This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Birmingham City slipped to a third consecutive defeat on Tuesday night as goalkeeper Lee Camp handed Wigan Athletic a gift of a goal to seal all three points.
The game as a whole was quite frankly a dire affair as both teams combined for just three shots on target, so the Blues may have every reason to feel hard done by.
In the 76th minute, a moment of madness saw Camp spill Anthony Pilkington’s long-range effort underneath him and into the back of the net, but prior to that in the first half, the 35-year-old had kept his side in the game with two excellent saves.
The lack of any real threat in front of goal must come as a concern for City boss Pep Clotet too, but it was a different player that may have contributed to their downfall.
Ivan Sunjic put in a particularly poor showing in the heart of midfield.
Clotet opted for a 4-4-2 system to maximise the potential of strike duo Lukas Jutkiewicz and Alvaro Gimenez, but that formation can often expose a team’s central midfield if not executed correctly.
Especially as Wigan overloaded the middle with five of their own by playing a 4-2-3-1.
It’s clear to see that the 22-year-old struggled to cope with such demands as he lost possession a vast 14 times on top of conceding two fouls and being dribbled past on four occasions, per SofaScore.
No wonder Josh Windass had so much enjoyment in that number ten role as he managed five shots at goal.
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Also, it may not come as a surprise to see that the Croatian failed to record any key passes, so the service to the two upfront was severely lacking.
Sunjic won just one of his seven ground duels too – an evening to forget perhaps.
According to WhoScored, he ranks as the lowest rated player to start seven or more matches, so maybe there’s more to it.
Either way, you can place blame on Camp for spilling the only goal of the game or on their frontline for being so impotent, but when playing a two-man midfield, it’s imperative that they are orchestrating things at both ends of the pitch.
That just didn’t happen.
