Birmingham City
Blues Trust
Blues 4 All
Karl Hein the Arsenal keeper on loan to Reading keeps Blues Caribbean Crew at Bay!
A couple of weeks ago watching the Peterborough v Reading relegation battle at London Road my attention was attracted by the six-foot plus 19 years old keeper on loan from Arsenal. He virtually kept the Posh at bay on his own. Inevitably he was pretty much an impassible obstruction to Blues who dominated the game at Reading last night. Several point-blank stops frustrated Lee Bowyer’s men and it was ironic that our goal eventually was an O.g. Hein reminded me of Jack Butland and already has 13 caps for Estonia.
The problem Blues have at this time with its makeshift, makeshift, defense, is that is hard put to keep clean sheets. No criticism of those who have taken part on those patched up back lines. They have performed miracles.
When you have four or five players in your back line all out of position its very difficult to have those instincts the new position requires. The key instinct is where to be when you have the ball. When your attack breaks down its essential that the defense limits that lost possession.
Reading’s first goal from their first meaningful attack was caused by a loss of possession which opened us up like a boiled mussel. To be fair our best available defense was being caught like that twice weekly under the previous manager. It’s a measure of our improved organization that we are remaining competitive.
We go into the weekend against far more accomplished opposition, in the shape of Huddersfield Town. With respect to all in this division, except Fulham and Bournemouth we should not be down amongst the dead men. Give Reading and Derby their points back and we would be in a perilous position. Don’t be surprised if the EFL did that by the way!
The reverse of that, of course is the terrible decisions we have suffered which must have cost us a dozen points. The injuries we have suffered, not only to the main squad, but to the guys introduced to replace those already injured have been without precedence.
For all the misfortune we have suffered we are enjoying a period of exciting football. Blues are becoming easy on the eye with some good moves and good finishes. We don’t spend long periods under siege but Roberts, Mengi, and Friend might help us survive the short ones.
Where are Troy Deeney, Scott Hogan, Tahith Chong, and the imaginary ‘Taylor Richards’ going to fit in?
Whatever awaits us we do not want or need any last day heroics and we definitely do not any experimental lineups when safety is secured. We have had enough mysterious line ups to last another decade. Get well soon Guys!
Not sure we are competitive – we have wallpapered over the cracks by bringing in loan players. They have had a favourable impact but knowing LB we can expect to see the old guard of Deeney, Hogan and Juke back at least on the bench. – and other mysterious line ups where no notice is taken of where the player would like to play. We are still 15 points behind last years placing which means 5 wins out of our 12 remaining games – mission impossible??