Reasons For Correction At The Blues! A Game Of Two Halves “Shoddy Showings” Have Been A Rare Occurrence In League One Chris Davies, And Here Is The…

Reasons For Correction At The Blues! A Game Of Two Halves “Shoddy Showings” Have Been A Rare Occurrence In League One Chris Davies, And Here Is The…

Birmingham City have to correct trend Chris Davies pointed out as Willumsen costs Blues

Northampton Town denied Birmingham City three points for the second time this season on Saturday.

The Cobblers joined Reading in an exclusive club of teams who have avoided defeat to Blues in the League One season. Keshi Anderson prevented Blues from falling to defeat at Sixfields by equalising on the stroke of half-time after Tomoki Iwata’s early own goal.

Wrexham defeated Wycombe at Adams Park to move into second and cut Blues’ lead at the top to 12 points.

A game of two halves Shoddy Showings Have Been A Rare Occurrence In League One Chris Davies 

Shoddy showings have been a rare occurrence in League One for Chris Davies’ all-conquering side this season but there haven’t been many poorer halves of football than the one Blues served up in the first 45 at Sixfields

Blues stuck to their principles of playing out from the back even when they couldn’t break Northampton’s press and gave away a goal as a result.

They didn’t really get going until the end of the first half, when Anderson equalised, and they looked far more like themselves in the second half.

In the end, Blues could have won with Willum Willumsson, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Alfie May missing decent chances late on. Willumsson’s missed header was by far the stand-out chance and should have been taken.

Willumsson can’t miss that

Jutkiewicz was off balance, May was on his weaker side, but Willumsson had to score. The Iceland international was six yards out, unmarked, and simply shouldn’t have missed.

Let’s forget the fact Willumsson is 6ft 4ins tall, with a physical frame that most of his peers must envy.

Most of the headed chances he has missed this season have been free headers, not ones where he’s used his size to overpower an opponent and meet the ball.

His lack of aerial precision has cost the attacking midfielder at least five goals this season and it cost Blues two points at Northampton.

Another contribution for Anderson

Anderson has been decisive for Blues on a regular basis this season and is among those in contention for Player of the Season. Willumsson could learn a thing or two from the way Anderson guided his header past Lee Burge.

That takes Anderson’s goals tally to seven for the season – only Jay Stansfield (20) and Alfie May (11) have scored more for Blues.

Anderson has even improved his availability record this season to play 37 matches. The winger hasn’t played this many games since the 2018/19 season.

A trend to correct

Davies pointed out Blues’ poor results before international breaks in his post-match interview. Blues have only won one of their four matches directly before their players have jetted off for international duty this season.

It would be foolish to think players like Willumsson, Paik Seung-ho and Jay Stansfield don’t have upcoming internationals in the back of their minds.

Davies said: “Our results before international breaks: we beat Wigan in the last minute, we lost to Charlton and we drew to Northampton. You’re always wary that people’s minds are going elsewhere.

“I can’t criticise the players too much because of what they have given to be honest and you can see there’s a disappointment in there but some of them are really running on empty and they need this couple of weeks to freshen back up again and re-energise.”

The temptation is always to play the strongest XI, including those who are going away, but maybe the game before the international break is the one where rotation is required.