Birmingham City were condemned to relegation from the top flight yesterday after defeat to Spurs at White Hart Lane left them consigned to a season in the Championship next year. But for all their effort, Birmingham’s time in the Premier League was marred by dull, dreary football and most neutral fans won’t be sad to see the back of them.
The club’s failure to expand and build on last season’s heady 9th place finish is at the root of their downfall. Last season Birmingham built their platform on a string of strong defensive performances and a decent home record. It has to be said that they still struggled to score goals but the nucleus for a solid mid-table side in the years to come was there for all to see.
However, in the summer manager Alex McLeish found it difficult to bring in the players that he wanted and despite Birmingham still being difficult to break down, the lack of pace and penetration up top has cost them dearly this term.
Cameron Jerome has all the attributes to trouble a centre half – pace, power, strength – but he lacks composure in front of goal and the intelligence to exploit space when it’s granted to him and he‘s been without a league goal for a shocking 6 months. He finished last term with 10 league goals to his name, whereas this term a chronic lack of confidence in front of goal, a trait that you could assign to most of his beleaguered team mates, has seen him strike just 3 times in the league the whole campaign.
Beyond Jerome, the club’s attacking options are threadbare, which is the crux of the issue behind their relegation. Nikola Zigic sometimes leaves you wondering how he ever became a professional footballer. Baring his height, he offers very little. Jean Beausejour was a bright spark in Chile’s World Cup effort last summer but his form has been erratic. The likes of Alexander Hleb and Obafemi Martins have struggled with injuries and to adapt to Birmingham’s style of play. The less said about Matt Derbyshire and David Bentley, however, the better.
It would seem odd to criticise a manager that has led the club to a domestic trophy this season and with it European football next season, but the blame for the club’s relegation lies firmly at the feet of manager Alex McLeish.
The club have been beyond poor since their Carling Cup triumph over Arsenal back in February and they’ve scored just 37 league goals all season – the problems evident last season when the side put away just 38 league goals have not been rectified and the lack of development on the pitch and a regression to dour, outdated tactics has cost the club dear. A run of just 2 wins in 12 sucked them from mid-table obscurity into a relegation dogfight, one in which they’ve ultimately proved unsuccessful in staving off.
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You simply can’t expect to stay in the Premier League year after year averaging less than a goal a game. Granted, McLeish missed out on his preferred targets in the summer, but he had money to invest and he’s invested it poorly. Injuries haven’t helped a threadbare squad, but the inherent defensiveness of the manager is the root of the problem here. Under a different manager, Birmingham may have stayed up.
When sides around them threw caution to the wind in an attempt to stay up, Birmingham burnt out and became even more defensive, if that was at all possible. Their Premier League status was built upon the premise that they were difficult to beat, but this season they’ve been anything but.
They’ve been impotent in front of goal and the injury to Scott Dann back in January has proved to be more of a turning point in their campaign than previously anticipated. McLeish must shoulder the blame, for while Blackpool went down with a fight, Birmingham went down with a whimper. While it would be reckless to play extravagant football without the players necessary to do so, the sheer lack of ambition and attacking intent shown by them throughout the duration of the campaign has seen them deservedly punished with relegation.
