Saturday afternoon’s trip to Hull City brought out one of the worst Birmingham City performances for years. There are a lot of players that need to take a long hard look at their selves in the mirror, because recent performances have quite simply not been good enough. Here are my player ratings from the game.
Starting XI
Kuszczak – 3
Spent a majority of the game picking the ball out of his own net. Didn’t really have much chance with 5 of the goals but could have put a lot more effort in for the 3rd Hull goal. Never a good afternoon for a goalkeeper when they concede 6.
Nsue – 3
A very poor afternoon from Emilio Nsue, who was part of a back 4 that completely crumbled. He strugged all afternoon against the Hull City attackers. Going to have to severly improve his performances under Steve Cotterill.
Morrison – 2
Even a rating of 2 is fairly generous for Michael Morrison after his performance, it was a shambles from start to finish. As a club captain players look to Morrison for leadership when out on the pitch, and unfortunately on Saturday they got nothing from him. A poor start to the season for the Blues captain.
Dean – 3
Harlee Dean wasn’t quite as bad as his defensive partner, but he wasn’t great himself. He struggled to cope with the Hull City attackers, his positioning wasn’t great, and he even struggled with a few clearances. Will need to bounce back quickly from this one.
Colin – 3
The former Brentford man had his worst performance in a Blues shirt at the KCOM Stadium. He struggled at left back, and wasn’t maintain any control on the game. I personally think going forward he would be better suited to right back being a right footer.
Davis – 2
An abysmal start to the season for last year’s Player of the Season continued against Hull. Only seven minutes had elapsed when he turned into trouble and cost Blues their first goal of the afternoon. He lacked energy, composure, and his passing was all over the place. Needs to be taken out of the team.
Gardner – 3
Had another very indifferent afternoon for Blues, struggled to take any control in the midfield for Blues. He was pulled off at half time and this is another game we can add to the ever-growing list of ‘Games Craig Gardner has gone missing in for Blues’.
N’Doye – 5
I have a lot of respect for Cheikh N’Doye. Admittedly it wasn’t one of his best performances but, unlike any other Blues starter out there, he never gave up. He tried throughout chasing loose balls and never let his head drop. Also, at the end of the game he was the only player that actually had the dignity to come and face the Blues fans after the defeat.
Boga – 5
The young Chelsea winger was another one of the rare Blues starters that actually put a bit of effort in, and actually tried to make things happen. He has ridiculously quick feet and always looks a threat when he is on the ball.
Jutkiewicz – 4
A second consecutive start for the big striker didn’t really bring any joy in Hull. It wasn’t really a game which brought much attacking joy for Blues throughout – Lukas will definitely have better games than this throughout the season.
Maghoma – 2
I’m normally a big fan of the DR Congo winger, but he had a severe off day here. He was unable to make any impact on the game going forward and switched off on more than one occassion defensively. Almost everytime he got the ball in the second half he managed to lose possession.
Subs:
Man of the Match: Vassell – 6
One of the few Blues players to come away from the weekends game with any credit. He showed no fear when he came on in the second half and in reality could potentially have had a hatrick. He hit the post with one change where he turned his marker with ease. Pushing for that first start.
Gallagher – 4
Another afternoon where the Southampton loanee didn’t really make an impact for Blues. May have got the only Blues goal but even that was lucky after a poor header deflected in. Needs to do much more when he is on the pitch.
Cotterill – 5
Came on in the second half but didn’t really have any impact on the game.
Hull fans – 1
A horrible set of fans. The game hadn’t even started when a Hull fan spat into the Blues away end, and it got worse as the game went on. Bottles thrown at the Blues fans, taunting, just a horrible set of people. Wasn’t helped at all by the awful policing on show. The segregation was poor in the first place and when the police came out to try and improve it they only focused on the Blues fans rather than the Hull fans that were starting the trouble.