Birmingham City: Now is the time to start judging Alex McLeish's Blues says Sebastian Larsson
Nov 28 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
SEBASTIAN Larsson has declared that only now can Alex McLeish start to be truly judged.
Today marks McLeish’s second anniversary in charge of Blues.
And Larsson, who got McLeish’s tenure off to a flyer with a spectacular stoppage-time winner at Spurs, said he was at last able to stamp his mark.
“This season and this year is when people should judge him and his team,” said the Sweden international.
“When he came in, it’s always hard when it’s not your team, when you take over from someone else and the January window comes round very quickly. Obviously we failed back then and went down.
“The board at the time showed him good faith and kept him there and it was all about just getting the job done last season in the Championship and winning promotion back into the Premiership.
“I think this season is the season where the gaffer can try and get the teams he wants, and get us playing the football he wants us playing. And we’ve begun to see this.
“So I think people should judge him on what we do from now, this season.”
Blues travel to Wolves tomorrow (noon), the side that beat them to the title in 2008-09.
Larsson said that because of the rivals’ relative positions now Wolves go into the derby feeling the heat more.
Blues would open up an eight-point gap with a victory.
“We might be considered favourites, but (we) don’t worry too much about it. We will go there with good confidence and we will be looking to get three points.
“We will be looking to leave some teams behind us; we don’t want to keep looking over the shoulder.
“The pressure is probably on them to get the win as they don’t want to get left behind.
“We know we can get three points there, for sure, but we also know it’s a very tough game. It’s going to be a massive for us and especially for Wolves. They probably know they can’t afford to lose.”
Larsson said that Blues were prepared for a whirlwind start at Molineux.
“It’s a local derby and they always work extremely hard. They are a team who are going to come at you, they are physical and we know, especially on their ground, we are going to have to be strong.
“Early on we are going to have to be solid, defend and try and take what they throw at us. And I think if we can do that, then we can get our game going, our passing game, and come out on top.”
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