Birmingham scored via German centre back Phil Neumann in a goalmouth scrap and the Saints equalised via Cameron Archer but not without controversy as referee Matt Donohue blocking Tomoki Iwata‘s path to the ball just moments prior to Southampton’s goal.
Birmingham had spent a combined 11 million Euros on Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch among other signings, yet they were languishing at 15th place in the division before the turn of the year. Manager Chris Davies employed a 4-4-2 and had manipulated the height and width of his team’s playing area in different moments of the game to generate numerical overloads, yet his team struggled to transition from one moment to another and maintain the necessary height and width to succeed.
A common feature of Birmingham’s attacking play was England U21 goalkeeper James Beadle‘s long distribution to centre forward Furuhashi or target man Ducksch. As shown in the image below, the isolated Furuhashi faced rather impossible odds of contending with 3 Southampton defenders for the header, with his teammates converging for the 2nd ball. The absence of left winger Demarai Gray deprived Birmingham of another potent threat in behind the opposition defence.
Birmingham’s 2-man wingplay had not been fruitful either, as neither left back Eiran Cashin nor Alex Cochrane made overlapping runs, while on the right-hand side, 180 cm right-back Alfons Sampsted and 178cm Tomoki Iwata did not have the necessary speed to make overlapping runs in support of the inverted Patrick Roberts. Tomoki Iwata‘s selection as a defensive midfielder allowed him to position in the right half-space to cross, creating possibilities of overloads on the right as shown below. In these crossing situations, Birmingham did not seem to have obvious targets and advantages to score. The dual centre forward pairing of Marvin Ducksch and Lyndon Dykes could prove more dangerous in the later stages of the game.
Birmingham also struggled to defend Southampton’s switch of play because they covered 2/3 of the pitch and left the other flank open. In the image below, Patrick Roberts pressed Southampton’s left centre-back without the support of players behind him, forcing defensive midfielder Tomoki Iwata to chase down Southampton’s left wing back Ryan Manning. Luckily for Birmingham, Manning‘s attacking output was not overly impressive and Southampton’s attackers up the field were relatively isolated.
Here the player who stood out:
Tomoki Iwata (Birmingham City), 1997 born.
The defensive midfielder, who could also play at right-back, provided defensive solidity for the Blues, making a game-high 9 ball recoveries for the team. With Southampton attackers isolated in 1v1 situations, his running power and reading of the game allowed him to peel off from his direct opponent to intercept passes, making 2 interceptions. A player with a low centre of gravity and oriented to the side, he had 57 touches on the ball and made many short passes with a 75% pass accuracy, losing the ball when pressed or with his back to the goal as he continued to learn to play in the middle. Iwata playing on the right half-space could create dangerous crossing opportunities for himself, allow the team to exploit the right channel and facilitate rotations and wing plays with Patrick Roberts and Alfons Sampsted.
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