Birmingham City began life under Tony Mowbray on Saturday, earning a point in a 2-2 draw with Swansea City.
Birmingham City welcomed Swansea City who had a new face in the dugout too.
Luke Williams was in the opposing dugout and his Swans side took the lead twice in the game, with Blues coming from behind twice.
Jordan James was the man who scored late on to salvage and point in Mowbray‘s opener, which certainly gave us a lot of food for thought following the exit of Wayne Rooney.
Here’s three things we learned about Birmingham City after Mowbray’s first game in charge…
Birmingham City down, but not out
Under Rooney, a common theme was Birmingham City being behind in games, and completely out of them too.
But despite going behind yesterday, Blues came back twice to earn a well-deserved point in the end.
It may prove that the players are ready to buy into what Mowbray wants to do and the way he wants them to play, and securing a late point against a decent Swansea side will give them a slight boost in confidence.
After Rooney’s tenure, confidence looks like it’s been truly depleted.
Blues ready to attack from the flanks
Rooney’s style of play was relentless.
Perhaps his only praise was that he managed to get the players playing his way, almost instantly.
But it obviously failed to work out and it wouldn’t have been that hard to tell his attacking players to run at defenders for 90 minutes.
We saw remnants of that yesterday, but Mowbray clearly told his full-backs to get higher up the pitch, and he said after the game that this is something he wants from his team.
It could give Blues’ attacking players a bit more support and cover when closing down defenders and it also makes Blues less one-dimensional.
Scott Hogan return shows Mowbray ready to reassess
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Mowbray’s opening game was his decision to bring Scott Hogan back from the dark.
He’d not started a game since October and made just five appearances under Rooney. But yesterday, the Irishman was one of Blues’ standout players.
Hogan was a nuisance in attack, with his energy and power serving the press well; he could well have been useful for Rooney.
Hogan now looks like he could become a key player for Mowbray and the boss’ decision to start Hogan tells us that Mowbray is ready to reassess the players.