Martin O'Neill made a mistake when he sold Gary Cahill and he will be doing the same if he sells Craig Gardner. What he has to do is put a little faith in the player and play him in his preferred position in the middle of the park. Preferably in a five man midfield, but after last night it looks certain O'Neill is going to continue with 4-4-2.
I wanted to get the Craig Gardner thing out of the way as I think it important. The full rumour in the papers is that Jermaine Jenas is coming in, please can't we do better than this, and Gardner and Reo-Coker will be sold to make way and likely pay for his arrival, because O'Neill has no money to spend, much like his second season.
Sorry, I'm getting easily frustrated today probably due to the few cans of Löwenbräu I consumed last night watching the Malaga debacle. Don't get me wrong, there are some positives, notably the kids for me, but we were lacking something, a little something creative and the football did seem a little long still.
Jenas isn't the creative player we need and we have to start putting a little more emphasis on keeping the ball and reducing the number of hopeful passes where the pass would look good if it came off but it really is wishful thinking. Rather than play a pass that would look good but chances are isn't going to come off, we have to learn to keep possession. We won't score if we don't have the ball and we seem to give the ball away too much with longer than needed balls.
But to the kids. Eric Lichaj played the full 90 minutes at right back and did a very good job and while the goal came from the left wing and a very good cross ball pass, I've seen that happen to world class full backs and it is something he will learn from. Marc Albrighton played most of the match after replacing Heskey and also looked lively and you can just see that if he's given the opportunities, he is very close to coming good.
It's worth noticing also that most of our play went down the right where Lichaj and Albrighton played and while Petrov pretty much had little to do and looked very composed, when Osbourne replaced him with 25 minutes to go, he also looked likely and played some smart and decent football.
Osbourne did miss our best chance of the game, but I don't think we had any others so he can't be blamed. Overall, the kids looked like they were ready to step up and for all the bluster surrounding Ashley Young this summer, he didn't really look a player that anyone would pay £50mn. for yesterday, but I know, it was only pre-season.
Barry Bannan also came on, at the same time as Osbourne and while he was desperate to get involved, the ball never came to him but it would be nice to see these four start the next game and maybe it would also be nice to see Martin O'Neill leave 4-4-2 and push on to a variation of 4-5-1; it has to happen eventually.
Anyway, that is it for now. We have another match on Wednesday but qualification to the next round is out of our hands now. If Malaga win their next game they go through, so it might be a case of the team are back in Birmingham earlier than anticipated. I'm off for coffee.
The Team
Friedel, Lichaj, Cuellar, Davies, Shorey, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Petrov (C), Young, Heskey, Carew. Subs: Bannan (for Young, 65), Albrighton (for Heskey, 7), Harewood (for Carew, 62), Lowry, Clark, Guzan, Parish, Herd, Osbourne (for Petrov, 65)