Birmingham City made it three wins from four in the Championship by beating Bristol City 2-1 on Saturday, rounding off their season at St Andrew's with a victory. A third goal of the season for the resurgent Phil Neumann and Jhon Solis's first goal for Blues sealed another win. Blues were given a scare by Tomi Horvat's late penalty but held on for a third victory in four games to strengthen their grip on 10th place with one game to play.
A Turnaround in Three Weeks
Chris Davies held a post-match debrief on the pitch on Good Friday after Blackburn had inflicted a fifth defeat in seven games on Blues. The manager was cajoling his players before they had to walk around the St Andrew's pitch to face the music after one bad display too many. At that stage it felt very much as though Davies was fighting for his job, and that could still be the case, but the manager can now present a strong case for a reprieve. Indeed, he was serenaded around St Andrew's by supporters in the annual lap of appreciation. The introduction of August Priske has been a much-needed move. Priske hasn't found the net yet – he won't come closer than the dinked effort that bounced back off the post against Bristol City – but he has allowed Blues to change their style. Priske's primary job has been to occupy and compete with the centre-backs who have found physical contests with Jay Stansfield and Marvin Ducksch light work. With Priske up front, Neumann and Christoph Klarer in defence and Solis in midfield, Blues look physical enough for the Championship. They didn't compete well enough for much of this season.
'Extreme' Tactic Worked
Those who like to keep an eye on Davies' movements in the technical area will have seen him even more animated than usual in the first half of the match. Davies had tweaked Blues' press slightly in an attempt to stop Sam Morsy orchestrating attacks from deep and he bellowed orders at his players to make sure they didn't miss a beat. It looked a little bit messy at times – or 'extreme' if you want to use Davies' terminology – with Carlos Vicente and Demarai Gray dropping deep to track full-backs in Bristol City's build-up, Solis jumping to press with Stansfield and Priske at an exact moment and Klarer moving into midfield to ensure the dangerous Scott Twine was also man-marked. The press worked a treat in the 29th minute when Solis committed and dispossessed Morsy on the edge of the Robins' box before producing a terrific left-footed finish.
Explaining it, Davies said: 'When the full-backs push on and the wingers come inside, it's how you deal with it. The only way that's effective from their point of view is if they're really brave and they play, otherwise it's not effective at all. I've seen them be really brave and try to play through Morsy a lot so there's only one solution when they're like that, which is to be man to man in my eyes. When one of the sixes gets hooked back because one of the centre-backs hasn't released, then he's free again. It did look extreme but I think it needed to be and it's good because the goal came from it and I could show them that at half-time. He's gone all the way with Morsy, a guy that never normally makes mistakes has felt that pressure and made a mistake, then to score from it was incredible. That's press to score – what you really want to do.'
What About Patrick Roberts?
How has a player so integral to some of Blues' best wins this season become such an afterthought? For the fourth game running, Patrick Roberts was an unused substitute in the win over Bristol City. Davies addressed Roberts' lack of minutes in his pre-match press conference on Friday and pointed to the tactical jobs Carlos Vicente has been asked to do on the right-wing. The Bristol City game was a good example of another. Would Roberts have been comfortable man-marking and tracking Cameron Pring when Blues didn't have the ball? Possibly not. Davies wasn't asked about Roberts' latest omission in his post-match press conference but he did, unprompted, lavish Vicente with more praise. 'You don't want to single out individuals but Carlos Vicente, what he gave us on that right side was exceptional,' Davies said. There appears to be breathing space between Blues' two right-wingers and perhaps unsurprisingly, the man who was prised away from La Liga for £7million and a hefty pay packet is now top dog.
A Pinch of Salt
Whilst Blues' end to the season has thrown up some positives heading towards the summer, we need to factor in the opposition and the fact that the pressure is off. The win over Wrexham was impressive, so too the battling draw at Hull City, with both of those teams in the mix for the play-offs, but victories against Preston and Bristol City in complete dead rubbers isn't going to convince everyone that all of the problems have vanished. The real question is whether we've seen enough to suggest Blues are going to be actual contenders next season. To do that their away record will need to be somewhere near their home record – which reads an impressive 44 points from 23 games. Is their newfound directness going to help them grind out results on the road? I think it might – but we haven't seen much evidence of it yet other than a draw against a Hull side seemingly determined to throw a play-off place away.
