Blues still at the very beginning of journey says Monk
GARRY Monk can only find one fault with his Birmingham City players – despite a failure to win any of the first six league matches.
Blues sit down in 20th in the early Championship table having drawn four and lost two.
It’s not the return Monk believes his players deserve after dominating several matches and having blown late leads against Norwich City and Nottingham Forest.
“Overall in the six games – though we didn’t see as much against QPR – defensively we have been very good,” said the manager.
“We could have managed things better, but overall defensively, we have been very good.
“We can play aggressively, front foot, and we are one of the highest creators of chances in the league. Apart from Saturday, when we probably didn’t create enough opportunities to win the game.
“We have been attacking really well but we need to be more clinical in those situations. It’s just about being a little more ruthless, more clinical, then the rewards will be there.”
Monk is having to operate with a squad that has barely changed since narrowly beating the drop last season. And at a club where dramatic dogfights have become depressingly familiar after avoiding relegation on the final day in three of the past five seasons.
The former Middlesbrough manager is keen to change all that and hopes to do so with a discernible brand of football.
“It was important we gave the team an identity, a way of playing that suits their strengths and how they are going to do it,” Monk added. “I think everyone has to remember we are right at the start of this journey. We are right at the beginning of trying to do something here at the club.
“We’re trying to accelerate it and do it as quickly as possible but it takes time. The squad needs time, the club needs time to build something strong again. That’s what we are trying to do, to put foundations in place we can build upon.”
Last Saturday’s home game against a resurgent, but eminently beatable, QPR team represented the perfect chance to engineer a maiden win. But Blues could only grind out a point from a display