Seven points, 23 days - Lee Bowyer's remarkable Birmingham City turnaround

Birmingham City have enjoyed a strong start to Lee Bowyer's tenure despite facing difficult opposition - with last night's 0-0 draw at Brentford a case in point

Birmingham City’s transformation under Lee Bowyer has been remarkable.

It is not even four weeks since eight of the players who started in last night’s 0-0 draw with Brentford were the rudderless, spiritless shower who lost so meekly to Bristol City.

Thank goodness that turned out to be Aitor Karanka’s last game because under their Spanish head coach Blues’ heartbeat was almost imperceptible.

They were lambs heading to the League One slaughterhouse.

And now – after a well-organised and uber-committed display at the Brentford Community Stadium, that heartbeat is pounding through the ribs of those same players.

The Birmingham City shirt which looked so heavy is now filled with pride, determination and physical and psychological courage.

And it’s been just 23 days since Bowyer walked through the door. Twenty-three days that have seen Blues beat two promotion contenders and frustrate the bejesus out of another and let’s be honest which of us expected Reading, Watford, Swansea and Brentford to yield seven points?

The seven points that now separate Blues from Rotherham who have four games in.....blah blah blah.

Bowyer’s Blues are looking up at the likes of Coventry, Derby and Huddersfield – who on the evening Blues were fighting with such passion in West London were surrendering so tamely to a seven-goal hammering by Norwich City.

Bowyer will be more confident of catching those ahead than he is fearful of being caught by those behind because in little more than three weeks under him Birmingham City look like a Championship team.

We’ve seen the new manager bounce at Blues before - Harry Redknapp sprinkled three games’ worth of stardust in 2017, while Garry Monk oversaw a slow burner which exploded in glorious fashion on that famous May day against Fulham the following year.

But neither man was able to produce a turnaround that contrasted quite so starkly as this one. The same players are unrecognisable.

How so?

It started with a change of philosophy. Instead of being worried about opponents, Blues now spend more time thinking about how to worry them.

That was never more illustrated than in last night’s selection of Riley McGree at left wing back.

The 22-year-old has had an unconvincing campaign even when selected in his preferred position as an attacking midfielder.

Yet here he was learning the art of the self-defence against the division’s leading scorers. It was a struggle at first, not helped by Kristian Pedersen’s own positional issues just behind him – but by the end they’d both got it.

Only the dominant Marc Roberts made more tackles and no Blues player topped McGree’s five crosses – which is pretty much ‘wing back’ summed up.

McGree’s was a tremendous effort but so was Bowyer’s decision to start such an attack-minded player in a position he’d never played before.

Bowyer knew Brentford were going to cause problems – but he wanted to give them something to think about too.

It’s that change of mindset that has so empowered Blues.

The other key strand is the work on defensive shape and attacking patterns which is being done on the training ground.

Karanka’s staff didn’t do that enough and as a result Blues often went out appearing as though they had no idea how they were supposed to be scoring a goal.

Blues’ route to the opposition goal might not be picturesque but it at least harnesses the skills of their two main threats, strikers Lukas Jutkiewicz and Scott Hogan.

Jutkiewicz, a plodding shadow of himself less than a month ago, is now the focal point of the team.

Getting the ball wide to wing backs or wingers, who are then charged with delivering it into the box, has been Bowyer’s key message.

Not dwelling in possession is another and pressing from the front is a third. All of them positive and designed to take the game to the opposition.

And every player looks better for it. Roberts seems far more assertive, Harlee Dean is leading without indulging his weakness for individualism.

Gary Gardner is the fulcrum, Ivan Sunjic has just played his best game of the season and Alen Halilovic has started four successive matches for the first time since 2019.

On the bench there’s Jonathan Leko who finally looks like he might do something special, Rekeem Harper who is learning even when he’s not playing and Jeremie Bela to come into the fray.

Suddenly they are all looking better players and Birmingham City are looking like they are going to win their relegation battle – and it’s only taken 23 days.