Written by Mitchell Bray:
Three great points for Blues but should we be concerned with the performance?
A win is a win in anybody’s language and Blues certainly rode their luck against Brentford on Saturday. Low possession and a lack of shots are not new to us and haven’t really changed since Gary Rowett’s first game a few seasons ago. Fact is that last Saturdays game was par for the course. The surprise was, however, that this wasn’t the plan Pep Clotet and his backroom staff had in mind.
Over the summer, we were fed glorious cocktails of pretty on the eye stuff, possession in abundance and more important of all – to please our owners under the direction of Mr.Ren. Early days I readily admit and I sincerely hope with Crowley and Sunjic in tandem we will see more pleasing to watch performances as we move forward this season.
With Portsmouth on Tuesday and Bristol City following, that should give us a clearer insight into whether this new ‘wished for’ formation is going to work. Brentford were very thin on the ground player-wise and should not have enjoyed the overall play as they did. We defended in numbers and got the win with one single effort on goal courtesy of Pedersen’s header. What, in my opinion, is absolutely certain with Blues supporters over the decades is that although we give tremendous support to our teams and suffer regular heartbreaks, we are no mugs.
Unfair maybe after just one game but listening to what has been preached to us over the summer with this new dawn of possession and pleasing football, last saturday was not good. No doubt when the striker situation is, hopefully, concluded this week plus a better shape in terms of more offensive options (and I include Bellingham on the home games bench). Plus Sunjic and Crowley providing the possession stats – then perhaps the Brentford disappointment-apart from the result will prove to be a one-off.
On the attacking front, I am disappointed in the Vassell transfer talk, particularly now that it is rumoured Swansea are interested. Throughout last season, supporters have been kept abreast via regular updates about his recovery and if there was one player that we looked forward to watching again, it was Isaac. Should he leave this week either on loan or to be sold then I hope this doesn’t come back and bite us. Vassell had pace and a danger to any defence the little we saw of him. What looks likely is that we will probably never see his true talents in a blues shirt particularly as he was never given a minute’s game time against Brentford.
We at St.Andrews have seen many a talent leave prematurely over the years only to say ‘what if’, maybe we are about to let another slip through the net.