THERE'S not a tablet for it or a prescription, but Scott Hogan is ready to come out of another of his goal depressions.
Birmingham manager Aitor Karanka is desperate for that to happen. Karanka is in trouble. His defensive-minded football will be accepted only if his team is winning. But Birmingham aren't winning.
To misquote a Christmas song – “It's looking a lot like relegation.”
In three of the last four seasons, Birmingham have avoided dropping into League One on the last day.
Since Birmingham unbelievably sacked Gary Rowett when they were seventh in the Championship, just outside the play-offs four years ago next week, Blues have finished:
2016-17, 19th with a last-day escape
2017-18, 19th with a last-day escape.
2018-19, 17th safe with two games to play despite a nine-point deduction for breaking profitability and sustainability rules.
2019-20, 20th with a last-day escape.
Managers Gianfranco Zola, Harry Redknapp, Steve Cotterill, Garry Monk and Pep Clotet have come and gone.
Now it's Karanka and he's back on that slide, taking Birmingham towards a familiar crisis with three wins in 15 Championship games going into yesterday's fixture away to Bristol City.
Blues have only scored 12 goals in those 16 league games. Only the Championship's bottom four have scored less.
Hogan has got two of Blues' goals, the latest in the midweek home defeat by Barnsley that was well crafted and finished confidently.
Replay that kind of football and there's promise for Birmingham. But the grim reality is that they went one up and then lost their fifth game of the season.
Hogan has hot and cold scoring streaks and after he helped keep Birmingham up last season, on loan from Aston Villa, Blues gave him a four-year contract and expected him to do it again.
He got seven in his first nine Birmingham games on loan, making Villa look a bit silly for letting him go as they fought Premier League relegation.
But then Hogan dried up with nothing in the last eight he started.
Five more appearances were added to that this season, making it one goal in 13 games when Hogan scored in a 3-1 home defeat by Bournemouth a month ago.
Currently he is on a run of two goals in three starts, enough to give Karanka hope of Birmingham turning into Hogan's Heroes.
Even Dean Smith, who made Hogan a star at Brentford, couldn't get a goal out of him at Villa.
The peak of Hogan's career was at Brentford. He rattled in 21 goals in 36 games and went to Aston Villa for £12m at the end of the 2017 January transfer window.
He was part of the £40m Villa splashed on strikers trying to get out of the Championship. Jonathan Kodjia was a success, Ross McCormack and Hogan (seven goals in 28 league games) flopped.
Smith, when he succeeded Steve Bruce, thought he could revive Hogan with his inside knowledge of the player, but he couldn't.
Birmingham have invested heavily in Hogan with that four-year deal and by paying an undisclosed fee on top of that.
He's effectively been doing pre-season training in his first games back at Blues because he didn't get a look-in at Villa.
Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz were a Birmingham attacking partnership that sparkled last season.
But then Hogan's goals became a scarcity once again as Birmingham slid very close to League One football for the first time in a quarter of a century.
“I'm just someone who wants to score,” says Hogan. “I could be unbelievable all game and not score and I'd still be annoyed. We could win 7-0 and I'd be annoyed if I haven't got a goal.
“I believe I'm going to score every game. I wouldn't be on the pitch otherwise because I'm a striker.
“Nothing changes whether I've gone 400 games without scoring or if I'm scoring every game.
“Hopefully the next goal I score is in a winning team. That's the next step.”
Karanka has brought in 12 players to top up and improve what he inherited from umpteen reshuffles of ideas, strategies, projects and plans from those managers who went be-fore him.
He needs to weld it all together and he needs to do it quickly.
Karanka is lucky there are no fans allowed in St Andrew's at the moment because they have seen it all before, they are tired of losing and yet another season of relegation fighting.
Social media is full of disgruntled Blues fans and the ground would echo to their complaints under normal circumstances.
“If you demand from another team-mate, or you argue with your team-mate, it is nothing personal,” says Karanka, who is demanding more aggression from his players.
“It is something we have to learn because sometimes I listen to them on the pitch and I don't listen to them support each other or argue.
“They are too nice, yes. We need to be more aggressive.
“When a player is arguing with another player, or demanding from another player, it is because he wants the best from them.”
Hogan in one of his sunny spells would help.
“I don't want a ‘run' of goals,” Hogan says. “I want consistency. I've always been able to score quite consistently when I've played regularly.
“A run is okay for me but I want to be a consistent goalscorer again. That's what I am aiming to do.
“Runs come to an end and I just want to be someone who is consistent every week. It's what I've got to work on. I feel a bit sharper and a bit more up to speed.
“Strikers are a different breed, a bit like goalkeepers in terms of confidence. It's just building the confidence and the more minutes we play, the more work we do at the training ground, the better it will be.
“The players here work hard for each other. In training, it's last-ditch tackles on the line and diving head-first at challenges. It is really good to see.
“It's been a waiting game for myself, just going out and keep doing what I do.
“I had no pre-season, the gaffer knew that bringing me in. But he was quite open and has been fair, given me time to get going.
“The goals help and hopefully I can start kicking on.
“There are bits we need to work on but that's going to come with time, getting his ideas over to us and we've got to implement them.
“The more we play, the more we train together, I think we will be more than okay.”
But whether that will be enough for Blues fans remains to be seen.
JOHN WRAGG
