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Brown to fit the Zola mould?

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Luke Turner on the possibility of Reece Brown fitting Zola’s style of play…

Reece Brown is a player that we all know is excellent on the ball and is one of the most technically gifted players we have at the club.

He has made eight league appearances this season but just one of those has been a start.

But, could we be seeing more of the 20-year-old after the appointment of new manager Gianfranco Zola?

It’s not secret that Zola`s intentions are to have a more exciting brand of football with possession of the ball being key to this.

We saw in Saturday`s last gasp defeat to Brighton that Blues held onto the ball a lot more, particularly in the first half, and were reluctant to just punt it up to Lukas Jutkiewicz.

Stephen Gleeson was a player that really shone as his ability to hold onto the ball and keep possession worked very well in a 4-3-3 system.

Brown is similar to Gleeson in that he will come looking for the ball in hope of getting the team further up the pitch and the way he takes care of the ball will definitely be appreciated by Zola.

It was interesting to note that, in his unveiling as Blues boss, Zola mentioned the name of Brown which suggests to me that the new owners want players like him to have more game time due to his style of play.

Hence, why I am suggesting that we could well be seeing a lot more of Reece Brown in the coming months.

The only real issue is where do you play him and who do you play him ahead of?

There are four other centre midfielders that are currently ahead of Brown which makes it difficult to see where he comes in.

Gary Rowett played him wide right on numerous occasions and, whilst he can do a job there, I don’t think it’s where Zola or the player himself sees his future.

Playing him centrally would be ideal but it’s just a case of fitting him in and there’s also the added issue of physicality.

He’s quite a lightweight figure and you’d have to be worried that this could hold him back.

But, make no qualms about it, Brown would certainly enhance us in an attacking sense and he would also fit the mould of keeping possession a lot more and using the ball wisely.

I guess we`ll just have to wait and see because it’s still very early days in the Zola era and we also have the small matter of the January transfer window just around the corner.

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