One To Watch: Tjaronn Chery

After the dramatic winner against Sheffield Wednesday last weekend and with no mid-week fixture in the cup this week, Birmingham City will be confident and fresh when they play Queen’s Park Rangers this coming Saturday. QPR’s last point came against struggling side Blackburn Rovers on the 10th of this month with losses to Sunderland and Huddersfield following that not to mention the 6-0 defeat to Newcastle. So QPR certainly are not a team in form but one man that is, is Tjaronn Chery.

In 8 league appearances so far, Chery has managed 1 assist and 4 goals which is pretty good going not only for a midfielder but also due to the fact that QPR have found themselves in a bad patch recently. In the cup he has 3 assists in as many games so he is capable of making something happen for the home side come what Sunday. In the last game he only made a 10 minute appearance but I am thinking that this is due to resting the 28 year old Dutchman. Either that, or he won’t make an appearance on Saturday but if this is the case then we will definitely be happy as he is a real danger man.

The noticeable thing about Tjaronn is that he is very direct. He loves nothing more than to drive at the defence and with such a low centre of gravity, he has the balance to trick past defenders with ease. I do think that we have a solid defence in place despite a few disruptions but we will need to be able to communicate as Chery will cut inside and switch play frequently.

He also works hard from the front and he must realise that everyone has to defend. He has 2 yellow cards so far this season and a lot of fouls due to his tenacity and tracking the wing backs as well as trying to close defenders down. This won’t necessarily panic our defence as I think that we have players who are confident on the ball in particular, Morrison and Shotton however, this level of pressing increases the intensity of the game as a whole. This may suit our style of play but if we start to rush, then the long ball to Donaldson will be attempted too often and it will be an easy day for the opposition defence. Therefore, I hope we play nice football at a high intensity despite the constant closing down from the wingers and forwards.

So what do I predict? With Birmingham City being so high in confidence and creating more chances in these first few games than we ever did under Lee Clark, I must say I am very encouraged. If Blackburn can score against them, then most teams can so I believe that we will score 2 or more goals and hopefully get a clean sheet. I would actually be disappointed if we don’t get the win and this just shows how well we have been playing.