Birmingham City extended their unbeaten run in the Championship with a 0-0 draw with West Bromwich Albion at St Andrews on Tuesday night.
The Blues will be happy with their form, especially after failing to win in their opening seven league games, but will be bitterly disappointed not to pick up all three points against the Baggies.
Augusto Pliske, who joined in January, thought he had scored his first goal for the club with an incredible header from a corner in the 95th minute, but the goal was canceled out.
Frustratingly for Birmingham, it was a good call by the officials as Demarai Gray was offside and interfered with Pliske’s header into the back of the goal.
Max O’Leary might not have saved his header without Gray’s intervention, but the Blues winger gave the officials a decision to make with his involvement.
Birmingham’s worst performance against West Brom
Despite keeping a clean sheet on the night, Birmingham goalkeeper James Beadle may not be too happy with his performance in retrospect.
The Brighton & Hove Albion loanee only made one easy save with an xG value of 0.01. That meant the majority of his job was holding the ball, which he struggled with.
vs West Brom | james beadle |
|---|---|
Pass accuracy | 68% |
Pass accuracy in own half | 100% |
Accurate pass in the opposition half | 17% |
Long pass accuracy | 35% |
loss of ownership | 15 times |
Beadle’s mid-range passing was not good enough and as a result he gave too much of the ball back to West Brom, especially on passes into the opposition half.
But it wasn’t just the England Under-21s who performed poorly on the night. Marvin Duckush He also struggled at the top end of the pitch.
Birmingham’s German frontman missed one ‘big chance’ and was unable to make a positive impact in the number 10 position, with a 61% pass completion rate, 100% missed duel rate and 100% missed dribble attempts.
He didn’t seem to have the mobility to play the role effectively, and despite his dominant performance, there were some who performed even worse than Daksh and Beadle.
Flop players must fall in Birmingham
Jay Stansfield should be mercifully removed from the starting lineup by Davis after a poor performance that made the efforts of Beadle and Duckush look good in comparison.
The headline, of course, was that the former Fulham man failed to get on the team’s scoresheet or provide an assist in what ended up being a goalless game, meaning he failed to make a difference.
The English forward has only scored one goal in his last 15 appearances for the Blues, against Leicester at the weekend, but has scored nine goals in 30 appearances in the Championship so far this season.
But it wasn’t just the fact that he didn’t score that was a poor performance against the Baggies. That’s because his all-around play leaves much to be desired.
Dachsh completed 14 passes and tried to get involved with his teammates, while Stansfield completed one of his four pass attempts in the 58th minute and left the field with one completed pass.
vs West Brom | Jay Stansfield |
|---|---|
minutes | 58 |
shot | 2 |
shot on target | 0 |
touch | 16 |
loss of ownership | 9 times |
path taken | 1/4 |
Won a ground duel | 0/2 |
won an aerial battle | 0/5 |
The 23-year-old centre-forward also lost 100% of his duels on the ground and in the air, as the Baggies defense found it too easy to defeat him in physical battles.
He was even worse than Beadle, who still kept clean sheets and was solid except for long-distance passes, and Dakush, who contributed more to the team with his overall play.
Stansfield’s inability to provide focus for his team negatively affected his own game as he was unable to get his teammates into the game and create the chances they needed to score.
Birmingham made a bold move after spending more than £15 million to sign the young forward from Fulham after being relegated from League One, but he is not playing like a player who could potentially make it in the Premier League, where physicality is even more important.
One goal in the last 15 games and just 23% duel success in the championship aren’t an accurate representation of what Stansfield’s season will be like, which is why Davis needs to take him out for a series of games.
Birmingham sold the winger 12 months ago but he is now a bigger talent than Roberts
Birmingham sold a young starlet with even bigger talent than recently signed Patrick Roberts.

