Blues 1 Wigan Athletic 0 .. Ron's Report

Last updated : 01 March 2010 By Richard Barker

Obviously 40 points is never a guarantee of anything, and in fairness, Blues probably secured their safety when they beat Wolves a few weeks back, but the media machine that is the Premier League likes to have all these facts, figures, numbers, records, etc and so 40 points is the generally accepted target to stop up.  Blues are there now and can realistically start plotting for next season's campaign.  Alex McLeish will probably appreciate the extra few months, just so that he can get his due diligence on players just right…

Make no mistake about it, despite a sensational season that has taken everyone by surprise, Blues still need to plan for next season and add a fair bit more quality and quite a bit more quantity-wise too.  This win, as welcome as it was, only served to highlight how light Blues are in certain areas.

Blues won it through an excellent James McFadden penalty after Keith Fahey was tripped by Mario Melchiot - bizarrely booed when the teams were read out moments before Scott Sinclair received a polite round of applause.  Blues were on top in the first half and could have scored another couple, although in the second half Wigan seized on Blues' inability to put the game to bed and pushed for an equaliser with Joe Hart being forced into one fine save from Hugo Rodallega.

As is often the case, Blues brought some of the late problems on themselves by suddenly displaying a worrying inability to retain possession for anything more than about three passes and just surrendering the ball back to Wigan.  When McFadden was taken off, Kevin Phillips came on to partner Cameron Jerome, and the two were pretty hopeless up front.  McFadden's withdrawal appeared to have been agreed, given that he normally sulks like a child when substituted.  This time he sprinted off, gamely applauding the fans.  Given that McFadden's got a game for Scotland in the week and Blues have an FA Cup quarter final next weekend, it wasn't a bad decision.

However, whilst at times McFadden holds on to the ball for too long, at least he actually holds on to it and eases a bit of pressure, even if it's a mazy 15 seconds run past five players before he tackles himself.  Jerome's hold-up play and control is well documented and is akin to that of a wall, whereas Phillips, for some reason, looked just as bad.  It really didn't help Blues.  On the one occasion Phillips got the ball under control, he suddenly displayed a touch of the McFadden's and having rounded Chris Kirkland, attempted to do it four more times, as well as take on some Wigan defenders, when Michel had produced a lung-bursting run to support him, only to go unused.

Phillips is Phillips - since he's been at Blues he's not had the greatest of impact in any build up play or anything like that, but as he showed against Wolves, give him chances and he can still convert them.  You take the rough with the smooth with him, and that's fine.  He can't go on forever though.

Jerome, on the other hand, has years ahead of him.  Whether those years should and/or will be with Blues, however, remains to be seen.  I personally think that Blues can't be far off writing Cameron Jerome off.  I know that might appear a controversial thing to say, but it's a consequence of watching him for nearly four full seasons.  As a 19 year old, you can see why Blues paid £3.5m (or thereabouts) for him.  He'd had a good season at Cardiff, was still a teenager, had pace to burn, looked strong and powerful and looked to have a good future ahead of him.

Nearly four years later, has he improved much?  Has he improved at all?  I don't want to sound over-critical, and I know that there are those who will say "we need to give him more time" or "we need to play to his strengths, but firstly, how much more time (on top of four years) do we give him?  Secondly, why play to his strengths when it's fairly clear that the team is doing well for itself playing a way that doesn't suit Jerome?

For the first time in a long time, Blues tend to play a patient, passing game.  It seems strange saying that, having watched Blues fail to do that for many years, but it's true - they try and play decent football now.  That doesn't suit Jerome at all.  Getting the ball played into his feet to bring others into play is a bit of a disaster with him (whereas McFadden or Christian Benitez can do it).  Sure, he can do it occasionally, but most of the time he struggles to keep the ball under control in the first place. 

Sure, he has some attributes and, as at Cardiff, I'm sure he can be a dangerous Championship striker.  However, Blues under McLeish seem to be going a certain way and I cannot see Jerome having much of a part to play in the future.  This season, of course he'll play a lot - there's hardly any options.  However, with McLeish having already stressed that it was "imperative" to get at least one striker in, and having failed to do so, I fully expect him not to procrastinate so much in the summer.  When he does bring a couple of forwards in, I feel sure that they'll be of a different type to Jerome and that his time at Blues may be up.  He could still be a decent option off the bench or maybe he'll blossom alongside a bigger, better player himself, but I'm beginning to wonder if it may just be better to cash in on him - you'd probably still get about £4m for him.

Stephen Carr was also replaced late on, with Craig Gardner coming on to replace him at right-back.  Gardner was brought into the club as midfielder, given that that's his position.  Yes, he filled in at right-back at Villa, but he's not a right-back.  Again, it only served to highlight the lack of depth (and quality) to Blues' squad when McLeish is using someone out of position rather than one of the other defenders available, such as Parnaby.  Liam Ridgewell playing at left-back when there are two other left-backs available illustrates that too.

Seb Larsson, like Jerome, is another where questions have to be asked, I feel.  I am sure that McLeish appreciates Larsson's work rate but, as an attacking threat, Larsson appears to have gone backwards.  Blues' primary threat down the right comes from Carr, whereas Larsson has a worrying tendency to tuck inside and take himself out of the game when Blues are attacking.  His set pieces aside (and at least 50% of those are poor), Larsson appears to offer very little threat whatsoever these days and, like Jerome, is someone around whom some of Blues' decent play breaks down.

Now that Blues are safe, it's crucial that they start implementing plans for the summer.  If there's a fault that you can pick of McLeish, it's that during his tenure he's seemingly delayed and delayed and delayed when needing to bring players in.  Hopefully he's learnt his lesson now, but we shall see.  Even so though, teams who could yet be relegated (so Hull, Bolton, Burnley, Sunderland, etc) and teams not yet promoted (Newcastle, Forest, Albion, etc) can't formalise any plans yet, whereas Blues are in an enviable position that they can begin preparing.

For what Blues were this season - ie. a newly promoted side hoping to stop up - the squad is probably fine.  However, they have stopped up now and if we are to believe all of the comments about looking to move onwards and upwards and establish ourselves, a lot needs to be done to the squad.

Tributes need to be paid to all of those who have played a part this season, including Jerome and Larsson.  If Blues are to push on though, now is the the time for them to be actively looking to do so by identifying targets and the like.  Some of the players aren't good enough for the next level and the squad is certainly a long, long way off being good enough.  Let's hope that the achievements of this season are built on over the coming months.

This is only intended to be constructive criticism.  The players this season have been incredible and if someone had, back at the start of August, offered you 40 points before the end of February, you really would have snatched their hand off, as well as their arm, shoulder, upper torso, head and waist.  You'd have snapped their whole body off (although that wouldn't actually be possible) had they offered you that when, in mid-October, Blues had seven points from their opening nine games.  It really is an unbelievable achievement.

The hope now has to be that it isn't seen as an isolated achievement, and that it's just the start of something much bigger.  Blues have secured Premier League survival before the end of February - brilliant.  Let's kick on now, so that in a year or two's time, Premier League survival isn't even an issue.  If Blues are to do that, then the players have done a lot of hard work already - now it's time for the manager and board to do the same and to look to build on the success.