It’s positive news for sure.
But it’s still not the news we’d ideally want to be hearing, especially given how much we want to get things off on the right foot and try to end our bad run of form (that stretched back to February) as soon as possible.
Speaking in his press conference ahead of our opening game of the Championship season, Blues boss Aitor Karanka spoke about the injury status of our top scorer from last season, and the man whose impact would arguably be missed the most of any player in the side, Lukas Jutkiewicz.
💬 AK: "Jukey is doing well, he is taking part in some of the training sessions with the team. I don’t know if he will be ready to start, but hopefully he will be in the squad. I will have a chat with him and the medical staff, see how he is." pic.twitter.com/m6sJRxxLbH
— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) September 10, 2020
By the sounds of it, he’s not going to start, which is the obvious position to take given the situation. The question then becomes, do you keep him out of the team completely? Or do you keep him on the bench and hold him back ‘in case of an emergency’?
Is Jutkiewicz our most important player?
Yes
No
I’ve spoken before about how important that centre forward spot is for Blues, and if the club are going to solely be relying on Jutkiewicz this season (judging by their lack of activity so far), then it’s important that the club don’t risk any further damage.
What about you? Would you keep Jutkiewicz on the bench for this game? Or leave him out completely?
We have probably missed the boat to get a decent striker. Beyond belief that we should discard both our keepers without a replacement and then have to waste window time trying to find someone. Doubtful if we can achieve anything in the first part of the season purely relying on Juke – goals will be few and a lot of pressure on a less than impressive defense.
A firs win courtesy of some good luck (sadly missing last season). In truth Brentford should have won 2-1 at least. Hopefully this will inspire the players but we still need a lot more creative attacking threat. Not Karanka’s match plan???