What is hard to understand is how under acun, Rosenior was signed as manager, maybe a fluke, and then the quality of players that signed and on loan - was this the new manager drawing the quality players? And then from summer 2024, signing absolute dogshit, for not far off the same level of financial cost - how can it have gone so wrong in one season. The last ten games, the team has looked like a mid-league one level club and the results have shown this.
It shows as much as some don’t believe that we really did go bollox deep to get promotion last season
Which of them have been complete dog ****? Giles, but he was signed under the previous manager and we were obligated to sign him full time. And he came with a solid reputation and only turned out to be dogshit in hindsight. Kasey Palmer The right back who never plays anymore, forgotten his name. Mason Burstow Racciopi The rest have been pretty good long term signings. Puerta, Álzate, Millar, Belloumi, Hughes, Kamara. These are all really good quality team building signings. I think the two manager gambles have been the real problem, not the squad. Neither manager has been up to the job and couldn’t get a tune out of them.
How late we did our business didn't help at all. We were shopping for free agents after the window shut. Long term our signings are alright, but expecting them all to hit the ground running was naive.
i think the summer had some many positive steps we signed some very good younger players who over a couple seasons, would benefit us massively having a consistent team and also sell ons but we also ****ed up with the lateness of the signings and almost panicked in some regards if we'd signed a couple 'cheaper' championship players on top of those more expensive signings, would have been far better players like alan browne etc for example but overall, the summer signings werent as bad as we make out we also brought in an unorthodox manager, and the ridiculous injuries just all compound it
I'd be interested in seeing if Birmingham's new owners were selling out St Andrews last season in the Championship, or Derby with their new owner. If it's so easy and almost anyone could do it I assume they were selling out their grounds almost straight away.
Personally I think our crowds have been great considering the amount of goals scored, home wins and performances throughout the season.
And Puerta and Alzate. All three are in that quadrant. Our midfield has been pretty rubbish all season.
Birmingham’s average was 27,600. Not bad for the third tier. Impossible for us to get that many even if in the PL. Smaller town Bolton also averaged over 26,000.
pretty rubbish is an understatement that's our core trio that have played the most games and theyre all in that same quadrant, theyre a massive massive reason why we struggle to create anything
And that nicely helps explain a big part of our problems. Not a big surprise that Slater is the outlier in the division. Lacks quality yet keeps getting picked. Reasonable versatile squad player nothing more.
I think the lower placement of all three is more tactical rather then their individual abilities. Both Tim and Selles bypass the midfield a lot, Tim obviously more so.
He keeps getting picked because of the three he is the most competitive and determined. He doesn't drift out of games the same way Alzate regularly does, or get brushed off the ball. It's no coincidence our first 10 minutes was our best play of the match.
So Slater received 5% of our passes, and was responsible for 8% of our progressive passes? And Alzate and Puerta made about 12% of our progressive passes each, but only 7.5% and 6.5% of our passes went to them respectively? For me, the problem here is that all our midfielders are below average for receiving the ball, meaning we're not involving them enough, and this isn't news to anyone who has watched us this season. Is Slater's problem that he's being bypassed by bad choices from other players, or that he's not getting in position to receive the ball?
kalman made a big observation about slater he never seems to make himself available to receive the ball, be it mentality, tactical or awareness and this really does back it up
