This afternoon Blues secured another three points towards safety, with a 2-0 victory over Stoke City with a brace by Juke. As other results went our way, Blues are now 18th, 9 points ahead of Rotherham, although of course they have 4 games in hand. Of course they now play Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, (against us), Wednesday and the following Saturday. That is some challenge, and one that I think is beyond them. I am convinced that one more win will see us safe.
Our seemingly more comfortable situation has come from 10 points out of the last 15 – the 5 games that Lee Bowyer has been in charge. Prior to that we looked utterly doomed with the players looking like they didn’t know each other or what they were doing. I’d like to take a moment to look at that. This blog is about two men and their impact on the team and it’s performances, and a look at those 5 results.
I’m going to say this now, so it’s out there, Aitor Karanka is the worse manager we have ever had in the period I have supported Blues. Pendry and Zola have a worse record, however Pendry inherited a very poor side at a time the club was really in the doldrums. No manager could have kept us up. Zola I felt sorry for. He was clearly told by the board that the team need to play in a certain way, and I think that he didn’t have the players to do it. I always felt that he genuinely tried to turn things around. In both cases the players did appear to try and play as they were instructed – a point I will return to. So with those mitigations – Karanka IS the worse manager we have had.
These last 5 games go a long way to prove my last statement. In the final weeks of Karanka’s tenure, there was no cohesion, no tactics and no commitment. There were clearly issues with the players and Karanka clearly had no clue what to do about it. His last couple of interviews, he basically blamed the players. Let’s look at that.
During his rather bizarre time as manager, the irritating things that happened included changing a winning side – not that he had many wins – players being put in odd positions, a lack of substitutions and when he did make them, they were nearly always negative. It was obvious that there had been a falling out, whether that was a language thing or a personality thing, either way he wasn’t liked. I have said a couple of times, that the way the players seemed to stop playing, it reminded me of Chelsea and Mourinho. It was clear that a few weeks before he left, Karanka was a dead man walking.
The repetitive shrugging of his shoulders, and his incomprehensible interviews, showed he was absolutely out of touch with the players – of course in the end, he turned on the players in that incredible interview where he said he had done nothing wrong and it was all the players fault. Basically he was saying that because the players wouldn’t do what he said, that was the reason why we weren’t getting points. No Karanka – it was clearly YOU! You are the Emperor with no clothes – everyone now knows how useless you are.
The revelations about his time at Boro that came out this week of staff who clearly dislike him because of his manner. For me, this proves he is not only an awful manager, but clearly someone that can’t build positive relationships, which actually, is an important skill for a football manager.
So we had a situation where players didn’t know if they would play, if they would be in the right position and if they did play well, if they would keep their place. It’s truly unbelievable. If this man gets another job – I’ll be astounded. The key thing, is we were falling headlong towards relegation. We even were in the bottom 3 for a while. With 4 games coming up again top 6 sides, there was every chance that we would have fallen without a trace. Thankfully, the board sacked him. (Well that’s what we believe happened). However if people are honest, there was no reason to believe that things could turn around. I know some were resigned to the fact that we would go down, (me included), and have to try and turn things around in Division two – not easy, just ask Sunderland and Ipswich fans!
So, after resigning his job at Charlton, Bowyer became the favourite to replace Karanka. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure – but to be fair, ANYONE had to be better! The first difference I noticed was Bowyer’s interview style. Instead of an intense rambling shoulder shrugging approach, Bowyer introduced a relaxed open style. It was a breath of fresh air. I got the impression Bowyer REALLY wanted to manage the club, unlike the previous waste of space. (Sorry but I feel that way about Karanka!)
Bowyer’s challenge was to stop the downward direction in the league. That wasn’t going to be easy. For a start we knew every game we would concede a goal meaning we’d have to score 2. The problem was, we weren’t scoring. His first 4 games would be against top 6 sides, not great!
However what a change. Bowyer’s first game produced a 2-1 win at home against Reading. That was awesome, however having the right players in the right positions helped. The second game was a 3-0 defeat at Watford. They deserved the win, but 3-0 was flattering. We actually played well and had chances. It was only 3-0 because we were pushing to score. Watford and Norwich are by far the best two teams in the league.
Bowyer’s third game was a 1-0 victory at home to Swansea. We deserved that, and the first time this season that we had back to back home wins. Karanka only managed 3 home wins in total. The 4th game was a 0-0 away at Brentford. Again a point we deserved and in truth could have nicked it. That was only the second time this season we had back to back clean sheets. Then today for the first time this season, we had 3 home wins in a row – Bowyer equaled Karanka’s home wins in 3 games, and 3 clean sheets in a row. That turn around is why we find ourselves 18th tonight with a healthy cushion over the bottom 3. The keeping clean sheets is the key and our defenders seem to have found a new lease of life, or is it they have found someone who believes in them – because Karanka clearly didn’t.
