Wayne Rooney's struggles at Birmingham highlight the dangers of rapid change

Birmingham City fans were delighted when a takeover of the club was completed in the summer after years of frustration at their former owners.

The new ownership group, named after the TV show the Peaky Blinders, showed their ruthless side when making one of their first major decisions to replace John Eustace with Wayne Rooney.

In his first job in the EFL Eustace had guided the Midlands club to a 17th-place finish in the 2022-23 season despite minimal funds and a tumultuous ownership situation.

The club were  in the playoff places in October when Eustace was replaced by Rooney, who has taken just five points from his first eight games in charge.

The former Manchester United man won almost every honour in club football as a player but he has found life as a manager much tougher, as demonstrated by his 26.7 win percentage.

The new boss has attempted a sharp change in the team’s playing style, moving from one of the most direct teams in the division to a possession-based approach.

His side have struggled with the change, particularly the increased importance on playing out from the back.

Birmingham have committed the second-most errors leading to an opposition shot in the division with a tally of ten.

Many of the players in the Blues squad seem unsuited to a possession-based style of play. Despite Rooney’s best intentions they still rank third-bottom of the division for open-play sequences that include ten or more passes with 67. By contrast Southampton have managed 385.

Blues’ struggles have not gone unnoticed by odds-compilers - the club were 25-1 to be relegated when Rooney took over and are now into 6-1 in places while they were 14-1 for promotion upon his arrival and are now out to as big as 200-1.

It’s clear that the new ownership see a more expansive style of play as the key to producing long-term success and will have hoped for a transition similar to the one Vincent Kompany produced at Burnley.

However, with no transfer window in which to bring in players and no pre-season to implement that new style, it is no wonder that Rooney’s side have run into trouble.

Whether the new ownership will grant the former England striker the time to make those changes is the most pressing issue and from Rooney's time at Derby and DC United, it is unclear whether or not he is up to the task.

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