Birmingham City: Blues gradually improving under new boss Rooney

Transcript

00:00 And finally, if we look at Birmingham City, they finally got that first win under Wayne Rooney at the weekend, Sheffield Wednesday.

00:07 We talked last week, this was a game they sort of had to go and win, but they didn't make it easy, did they?

00:13 No, they didn't. They did leave it pretty late. 81st minute that Jordan James got that goal to secure all three points.

00:19 They went 1-0 down as well. It was only for a Juninho Bakuna long-range effort that got them back into the game.

00:24 A bit like Villa actually, just on the stroke of half-time to get back into it. They played fairly well in terms of creating chances,

00:31 but they let way too many chances in for Sheffield Wednesday. A team that haven't shown much at all this season at the bottom of the table,

00:38 and they're out having more shots than Birmingham, measuring the same amount of shots on target and only just having less possession.

00:45 I don't think it's exactly convincing, is it? And they didn't look it on the field either.

00:49 It's just that late goal kind of puts a twist on it, getting those three points. It looks a lot better than it actually was.

00:55 It's really not convincing, is it, Wayne Rooney? One win in six. It's still a win, but I can't see them turning a proper tide after that.

01:05 Are the performances under Rooney any more improved since he first took over, or are we still seeing issues there as well as the final scores?

01:15 I think there's definitely been an improvement at the start. It couldn't get much worse. It was just Gunn-Ho having two centre-backs

01:23 and putting the full-backs so high up the pitch, he almost formed a front five. And then one of the centre-halves that was back,

01:30 one of the two, would step up into midfield. So you're left with just Kevin Long at the back, who's got no pace whatsoever,

01:35 and they were just so open. Now they've gone a little bit less Gunn-Ho. They've got one full-back going forward at a time,

01:41 and the centre-back staying back a bit more. Bielik stepping in as maybe a third centre-half at times as well from midfield.

01:47 So they've shored things up a bit. I think Rooney has taken a step back from how aggressive his approach was.

01:54 But it's still not quite what it was under John Eustace, to say the least. They looked a lot more stable,

02:00 and they actually looked pretty decent on the attack anyway. It's not exactly the no-fear football that we were promised by the owners.