Andy Munro talks about Blues’ 5-0 loss at Brentford.
Our tale of woe goes on and after the brief mini-revival, we’re looking haunted by the spectre of relegation again. Strangely the side, on paper, looks decent but yet again it failed to function or indeed show any sort of footballing backbone at Griffin Park.
Yes, David Stockdale was arguably culpable for a couple of the goals but this can’t be allowed to excuse a five-nil humbling. It could have been even worse and Steve Cotterill’s plea that it takes time to get players used to specific roles is beginning to ring increasingly hollow. Football is basically a simple game played by equally simple pros and it’s up to the manager to instill those basics firmly and quickly. However, the main issue is that there seems to be a complete lack of interplay with passing erratic and laboured link up-play.
Certainly, if Blues don’t beat Barnsley, Cotterill has to go before we plummet to the absolute bottom of the Championship. He’s shown himself to be tactically inept with a complete inability to flex our approach during the game and a wooden approach to formations. He’s also wasting the talents of Che Adams and other youngsters such as Josh Dacres-Cogley and with regard to the former, this leaves Sam Gallagher cutting a lonely figure up front. To also consider that Cheikh Ndoye, who has the mobility of a three-legged elephant, can be the forward midfield player in support is laughable.
The whole scenario is a mess and a wreckage and it’s highly unlikely that the mumbling, bumbling figure of Cotterill is going to inspire a side bereft of confidence. As for the list of possible replacements? Graham Potter springs to mind but there are a decent number of managers with decent pedigrees out of work such as Mark Warburton, and, let’s face it, anybody is going to be an improvement.
