Birmingham City fans give their verdict on Burnley defeat
Birmingham City fans have been voicing their concerns after the defeat against Burnley.
A lot of the anger and frustration seems to revolve around the choice of tactics again, here's what they had to say:
Tilton1875: Starting to lose faith especially over the 451 obsession.
He says the players are naive for losing games by switching off once per match. Yes the players aint innocent but the Premier is a tough league and chances are few so when you get chances you need finishers on the pitch to deal with it. Bowyer runs deep from midfield to support the attack and his finish today at 0 v 0 was crucial and perhaps with a Phillips on the field it may have changed the game.
Playing 451 has to stop NOW!
Fast Eddie: Terrible, outplayed by Burnley! hate to think what the score will be against Arsenal. Mcleish and his boys have to go, and he should take O'Connor, McFadden, and Larson with him. He must be the only one at St Andrews that can not see how awful his tactics are. Alex take some advice resign before Carson Yeung sacks you, you are hopeless.
PandyBlue: So who is going to replace him? McCleish is the man to take us forward and with a bigger budget this summer he would of built a better team. He certainly would of got a bigger goal threat in.
I think we need to struggle on until January and then hopefully he will have some money to spend and get some quality in.
I think the formation is an issue, but IMO he is playing the best players available at the moment, and this means playing 4-5-1. I think when Cameron is fit after the break and Chucho is back we will start to kick on a bit more. Shame we have tough games and not the likes of Bolton/Burnley.
Monkeyman: At the start of the season I said I'd give him 10 games and now we've played 8. I don't have any faith in the manager at all. He's got quite a lot of things right this season but we always come up short and I just feel that this is a trait of Eck as a manager. I don't think he's much of a motivator and I think he's arrogant when he talks about fans not having a clue about football.
He says there's no evidence that we look better when we're 4-4-2, but we haven't scored in the first 70 minutes of a game so far ths season. All of our goals have come in the last 20 minutes when we're playing 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. That's plenty of evidence Eck!! Grow a set and stop being so stubborn.
I actually don't think it's as cut and dried as 4-4-2 being better than 4-5-1. I think 4-5-1 could work but not with a combination of Tainio, Ferguson, Bowyer, Carsley, DJ, playing in the middle. If you play 4-5-1 you need pace up front and the player has to be able to hold the ball up a bit as well. You need pace out wide and we haven't really got any, and you need a CM who can play a killer pass, the closest we've got is Fahey, who is usually played out wide, and can go missing in a lot of games. In short, while we look ok at the back, apart from at set pieces and picking up the scondary ball, we look completely toothless and this will be our undoing this season.
I really hope Yeung is ruthless and gets rid of Big Eck. I want to see us attack poor teams at home - we MUST win home games to survive. Get rid of Eck, get Strachan in and give him money in January.
Atrik: It would be very interesting to hear what our new owners opinion is of Alex Mc Leish and his training staff. In private of course. Any ideas?
NekoCaseShouldMarryMe:Isn't it an open secret that Carson and his gang have already lined up Keegan to take over next season? I have to say I like the idea but really would prefer McLeish to be given a fair crack with a bit of dough to spend. I like him. He has just been unlucky since he came to Blues. I bet in private he rues the day he gave up the Scotland job to come to our whinging hole.
NWBlue: I am in two minds with Eck, I can see why we play 451, looking at the players we have, but would we have gone 451 at Burnley last year.
There is also a distinct lack of pace and atheletism in the team, and this has got to be down to his picks in the transfer window.
Would I have let CHuco go so soon, or waited to see how bad his dad was, with such a big game coming up and the international week off, and knowing we have virtually no replacement.
In saying all of the above here was a bloke trying to sign a Michel, but the board would not back him with another £500,000, peanuts in football terms.
Yet Brady walks away with £1m,so do I judge the manager when he has got some real money to spend, and a board to back him.
Or do I think he should have done better.
If Bowyer had slipped in the open goal at 451 and Hart not dived the other way at a straight one Eck might well have been right.
All small margins, so with me the jury is out.
JB: We played 4-4-2 at Burnley last season and were awful actually - Keegan? Dont make me laugh. Mr tactically naive, he is past it and would walk at the first hint of criticism. Keep Eck and back him with serious money in January. To change managers now would be crazy and result in relegation without a doubt. I hope the new owners dont act like they play Championship Manager.
