One To Watch: Sam Winnall

It’s the last fixture of 2016 and Birmingham City will hope to gain points in the race to the play-offs. Barnsley will be no easy opponent though, especially being our bogey team in recent seasons. Despite this, we often fair better away and therefore we should have nothing to fear going into the 3pm kick off today.

For my one to watch this week, I usually choose a different player for the home game compared to the away game. This is either because another player has come into a rich vein of form later on in the season but also if we are playing well, then I am more likely to choose a defender who will prevent us grabbing all 3 points rather than an attacker who I think our defence can handle. But with Barnsley they are very much a one man team and if we can keep him quiet then we have every chance of getting something from the game. The man in question being Sam Winnall.

The first thing that I would say is that we need to stop crosses into the box getting to him. The likes of Watkins can really whip a ball in and Winnall loves nothing more than to plant a header past the goalkeeper; a skill which he showed at St Andrews just a few weeks ago. So we need Grounds and whoever the other full back will be, to try and get close to the man who is crossing and even let them cut inside because it is less dangerous than giving Winnall time to pick his spot.

The mark of a good striker, I often think, is that they can create just enough space for themselves to enable an effort on goal. They always seem to have the quick thinking to shift the ball ever so slightly so that they are in a better position to hit a cleaner strike. Sam does this better than most strikers in the Championship and we really do have to man mark him because they often only play one man up front and so the other centre back can play a more sweeping role. Whether Zola will adapt to this, remains to be seen as it is often seen as reactive but then again, if it helps get us points on the board, I am not bothered what label they put on it.

Winnall often links up well with the midfielders too so we need to be on our toes in order to track onrushing players. Every attacking move comes from the striker and despite not looking the biggest, he can hold defenders off before laying the ball back. He keeps possession really well and we must stand our ground with him. His work rate is also admirable as he closes down defences which means that Zola’s tactic of playing it out from the back with the players that we have may not work but we shall see.