Luke Turner picks out who he thinks will be key for Blues against The Rovers…
Blues take on Blackburn Rovers tomorrow night looking to build on Thursday`s 1-0 victory over Hull City with a first win away from home since January.
Paul Lambert`s side have recently hit some good form at Ewood Park, winning their last three against Fulham, MK Dons and promotion chasing Middlesbrough.
It certainly won’t be as straight forward as some may think for Blues so each and every one of our players will need to be up for it like they were the other day.
A man who I think could be key to guiding us to victory is our target man Clayton Donaldson.
‘The Don` once again worked his socks off against the Tigers and didn’t give their backline a moments rest. I expect the same from him tomorrow.
He will be up against two strong defenders in Shane Duffy and Scotland international Grant Hanley who have both played Premier League football in the recent past.
But I feel that if Clayton is his normal self, harassing and chasing down the centre backs, then he could definitely force a mistake or two.
If he wins a few early knock downs or free kicks then the ball will straight away be in his side of the court.
It will unsettle the pairing and hopefully give opportunity for our attacking players to take advantage and punish the defenders.
He was extremely unlucky not to score an outstanding overhead kick against Hull and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before he gets his first away goal since the start of November.
Donaldson`s relationship with Toral will also be crucial to us getting something out of the game. Both read each other’s game extremely well and feed off knock downs which we have already seen numerous times this season.
Clayton`s willingness to chase down and hold the ball up for his teammates is also beneficial to us when we are under pressure.
Despite Blackburn being down the lower end of the table, they still have some quality players and the likes of Jordi Gomez and Ben Marshall can unlock any defence.
So defending from the front will be important for us and has been the key to success on many occasion throughout the season to date.