Opinion: A perfect time to experiment?

As most Birmingham City fans are aware, this season Gary Rowett hasn’t been one to tinker with his side, especially in the league.

However, ahead of the game on Tuesday night against second from bottom Bolton Wanderers, the Blues boss has hinted that he is trying to find a way to fit both Diego Fabbrini and Jon Toral into the team together.

Although Rowett is quite tentative when it comes to playing the duo together, I think it could be something that works for us, but you have to look at the bigger picture…

Who do you drop out of the team in order to bring Italian international Fabbrini into the team?

What formation do you change to to make sure you get the best out of both of the players who are used to being alone in the no.10 role?

I think the reason why Rowett is being so edgy about putting the two players into the same side is because of those conundrums exactly.

The team has been playing very well recently, especially at the back with four clean sheets in the last five games, so the back five won’t be tweaked.

Then you move yourself up into the midfield. Can something be changed there? Does a winger get sacrificed in order to play either of the two no.10’s out wide, like we have already seen Toral do this season?

Does Rowett take out one of his holding midfielders and play a 4-3-2-1 formation where he has Jacques Maghoma and David Cotterill either side of say Maikel Kieftenbeld in the central spot.

Or does the former Burton Albion boss simply not play with wingers at all in that 4-3-2-1 formation and stick with three central midfielders in Kieftenbeld, Stephen Gleeson and David Davis, with Fabbrini and Toral ahead of them behind Clayton Donaldson.

All these possibilities must be doing the rounds in Rowett’s head and you can’t help but feel sorry for the man because such is the quality in the Blues squad at the moment that two or three top class Championship players are missing out game after game.

The other difficulty that Rowett faces is does he go extremely adventurous and outside the box and play two up front, something which he has only done midway through the second half with the introduction of another striker from the bench.

Personally, I would like to see both Donaldson and James Vaughan on the pitch together but I do often ask myself, would that really work? Could one of them do all the running while the other one stays in the box?

I think it could work for us but then you have the challenge of once again tinkering with things further down the pitch. Do you play a 4-1-2-1-2 formation with two wingers? Do you go with a 4-2-2-2 tactic and play with the two attacking midfielders as well? Or do you go with a basic 4-4-2?

All these options must be currently filling Rowett’s head ahead of the Trotters game and I think it would be refreshing to see changes made to the formation if I am being honest and yes I do strongly believe that the Bolton game is the perfect time to experiment with the squad.

Blues fans, would you like to see a change in formation? What would you prefer to see on the pitch, two strikers or two attacking midfielders? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!