Play forward, on the front foot, take risks, be brave; the supposed recipe for the no-fear style of play trumpeted by Birmingham City’s top brass as reasons to be cheerful about a new, ambitious era led by Wayne Rooney and fronted by Tom Brady. All of those things were on show in Rooney’s first home game in charge, the only problem being those buzzwords were mastered not by Birmingham but opponents Hull City. It was impossible not to tune into the frequency of discontent as the boos rang around St Andrew’s at the final whistle.
It felt somewhat alarming that after a second successive defeat since taking charge, Rooney criticised his players’ attitude and conceded some of them have admitted to being uncomfortable with his demands. In fairness, Rooney has never been one to dress up the reality. “It is clear the players are not comfortable,” he said afterwards. “I’ve said to the players: ‘Be honest with me, if you don’t feel you can do it, tell me, we can adjust, we can adapt.’ It’s something for me to look at it in terms of: ‘Am I asking too much, too soon?’ It is my job to fix that.”
