Kevin Phillips tells Birmingham City players what to expect from Tony Mowbray
Latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive includes Kevin Phillips on his former manager Tony Mowbray's appointment at St Andrew's
“Tony Mowbray, with his football philosophy and his knowledge, was just exceptional.”
That quote came from former Birmingham City captain Paul Robinson during a recent sit-down with the Keep Right On podcast, but it could quite easily have been Tom Wagner or Garry Cook’s reaction to Mowbray’s interview for the top job at St Andrew’s. Blues’ top brass were blown away by Mowbray’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the Championship and, more broadly, football.
The vastly experienced manager, who celebrated his 60th birthday in November, has been handed the reins to ‘The Project’ by Blues owners Knighthead. Mowbray has been given two-and-a-half years to lead the club back into the Premier League.
Unlike both of his predecessors in this eventful season, Mowbray has won promotion to the top flight before. Back in 2008, near the start of his coaching career, Mowbray guided West Bromwich Albion to the Championship title.
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The Baggies were stylish under Mowbray and scored 88 goals - 19 more than any other team in that particular season. Robinson was part of that Baggies side which set the trend for possession-based football in the second tier.
Robinson added: “I loved playing and working under him. Even though at times people said we didn’t see eye to eye, we did, 100 percent.”
Kevin Phillips fired Mowbray’s Baggies to promotion before helping Blues reach the Premier League in 2009. ‘Super Kev’ netted 24 goals in 38 matches in his final season at The Hawthorns and holds Mowbray in the highest regard.
“I was a professional for just shy of 21 years and people ask me what were the best times and I always say the two years that I had at West Brom under Tony were right up there, with Birmingham and Sunderland,” Phillips told BirminghamLive. “That speaks volumes of what Tony brought to the football club at the time.
“When Bryan Robson left it was a big blow for the club. When Tony was appointed there were a few murmurs within the squad, a few players weren’t convinced. As soon as he got on the training ground and we met him, and he put his first session on, it blew us away. We all realised this guy wanted to play football.
“I played against Tony and he was a hard guy, a big tough guy. I just thought with an ex-centre half coming in it was just going to be route one, back to front, scrap for seconds, but it wasn’t. The balls were out, it was passing sessions, and he wanted to play out from the back and he wanted to play attractive football.
“He has done that to this day. You saw that at Sunderland last year. Those two years at West Brom, fans still talk about it now. Birmingham have got a fantastic, experienced football man, and just a generally nice guy.”
Whilst Mowbray’s predecessor Wayne Rooney had very little managerial experience and no record of previously meeting the targets set by Knighthead, the new man at the helm ticks all the boxes. Mowbray has won promotion to the Premier League and challenged for it in recent years, and his teams tend to dominate the ball.
His Sunderland side averaged 59.7 percent possession in their 19 league games this season. Contrast that with the 41.4 percent of the ball Blues averaged across Rooney’s 15 matches in charge.
On Rooney’s watch, players were out of sorts and, at times, out of position. Phillips says Blues now have a manager who will leave nothing to chance.
Phillips added: “He did plenty of work on the training ground on functions, structural play, team shape, patterns of play. Tony trusts his staff to be able to deliver the messages and what he’s excellent at is getting amongst the players, he is a great man-manager. He was like that at West Brom, talking to players and making them feel good about themselves.
“Everybody within that squad will know their job. That comes through rigorous meetings, analysis and self-analysis - making players look at their own clips. He probably won’t take every session on the training pitch because he will want to stand back and assess, but when he does speak people listen.
“He’s a very knowledgeable guy about football and his record backs it up. It was almost a no-brainer to put him in and they have been very lucky to get him. They are getting a manager that knows the Championship very well.”