay as a sub to shore things up but I felt like his legs were beginning to go a bit last season, and was surprised he was still there in a playing capacity.

In short I don’t think Blues have enough to make the play offs without luck and players performing consistently. With Rowett I don’t think we’ll go down but I can see another mid table finish the most likely option (presuming Rowett is not poached by another club).

#birmingham city #birmingham city fc #bcfc #blues

#david cameron #aston villa

Blues 1-1 Derby

Okay, this game was a 10/10 on the entertainment scale, how there was only 2 goals in this match I don’t know. If I say that there were nearly 40 attempts on goal and that Derby hit the woodwork about 4 times does that give you an idea?

Blues started the game the better team, for the first 12 minutes they were dominant and created good chances. A knockdown from Donaldson to Gray created a decent 25 yard range strike which was a straightforward save for Carson. A cross and Donaldson header forced a very good save from Carson, and another Demarai Gray effort cutting inside was challenging. However, one through ball from Derby almost caused major problems, and while we were able to tackle the player it caused a momentum shift in favour of Derby who then hit the woodwork from a curled strike and Darren Bent also missed two at least presentable opportunities. The game then evened out a little, and Cotterill was ambitious enough to have a go from at least 50 yards. On the stroke of half time though Blues went into the lead with a fabulous strike from Stephen Gleeson, 30 yards out and hit high into the corner.

After the break Blues should have made it 2-0 with an effort dropping to Jon Toral but he sliced it. Derby eventually managed to equalise about 60 minutes and then almost went ahead after a low shot by Weimann hit the post, the ball bounced back to Kuszczak off the post. Derby were probably on top near the end of the game, but in general both teams went out to play attacking football and to try and get the win. There was some decent defending from Blues to prevent Derby getting more chances. At one point at 1-1 it looked like the referee was going to give Derby a penalty but it turned out to be a booking for diving, I thought it was a good challenge.

Birmingham man of the match: Jonathan Spector. Put in several excellent tackles, and generally had strong positioning.

#birmingham city #birmingham city fc #derby #derby county #derby county fc #Championship #match report

lcfcstatto-blog

Pundits writing #LCFC & Ranieri off need to take a look at this

I’ve got a bit sick and tired of so-called ‘expert’ pundits writing ‪#‎LCFC‬ off and especially the hypocrisy surrounding Ranieri’s appointment. I’m sure Benitez, Rodgers & Wenger are classed as great managers and wouldn’t be greeted with such negativity, yet Ranieri has a better record than them in similar circumstances club wise.

So, I’ve compared Ranieri’s record over the last 10 years to 10 other top european managers if similar ilk and other top premier league managers for contrast.

Its answers the common unfounded arguments against Ranieri;

“He’s only done well because he’s had money!” -As have other managers that have done not so well in similar circumstances - he also finished 2nd with Roma having sold more than he spent

“He should have won the league having the resources at those big clubs?” -Really? And so should have Benitez, Rodgers & Wenger then - and Pellegrini, Koeman and Ancelotti should have won more also

“He’s never stayed at a club for long since Chelsea - not a good sign…” -Neither has Benitez since Liverpool, Ancelotti since AC Milan, Mancini since Inter Milan, Pellegrini since Villarreal, Van Gaal since AZ Alkmaar, Mourinho since his first stint at Chelsea…

“He’s never managed in a relegation battle!” -See Parma

“The premiership has changed since then…” -really? Wenger is still in charge and Mourinho has left and come back since

“He’s achieved nothing since leaving Chelsea!” - wrong, take a look for yourself…

#leicester city #statistics #reblog

fyeahlcfc

Football and the lost art of optimism and patience

You’d think that after defying the odds and pulling off the greatest escape that Leicester fans would be bouncing off the walls ahead of their second season in the Premier League. You’d also think this escape and the performances that ensured it happened would have meant that the media wouldn’t automatically write us off and predict us to finish bottom again. Well, you’d be wrong.

Keep reading

#leicester city #claudio ranieri #reblog

Blues 2-1 Reading

That game could be shown as the dictionary definition of ‘how not to close out a game’. So we get to be two-nil up, a free kick from Cotterill before the break, and a header after it. Great. Look like we are going to be in control. Oh...crap...its two-one. After we went two-nil up we got hammered. It was terrible. Constant giving the ball away and Reading coming back at us. We lacked composure. And then Reading had a strike which went on the underside of the bar and bounced on/over the line, not given by the referee. Honestly, I couldn’t be sure but it looked like it might have been in. 5 minutes of extra time not really warranted by the level of injuries/timewasting that had been going on. Reading get a penalty in the last minute. Maybe a soft one. Kuszczak played terribly all game he’s not going to save this is he? Oh bloody hell, he just saved it and now the rebound was missed and went wide. That’s it after about 8 minutes of extra time so the referee blows the whistle.

We were lucky to win this game because we allowed too much complacency after getting two-nil up and shot ourselves in the foot from what should have been a commanding position.

#birmingham city #bcfc #blues #reading #reading fc #championship #match report #original post