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Nicholas: felt Blues were unlucky

Birmingham lacked somebody grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and giving them some direction.

Charlie Nicholas
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Birmingham 2-2 Liverpool
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A lack of luck and a lack of leadership cost Birmingham all three points against Liverpool, according to Charlie Nicholas.

Mikael Forssell and Sebastien Larsson put relegation-threatened Birmingham two goals up against a weakened Liverpool side and they were on course to leap out of the relegation places.

But the Blues remain rooted in the bottom three after a Peter Crouch and Yossi Benayoun scored in a second-half comeback from Liverpool to leave the game drawn at 2-2.

Nicholas said Birmingham simply didn't have any luck on the day, particularly when it came to Benayoun's leveller.

"It was a crushing blow because they'd played so well," he told Soccer Saturday.

"It wasn't a great game in terms of technical ability or fluency, but Birmingham don't care about performance at the moment.

"They played well in the first half when Forssell scored a lovely goal and in the second half it was a beautiful free kick from Larsson which gave Jose Reina no chance.

"Maybe that was the time for Alex McLeish to think about changes, but you didn't really think it was necessary because they weren't in any real danger.

"All of a sudden, Jermaine Pennant burst into life and threaded a pass in and Crouch reacted well to steer a finish into the corner. You could see Birmingham were absolutely petrified after that.

Shocking

"We know they are poor defensively, but it was a shocking piece of bad luck that gave Liverpool their equaliser.

"Pennant put a nice cross in and it wasn't the cleanest header from Benayoun and it looked like Maik Taylor was going to make a fairly easy save, but it hit Rhadi Jaidi in the back and span the other way into the far corner.

"It was an enormous blow for them and one they didn't deserve.

"I saw McLeish celebrating when it got to 2-0 and he probably thought they were going to jump two places and get themselves into a really good position.

"But they're still stuck in the third-bottom position and they've definitely thrown the game away."

While fortune did not favour them, Nicholas also pointed out that Birmingham's back four lacked leadership and direction after Crouch's goal.

He continued: "You could see them panicking when Liverpool got the first goal and they didn't have any direction or leadership. It looked like every man for himself.

"I would have thought a goalkeeper like Taylor would be able to inspire people and tell people when to go and when to hold.

"Instead, everybody accepted they were going to sit deep because that's the easy thing to do. They lacked somebody grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and giving them some direction.

"The defence hasn't got a proper leader and it shows big style."

Nicholas also expressed displeasure at Rafa Bentiez's decision to rest most of his first-team players ahead of Wednesday night's Champions League semi-final second leg against Chelsea.

He added: "Liverpool made nine changes and I don't enjoy watching them without Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, even though they came back from 2-0 down.

"They lacked speed and thought and although the other players did their jobs, you just feel Liverpool chop and change it too much at times.

"This is an entertainment business and people are paying a lot of money to go and follow Liverpool. It was a decent performance in the end, but it took them until the 63rd minute to get back in the game."