Scores directly from a FK. First senior goal.
Hannibal Mejbri | Birmingham Loan Watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Hannibal puts Brum 1-0 up against West Brom. He's been excellent in the first 10 minutes.
Dirty FK 
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Who is the GK?
Hilarious keeping. And where the heck did he put the one man wall?
Does anyone have ‘Distance covered’ stats from the Championship? Mejbri’s physic is extremely good.
Cracking goal.
Still waiting for these Birmingham long balls the Redcafe tactical experts keep claiming they play
Hannibal having a decent game so far, works his socks off in the middle.
Still waiting for these Birmingham long balls the Redcafe tactical experts keep claiming they play
Hannibal having a decent game so far, works his socks off in the middle.
Hmm. So they are 3rd overall in attempted long passes in the Championship and 2nd overall — from the bottom — in short passes attempted. Haha, care to elaborate why you laugh at people claiming they play a lot of long balls?Still waiting for these Birmingham long balls the Redcafe tactical experts keep claiming they play
It's clear to see what Eustace's strategy is and it's not to build play from the back. The biggest clue was between the 34th and 36th minute when Ruddy launched long kicks towards the wide left and almost all of Birmingham’s players were situated in the middle third waiting to contest the first and second balls. So if you win the ball in the midfield third, you can then quickly transition forward into the final third, and if you lose the ball in the final third then the pressing and counter pressing is a effective tool due to how many players are committed in the middle/final third which enables the collective to compress the pitch.
Hannibal's playing well and forget the goal, his open play contributions have been very good.
Hannibal's playing well and forget the goal, his open play contributions have been very good.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
It's so obvious for anyone who has played organised football.Hmm. So they are 3rd overall in attempted long passes in the Championship and 2nd overall — from the bottom — in short passes attempted. Haha, care to elaborate why you laugh at people claiming they play a lot of long balls?
Yeah, they aren’t playing Sean Dyche ball, you describe it well.
What does come across for anyone that watch them often is that even if it’s not part of their primary strategy — they really do an awful job passing the ball around the team. WBA wants to hold the ball which suits Bham well. But like last weekend against Preston, they went down 2-0 at home early and when Preston backed down after that, Bhams attempt to ‘create’ something was just graphic to watch.
Love Hannibal though!
BTW, vile assault on Hannibal right at the end of the first when a player grabbed a good hand of his hair and tried to slam his head j to the ground.
Excellent delivery tonight.
Hannibal with the apple of the corner:
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
The vision and confidence to do that at his age is very special. Fingers crossed he works out
I like how the commentator when he sees this is like ‘they came together a bit there’, after taking note of he is a ‘chippy kid’ that stirs up emotions earlier.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Last time I saw that being done was Fabio Aurelio against Chelsea in Champions league. Surprised it's not attempted more as GK usually takes a step away from the post.
How many of them long passes have been from the keeper?Hmm. So they are 3rd overall in attempted long passes in the Championship and 2nd overall — from the bottom — in short passes attempted. Haha, care to elaborate why you laugh at people claiming they play a lot of long balls?
That's the only player that really goes long on that team. And by long here we are talking about a pass over 30 yards which could easily incorporate a switch of play between defenders, or indeed an over hit cross.
Realistically that figure equates to an extra 5 or so long passes more per game than Burnley, but yeah, Birmingham are a long ball team!
They have plenty of ball players in the team, and the commentator actually described it best earlier on where he said they aren't afraid of going direct but they certainly can and do play football.
They really haven't gone long very often other than from Ruddy, which is more risk adverse than anything, and it's a tactic which works for them more often than not.
Get the ball forward and rely on knock-downs and picking up the second balls by getting bodies around the ball.
Are you playing tomorrow? Or coaching? Or possibly playing Sunday maybe?
Just asking out of interest.
He has to be prepared to battle in this Birmingham team, because they aren't very good at keeping the ball as you can see. They're a team that is setup to go direct and then press and counter press in the final third.
But eventhough he's shown a very high level of stamina/fitness levels. He also did display the ability to carry/dribble the ball whilst maintaining composure with a final pass. For a central midfielder/attacking midfielder, his pace is very good.
I'm coaching tomorrow, fully booked.
Great free kick.
Honestly, this is the Championship, it’s not like it’s rare for teams — including their goalkeeper — to play long balls. When a team is in the absolute top in the amount of long balls played and at the absolute bottom in short passes played, it tells you something. They are also bottom 3 in possession.
They are not a well coached team. I 100% agree with you on that they have skilled players on the team. We know Mejbri and Chong. Bielik is coming from Arsenal’s academy and is a good ball playing CDM. Also plays for Poland.
Birmingham play a perfectly OK game when it’s even or they have a lead. But they are really awful when they try to build up the play. I agree with you also that they probably don’t want to play a lot of long balls, but they do. Often because they break down completely when they try to do something else.
That has to be reviewed by the FA right? You can't grab a player by his hair and smash his head into the ground. That should be a lengthy suspension, no? Or do they not review if the ref doesn't see it?
Jesus you're a twat aren't you.
Most of us don't get to watch random Birmingham City games so the one person that keeps us updated on them you want to berate for calling them a long ball team, when what you described in your own post...
Is exactly what they originally said...
It honestly looks like a police matter to me, I know Mejbri wasn't injured but surely that's assault.
Disagree entirely on the bolded part, they are an incredibly well drilled team who know what they are doing.
Coaching is more than just getting people to pass the ball.
They dominated that game tonight, despite not having the bulk of possession.
They often don't have possession and when they do get it they like to use their ball carriers (Chong, Bacuna) to run with the ball, or they look to the channels with a clipped ball (in statistical terms this is a long ball).
This is where statistics don't tell the whole story.
Birmingham are not lumping the ball forward every time, they are not looking for the big man up front every time.
Ruddy might be, but the CBs aren't, nor are the midfielders and I'd wager Ruddy brings Birmingham's long ball average right up.
Having watched Middlesbrough a few times this season it's fair to say they are not a long ball team, yet they aren't far behind Birmingham in long balls played.
Wow, triggered much.
That wasn't what they originally said if you go further back in the thread
He's doing very well in a struggling Birmingham team that is looking to bypass the first and second phase
This along with 'Birmingham like to go long' is what was said previous to this, and not just by one person.
So I made a comment on the fa t that Birmingham weren't going long, and generally aren't that much of a long ball team.
So steady on mate,
They're not 3rd highest in long balls and amongst the lowest on short passing %'s over an entire half season due to a single goalkeeper spiking long ball statistics above all else but two. At some point the stats tell the story; they just fecking hit more long balls than the others in the league.
Agreed.
They don't attempt to build the play from the first phase and again today they only managed about 30% possession and it's easy to see why. The aim is to go direct and get into the final third quickly with the press and counter press as the insurance policy in the event they turn the ball over. And if they can't win their duels in the middle and final thirds, things can and have gone badly for them.
So when we assess Hannibal's performances, I think it's important we understand the team he's playing in and how that will effect his on the ball performance.
The angle from behind the goal shows it was not that big of a GK mistake. More of an awesome free kick from Hannibal.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Considering Ruddy has made over 750 long balls, more than triple the nearest player in the Birmingham ranks, I'd say it is more likely making my statement more true than not.
But of course stats need context, so Stokes keeper in 16 games (13 fewer than Ruddy for clarity) has made around 190 long passes.....
I think we have found our culprit for Birmingham's long passes....