Birmingham City: Alex McLeish pledges to keep Blues in the Premier League
“I think that the central defence has been crying out for investment over the last few years and I also believe the same of the midfield,” he said. “There’s been no investment at all.
“Damien Johnson’s been here, we brought Lee Bowyer in on loan last year, Keith Fahey was the find of the season for me and we brought Lee Carsley to the club, but other than that we didn’t really invest in these two positions.
“I have concentrated on these positions to make us strong and brought in Joe Hart to give us a really tough spine in this team.
“If we get those two departments right, then we will not only have people who make us hard to beat, but people who can make things happen in a positive sense as well.”
He added: “Roger Johnson uses the ball reasonably well, Scott Dann uses the ball reasonably well and it’s a little bit different in style to the centre-backs who have been chopped and changed over the last three years. I think we used six different centre-backs in that time. We’ve had no real stability in that position.
“And as I’ve said, I have been looking for a certain type in midfield because we’ve had players of similar styles playing together.”
Keeping it solid and safe doesn’t mean anything if you can’t make it count at the other end of the field and goals have always been hard to come by for Blues in the Premier League.
“We’re not blessed with real goalscorers,” McLeish admitted. “Christian Benitez might change that and Kevin Phillips is a real proven goalscorer at Premier League level.
“We need to have people like Cameron Jerome upping the ante on finishing and Garry O’Connor proving himself in the Premier League. People will still feel that he’s got a bit more to show in England.
“Last year there were great signs with his fantastic form up until his injury and he came back quite strongly at the end.
“But the Premier League is an unforgiving league, and it’s where you have to prove yourself as a player.”
McLeish’s comment about how “insipid” Blues were two years ago is significant – one thing they weren’t when getting promotion from the Championship.
McLeish has deliberately gone for strong characters in the past 18 months.
He said: “Roger Johnson’s come in and you can hear he’s a bit of a talker. He believes in himself.
“Some people might see that as cockiness but if you can talk the talk ... Johnson has proved himself in the Championship. The challenge for him now is the Premier League.
“All the homework we did on Scott Dann told me that he is leadership material and Barry Ferguson’s an international who wants to win.
“I’d like to think the players have respect for each other, respect for the staff and they’re humble enough to keep their feet on the ground and not think one’s better than the other.
“But we do need people to kick other players’ backsides at times.
“I think we’ve been quite a quiet and shy team – a nice team – over the last 18 months. I’m trying to put a little bit of dig, arrogance and – a word I often use – belief in there.”