Lee Bowyer take a bow, we have a squad who appear to be enjoying themselves again, even playing with a smile. We seem to have tactics and a plan B and intelligent use of substitutions. Lee Bowyer, in 5 games, has shown how utterly incompetent Karanka was.
Although we’re not mathematically safe yet, it would have to take an extraordinary set of results to see us relegated now and that has happened in 5 games. We should be able to make ourselves safe next Sunday providing we can take 3 points off Rotherham.
Kev
An excellent result Kev against a solid Stoke side, and an excellent article.
I was a resounding “Yes” when Karanka arrived, but Aitor turned our club into an “eyesore”. I believe all managers are dogged to a certain degree by negative stories. Ferguson seems the only exception to the rule. They have a “sell by date” and familiarity breeds contempt, etc. With Karanka it just feels the rot set in far too early.
If I said the pandemic made him home sick so his heart wasn’t in it, or he was after one last pay out before retiring with his family, this would ring true with many, and this alone should never be right after such a short tenure.
After Bowyer’s five games in charge, producing three wins and a draw with EXACTLY the same squad, it brings his attitude into stark relief in comparison to Karanka’s. Perhaps history will show Aitor to be the superior manager to Lee, but I’m with you, Kev… Aitor went from a manager I felt had an outside chance of gaining us promotion THIS season, and someone I felt every fan should “get behind” for the “three year plan”, to a manager I wanted out of the club, a manager who looked destined to drag us into League One – potentially into eternal obscurity – and (totally agree with you here) the worst manager in Birmingham’s history.
No excuses. He knew what he was taking on. Norwich’s gaffer has taken his side to the pinnacle in the pandemic. Thousands of furloughed staff would have given their eye-teeth to have managed a football club away from home.
He wasn’t even managing his first English side, with talk of language barrier… And the squad was becoming more multi-lingual.
To throw his squad under the bus was unacceptable and was the moment he lost my support. I support the club, not the manager, and he didn’t seem to be supporting the club… Just himself.
Lee Bowyer… Who I had the immense privilege of watching grace the turf at Wembley… Has brought a winning mentality back. For that, he’s earned my gratitude. The gratitude of all Blues fans and – here’s the key – seemingly the gratitude of the Blues squad.
Until he too reaches his “sell-by date” or is poached for the England job (lol) he’ll have my sincere respect for the job he undertook in the circumstances. I truly hope Karanka can recognise it’s the job he could and should have done… And – if not – he retires as Kev suggests… Because if he can’t manage… He shouldn’t be a manager again.
Things really do look more rosy with our new commander in chief in charge.
We’ve won a battle, on to the rest of the war…
Keep Right On.
Great article Kev, as ever but why sit on the fence? Why don’t you tell us what you really think about Karanka! (lol) Look, I agree that Blues thoroughly deserved the points yesterday and those from the previous four games but I would add a cautionary note here before we all start getting carried away. Firstly, the individual errors still need to be eradicated. Harlee Dean was so lucky in the first half trying to play fancy Dan football as last man. The result was the ball ended up in our net! We were extremely fortunate that the offside flag came to our rescue because had Stoke taken the lead, I suspect we would not be feeling quite so relieved as we all do this morning. As for Rotherham, complacency must not be allowed to set in. Yes, they have to play on Tuesday and Thursday this week before facing us on the Sunday and logic would dictate that we have an advantage having no game until then but, and it’s a big but, it will only be to our advantage if we don’t lose the game! As I was repeatedly told during my military service; “Prior preparation and planning prevents piss poor performance!” Blues must put in the hard work required in training this week and focus on the most important game of the season; the next one which happens to be Rotherham. The team must prepare properly. I believe Lee Bowyer will not allow the players to do anything less.
A great article Kev. I hold my hands up and admit that I thought Karanka was a good appointment. I never thought it would be exciting but I thought we’d be hard to beat and get results. How wrong was I???
I have been going home and away for donkeys years and as a Nose I’m certainly used to lean times. Karankas tenure was an awful turgid affair where he lost the confidence of the players and fans.
If we’d been allowed into Stan’s he’d have been gone weeks ago probably for his own safety.
There is so much to work on but Lee Bowyer has been like a breath of fresh air.
Two up front. Players in the correct positions. Belief in Seddon etc. Cohesion. Working as a team.
I am actually looking forward to next season assuming of course that our board do nothing to mess things up.
Is that too much to ask???
The attitude and competitiveness of the team has improved under Bowyer but we are still a poor side lacking quality all over the pitch.
Having said that a point this time next week against Rotherham and we’ll be fine. I expect us not to need a last day win this year.
Still require caution until Championship status is secured. My concern then moving on, is for the urgent need for saving what potentially could be a lost generation of our younger supporters. Hopefully, you will be able to catch up on this with my latest article.(Blues Trust).