2 ground duels won, 0 shots: Birmingham City player who faltered in Middlesbrough defeat | OneFootball

The Blues have spent most of the campaign near the relegation zone due to injuries, poor form and selection issues. The side though had managed to string two good results together before this game, beating Bristol City and then claiming a point off Hull.

They would have fancied their chances to extend that run to three games but against Boro, it wasn’t to be. The away side fired in two goals and saw off Birmingham relatively easily in the end, leaving the side sat in 20th place.

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It wasn’t a great performance from many in the side but one player who didn’t live up to his usual expectations was Onel Hernandez. The striker didn’t really threaten the opposition goal despite having four goals and two assists this season and in the absence of Lyle Taylor and Scott Hogan (who was benched) he didn’t really offer much.

For an attacker, you would have expected him to at least create chances and try and help lead the line with his partner Lukas Jutkiewicz. Instead, he was largely quiet and the stats suggest as much too.

Hernandez didn’t have a single shot all night for starters (as per SofaScore) and that is despite playing the full 90 minutes. If you don’t have an effort on goal, then you won’t score and as a striker it is pivotal that you at least test the goalkeeper when you can.

Creating chances for himself just didn’t work either. Hernandez is usually fairly solid at dribbling and getting the ball forward but attempted only one dribble all game and couldn’t pull it off. While his passing was fairly accurate (73% success rate), that was arguably the only area of his game that didn’t appear too bad.

He won only two of his ground duels and was dispossessed far too easily on the ground and when the Blues switched approach and tried to get the ball to him in the air, he succeeded in none of his two aerial duels to boot. In total, he lost possession 16 times in the game.

It isn’t like Hernandez to be quiet, especially considering the creativity he can have. He’s been relied upon frequently this season but it was a real game for him to forget against Boro. They kept him quiet and he didn’t really offer much in attack.

It could just be a blip for the player and he is likely to still be relied upon by Lee Bowyer but with Tahith Chong, Scott Hogan and Lyle Taylor al vying for places in the team when fit, he’ll have to produce better than he did against Middlesbrough to continue playing so regularly at Birmingham.