Birmingham City are 17th in the Championship after taking 12 points from their first 10 matches
Birmingham City reporter for BirminghamLive and the Birmingham Mail
Referee Ruebyn Ricardo shows Jack Robinson a red card during Birmingham City’s defeat to Hull City
Birmingham City suffered their first league defeat at St Andrew’s since April 2024 in a chaotic game with Hull City on Saturday.
The Tigers tamed Blues in front of their own supporters with goals from Jack Robinson (OG), Regan Slater and Joe Gelhardt. Jay Stansfield twice replied for Blues.
Blues were reduced to 10 men in the 59th minute when Robinson had his yellow card upgraded to a red in the space of 10 seconds.
Here are our talking points after Chris Davies tasted defeat in the league for the first time at St Andrew’s…
Robinson in the red
It hasn’t been the start to his St Andrew’s career that Jack Robinson would have wanted. Two rash red cards in four games has well and truly put him in the bad books of supporters. Throw in an own goal and you can say it’s been a downright disaster.
Not only did Robinson’s ‘lack of discipline’ – as Davies politely put it in his post-match press conference – cost Blues against Hull, the subsequent four-game ban the defender will receive presents another problem.
Surely now is the time to revert to the partnership between Christoph Klarer and Phil Neumann which didn’t serve Blues badly in their first five league games.
Have Blues weakened themselves at centre-back?
The form of Robinson and Eiran Cashin, who was left out of the squad on Saturday and less than likely to get another crack soon after his Sheffield Wednesday horror show, plus Davies’ recent stance of anyone but Neumann highlights a wider issue for Blues.
Did they inadvertently weaken their central defensive options in the summer transfer window?
The partnership of Klarer and Ben Davies appeared readymade for the Championship but Blues allowed the latter to rot at Rangers in the summer before being rescued by Oxford United.
All the evidence suggests they should have pushed harder to sign a player who complemented Klarer perfectly and understood Blues’ system.
And most would argue that Krystian Bielik would offer a safer pair of hands alongside Klarer than any of this season’s incumbents.
So, it begs the question as to whether Klarer, Neumann, Robinson and Cashin is actually a stronger quartet than Klarer, Davies, Bielik and Grant Hanley. No one inside the Blues camp could argue that point convincingly right now.
Jack Robinson was sent off in Birmingham City’s defeat to Hull City
Bright sparks
Whilst some of the defending left a lot to be desired, it wasn’t all bad from a Blues perspective against Hull.
They were menacing going forward in the first half and, in the words of Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic, had control before the melee shortly before half-time rocked them. Robinson’s red card 14 minutes into the second half sapped the momentum Blues had gained after Slater’s second for Hull and the half-time break.
Blues’ best bits came via a neat triangle between Tomoki Iwata, Patrick Roberts and Keshi Anderson on the right flank. Roberts, in particular, had an excellent game and will sew that right-wing position up with performances like this.
A stats pack of 29 shots, eight on target and 35 touches in the Hull box is an improvement for Blues, and they showed character when down to 10 men to keep the game alive for as long as they did.
A big week ahead
They say see where you are after 10 games and Blues are 17th, with 12 points and a worse goal difference than any of the teams above them. There have been mitigating factors but this is not an entirely false position.
Blues are only four points off the play-offs so there’s no need to panic, but the volume of teams between Davies’ side and the top-six means this isn’t as simple as winning two games and being back in the right position.
Twelve points from 10 games is nothing like a points return that gets you promoted come May, it goes without saying that this is an important week coming up for Blues with games against Preston and Bristol City.
Blues need a win to get themselves out of an eight-game stretch of one win, two draws and five defeats across all competitions.
What is an acceptable points return from next week’s games? Let us know your thoughts HEREGet the latest Blues headlines sent straight to your phone
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