Birmingham City and their defensive woes have once again been called into question, following yet another defeat.
Birmingham City suffered a disappointing Boxing Day defeat at home to Stoke City yesterday.
Wayne Rooney watched on as his side lost 3-1 against the lowly Potters; Blues have now won just one of their last seven and now find themselves in 19th.
Birmingham City sit seven points above the drop zone with Rooney having taken just nine points from a possible 39 as Blues boss so far.
And a key theme of Birmingham City’s downfall under Rooney so far has been their woeful defensive record.
Birmingham City have kept just two clean sheets under Rooney compared to three in the opening 11 league games of the season under John Eustace, and the defensive display vs Stoke was another terrible one; to add to that, Blues have conceded 27 under Rooney compared to just 11 under Eustace earlier in the campaign.
Alex Dicken urges Wayne Rooney to change the defensive line up
Ahead of a home game vs Bristol City on Friday night, journalist Alex Dicken has urged Rooney to make changes to the backline.
Writing for Birmingham Live, Dicken said Blues were a ‘shambles’ at the back vs Stoke, singling out Emanuel Aiwu, Marc Roberts, and Dion Sanderson as three who struggled.
And whilst Blues’ injury list remains lengthy, Dicken says that Rooney naming the same back-four of Aiwu on the right, Sanderson and Roberts in the middle, and Manny Longelo on the left, is ‘surely off the cards’.
So how should Birmingham City line up against Bristol City?
Like Dicken says, something has to change for Birmingham City. But given injuries, Rooney’s options are very limited.
A back-five may soon be considered; having three in the middle and then two options in the flanks advancing up the pitch could enable Blues to work the ball out from the back more effectively.
Aiwu has started at right-back for the last three, with Roberts and Sanderson in the middle, but who to drop from those names is a tricky one.
There’s a case to drop all three but Rooney has no real options to bring in; expect Sanderson to keep his place of the three, with Krystian Bielik a potential option to deploy in the middle of defence; Kevin Long looks set to return in the coming weeks which could be a huge boost for Rooney.
Marcel Oakley is the only available right-back after Aiwu and so it really is a tough call for Rooney who’ll no doubt know he needs to make changes, but there’s very few changes he could make that could potentially improve the team.
January then looks like such a crucial month for Blues and for Rooney, who remains under growing pressure to deliver results.