How will Wayne Rooney fare at Birmingham City?
EFL pundit and Blues fan Gab Sutton dissects Birmingham’s call to dismiss John Eustace as manager and appoint Wayne Rooney, before looking ahead to what his club could look like under their new boss…
Dissecting the Sacking of John Eustace
Wayne Rooney’s appointment as manager brings mixed feelings to Birmingham fans.
On the one hand, there’s the excitement at having a football icon representing the club, and the possibilities that brings.
On the other, it’s hard to shake off the feeling that John Eustace was very badly treated.
Eustace might not be perfect, by any means, but when he took charge of Blues in 2022, local morale was at its lowest since relegation to the Third Division in 1989.
Expectations for 2022/23 were on the floor, and there was a sense of apathy under BIHL’s ownership regime, because after battling relegation for eight seasons out of 11 since coming down to the Championship in 2011, fans lost their appetite – what’s the point in scraping survival if the club never learns it’s lessons and the only thing that follows is another relegation battle?
Inheriting a wafer-thin squad, Eustace delivered a respectable 17th-place finish: 27 points from the first 19 games was a great start, before 12 from 16 saw them dip to 19th, but even then they had a seven point cushion to safety, which meant three wins in four league games finished the job.
All the while, the 43-year-old was able to put a stylistic stamp on this team, whilst coaching individuals to new heights.
This season, the expectation was progress and not necessarily top six, yet that’s where Blues lay when the hierarchy made the call.
The new ownership regime led by Tom Wagner, which brought fresh hope to supporters in the summer, backed Eustace with 10 new additions in the summer, as well as bringing Krystian Bielik and Dion Sanderson back from Derby and Wolves respectively.
Eustace had massively benefited from the extra depth, and while last season’s bench was a combination of veterans who weren’t up to the level, youngsters who weren’t ready, and others who simply weren’t quite good enough, this season he’s had genuine options.
With those resources, the former midfielder has delivered a side that plays with a level of verve, energy and confidence barely seen at St Andrews in recent years.
With that in mind, a change of Head Coach was the last thing the players needed, not what the fans wanted, and shoddy treatment of the pre-existing incumbent.
In fact, this call is comparable to the one to sack club legend Gary Rowett for Gianfranco Zola in December 2016, after which Blues slumped from 7th to 20th in four months, needing Harry Redknapp to steer them to two wins in the final three games to keep them up.
Will the B9 outfit come to regret sacking Eustace in the same way?
Possibly, although a descent into a relegation dogfight is highly unlikely, especially seeing as the base performance level has been a lot stronger than it was in 2016/17, even under Rowett.
| League Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Leicester | 46 | 31 | 4 | 11 | 97 |
| 2. | Ipswich | 46 | 28 | 12 | 6 | 96 |
| 3. | Leeds | 46 | 27 | 9 | 10 | 90 |
| 4. | Southampton | 46 | 26 | 9 | 11 | 87 |
| 5. | West Brom | 46 | 21 | 12 | 13 | 75 |
| 6. | Norwich | 46 | 21 | 10 | 15 | 73 |
| 7. | Hull | 46 | 19 | 13 | 14 | 70 |
| 8. | Middlesbrough | 46 | 20 | 9 | 17 | 69 |
| 9. | Coventry | 46 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 64 |
| 10. | Preston | 46 | 18 | 9 | 19 | 63 |
| 11. | Bristol C | 46 | 17 | 11 | 18 | 62 |
| 12. | Cardiff | 46 | 19 | 5 | 22 | 62 |
| 13. | Millwall | 46 | 16 | 11 | 19 | 59 |
| 14. | Swansea | 46 | 15 | 12 | 19 | 57 |
| 15. | Watford | 46 | 13 | 17 | 16 | 56 |
| 16. | Sunderland | 46 | 16 | 8 | 22 | 56 |
| 17. | Stoke | 46 | 15 | 11 | 20 | 56 |
| 18. | QPR | 46 | 15 | 11 | 20 | 56 |
| 19. | Blackburn | 46 | 14 | 11 | 21 | 53 |
| 20. | Sheff Wed | 46 | 15 | 8 | 23 | 53 |
| 21. | Plymouth | 46 | 13 | 12 | 21 | 51 |
| 22. | Birmingham | 46 | 13 | 11 | 22 | 50 |
| 23. | Huddersfield | 46 | 9 | 18 | 19 | 45 |
| 24. | Rotherham | 46 | 5 | 12 | 29 | 27 |
How could Birmingham Line-Up Under Wayne Rooney?
For Rooney, it’s a case of changing as little as possible, certainly initially, assessing things cautiously and making tweaks here and there.
The 37-year-old walks into a stable club for the first time in his managerial career, having inherited off-field issues previously at Derby and DC United, so his performance in the second city will offer the clearest barometer yet of his potential.
So far, though, the evidence is that he wants his teams to be prepared to get the ball forward early, which is where he got his best results at Derby.
In his first season, the Rams had become somewhat stale under Phillip Cocu, but when he took charge they started to play more direct into experienced target man Colin Kazim-Richards, and get the likes of Jason Knight, Tom Lawrence and/or Kamil Jóźwiak on the ball from there.
In his second season, Rooney got more out of Ravel Morrison than anyone else had in the previous eight years, and subsequently brought the attacking midfielder with him to Washington.
Plus, the former forward should take great credit for the development of Liam Thompson, Eiran Cashin, Festy Ebosele and Malcolm Ebiowei, as well as the continued progress of Lee Buchanan and Louie Sibley under his watch.
Rooney is unlikely to coach the kind of tiki-taka football we’ve seen in the Championship from Russ Martin, even if he might want to showcase himself to the elite as a progressive coach: his teams at their best will have a solid base, and play with pace, intent, urgency and quality.
Formation wise, Rooney deployed largely a 4-2-3-1 at Derby, but switched to a 3-4-3 when facing back-three opposition, typically by dropping Max Bird for an extra centre-back, pushing Jason Knight into a deeper midfield role and nudging the full-backs into the wing-back spots.
If he does similar at Blues, with current personnel and with everyone fit and available, it could look like the image below with Jay Stansfield as the centre-forward, at least until the club can upgrade on Scott Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz in January.
Hall, when fit, might come in as a destructive number 10 similar to the role Jason Knight played: he’ll be the one supporting Stansfield both against the ball, and in terms of making strong runs to create space for the more elusive Koji Miyoshi and Siriki Dembele.
Elsewhere, Buchanan and Bielik would seem like obvious picks seeing as Rooney had them at Derby.
However, Rooney could also switch to 3-4-3 by dropping Hall into a deeper position, and taking Ivan Sunjic out of the XI to bring in Emmanuel Aiwu, on the left of the three-man defence.
Would Blues fans prefer it if Eustace had been supported, after an outstanding start? Absolutely.
However, the impact Knighthead Capital Management have made on the club is unquestionably a net positive, and the ceiling for what’s possible has been raised exponentially under their guidance.
As such, while there’s an element of discomfort at how Eustace has been treated, supporters can’t control the past, they can only get behind the new manager and hope it’s an exciting new chapter for the club.
Many thanks, John – and good luck Wayne!
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