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Birmingham City: Zola watch

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The jury is still out on Gianfranco Zola, Birmingham City`s new manager. Despite many positives, Blues suffered defeat in the Italian`s first game in charge after surrendering a one-goal lead late on.

Vital Blues co-editor Rob Wildey analyses the positives and negatives of Zola`s first game at the helm.

POSITIVES

Bold team selection – after one training session, it`s impossible to know the team you`ve inherited, so Zola kept a simple formation but encouraged Blues to attack Brighton. The 4-3-3 worked well to a point. Greg Stewart looked lively and Lukas Jutkiewicz thrived from the support in and around him. Also, Stephen Gleeson fit the system like a hand to a glove.

Keeping it on the deck – on the whole, Blues kept the ball on the deck. One of the accusations thrown the way of Gary Rowett was that his team hoofed the ball too often. Zola encouraged his players to pass and move. It worked well for an hour with Blues playing some good stuff.

Endeavour – this Blues team have never lacked endeavour but it was a worry that they wouldn`t play for their new manager after the shock sacking of Rowett. However, this wasn`t the case. Blues toiled and worked hard and came seven minutes away from a big win.

NEGATIVES

Left side – David Cotterill has excellent crossing ability but is very right footed. Using him on the left hand side nullified his threat and diluted his strengths. The Welsh international didn`t have a bad game but he couldn`t influence it enough from the left.

Substitutes – again, I will stress that this is a hard thing to get right when you don`t really know your players. Zola took a risk by bringing Josh Cogley on as an auxiliary right back to try and deal with the increasing pressure down that side. His inexperience showed. Bringing Paul Robinson on as a right back was baffling. But he`ll learn.

Missing chances – Maikel Kieftenbeld should have set Blues off to a dream start but smashed the post when it was easier to score. While Jutkiewicz took his goal very well, other chances were missed which could have put the game to bed before Brighton`s late onslaught.


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