Burnley 2 Birmingham City 1: Colin Tattum's big match verdict

Oct 5 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

HE WAS a rugged, not-to-be-messed-with centre-half in his day, yet Alex McLeish has been a thinker and a model of calm rationale since moving into management.

However, the fiery old Glaswegian red head within him resurfaced at Burnley, where Blues slumped to a sorry defeat.

He was as angry as he has been during his time at Blues, at least publicly anyway, during the post-match interviews.

Usually measured, he let his composure slip when asked about formations and whether Blues should have been more adventurous.

The obsession with tactics has got under his skin and the bilious Stan Collymore again couldn’t help himself when he described Blues as ‘anti-football’ because of the midfield selected, which just added more fuel to a fire that has been engulfing McLeish.

It’s not that Blues aren’t adventurous per se – to suggest ‘anti-football’ is embarrassing for Collymore – it’s moreover that they have shortcomings and limitations in personnel and athleticism and on certain given days like at Turf Moor, when there’s sloppiness and errors weaved in, the end result is bad. Very bad.

McLeish could throw off the shackles some more but risking an open, end-to-end match is something he won’t do for fear that it doesn’t play to what strengths Blues have at present.

It was ironic that Burnley played 4-5-1 and used a centre-half, Andre Bikey, and Graham Alexander, a full-back by trade, as pivots in front of the defence. Heaven help McLeish if he ever selected, say, Roger Johnson and Franck Queudrue in such roles at St Andrew’s.

It worked for the Clarets because further up the field they had livewire players full of sprightly movement. Wayne Elliott buzzed about behind David Nugent, Robbie Blake and Steven Fletcher roamed with purpose from the flanks.

Burnley were also more dominant in the contact and tended to get to loose stuff first. They had an air of a side that was under no pressure and happy in its own skin. And they continued to be enthused by that first-season syndrome.

In their 4-5-1 Blues are more measured in their passing – although it was all over the place on Saturday – and they didn’t show that kind of Burnley trickery; plus speed and natural width to stretch and snap the opposition is something the team has lacked for a while.

Without Christian Benitez and Cameron Jerome, the side was decidedly one-paced and it didn’t help that in the centre of defence Johnson and Scott Dann seemed more rookie than reliable and Joe Hart made an awful hash of trying to save Fletcher’s 53rd-minute shot.

Until that moment, the game was meandering along. There was little in it and Blues were comfortable enough without being eye-catching.

Burnley had pushed Blues back in the opening half but the best chance fell at Lee Bowyer’s feet or, rather, whizzed at them. Johnson dragged a cross-shot square and Bowyer’s miscue, off his left heel from four yards, sent the ball back the way it came.