Right, those are the facts. As a diversion from my usual style of reports, this report will be more of a rant...
Blues are in danger of slipping into a real, real dogfight. This afternoon's performance lacked anything at all. It was like a far cry back to the First Division days, only in the First Division the team would have been booed off for this performance. It's perhaps ironice that Blues' two best performers, in Damien Johnson and Olivier Tebily, were part of the side that won promotion two seasons ago.
Whether the excellent start to the campaign led to one or two or eight players suddenly believing that they were part of a team that could challenge for Champions League football is debatable, but they're certainly playing like that. Maik Taylor looks decidedly shaky in goal. Jamie Clapham was at fault for the first two goals this afternoon. Kenny Cunningham has resorted to pulling shirts and other such tactics rather than relying on his reading of the game.
And then there's David Dunn. Now, here was a guy who this afternoon felt he had everything to prove against his former employers and more importantly, against Graeme Souness. Dunn's performance, however, suggested that he didn't give a toss. He was invisible for the majority of the game, and on the rare occasions he did get the ball, he gave it away, before shrugging his shoulders and turning and strolling around for another 10 minutes. There's much debate about whether Dunn should be in the middle, whether Dunn should be up front, whether Dunn should be on the right. Well, on this performance, Dunn should be on the bench. Give me Stephen Clemence, Aliou Cisse or Bryan Hughes any day of the week over the David Dunn we are currently seeing.
And what of Christophe Dugarry, the man who on friday had a defence written for him by yours truly for this week's Sunday Mercury. How silly do I feel now? Well, the point is that he's still a wonderful talent, but this afternoon he seemed intent on causing a scene in everything he did. He elbowed Craig Short within 5 minutes, causing Short to have blood on his face throughout the game. Not long later he jumped for the ball with Markus Babbel, and ran his studs down the German's back. It was no surprise that he was sent off in the end. He may not even have done anything wrong for his second yellow card, but perhaps referee Graham Barber had just had enough of Dugarry's antics for one afternoon. I know I had.
So what has gone wrong? Well, it's hard to pinpoint, but the constant tinkering of the team and tactics can't be helping. Damien Johnson did look comfortable back in his usual right sided midfield role, but the result was that both Tebily and Jeff Kenna were brought into a defence, and with Maik Taylor replacing Ian Bennett in goal again, there were 3 changes to the back five within a week. In midfield, Dunn occupied about his fifth position of the season. As terrible as he was, how can he be expected to settle? One had to feel sorry for Mikael Forssell up front, as he seems the only player sure of his place and position from week to week, and he ran himself into the ground for 90 minutes.
Blues are even inept at the little things. We pose no threat whatsoever from corners or free-kicks (would Martin Grainger solve a problem there, as well as putting some pressure on Clapham?). Blues even manage to make hard work out of throw ins, at which they always look clueless. There's no pattern to the play, and from one week to the next we're looking to different players to do wholly different jobs.
Teams like Leicester, Bolton, Spurs, Middlesbrough, etc, etc were all teams that were well behind us in the league not so long ago. Soon they'll be passing us - if they haven't already - and we'll be looking at the teams below us, and there suddenly won't be that many there anymore. Even Leeds are picking up the pace, and on current form, Wolves are maybe the only team in worse shape that Blues.
Whilst some people may be thinking that we've wasted a great start to the season, the reality is we have to be very thankful for it, as we're sturggling now, and at least we have 20 points to our name. I'd hate to be in the run of form that Blues are in now with, say, 12 points to our name.
Next weeks game at Leicester suddenly appears a real tough trip, but it's something that Blues have to get something from. The performances all season have not been good enough. At Newcastle, it was only the home side's inadequacies that led to a Blues win. At Leeds, Blues were fortunate in many respects. At home to Portsmouth, Pompey had their chances, as did Bolton at the Reebok Stadium. You have to begin to question whether or not Blues have been doing that well this season at all?
Some may see this as an over-reaction, but trust me, Blues are going to struggle unless there is a radical improvement all over the pitch.