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Opinion: Our Best Addition To The Squad

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The beginning of September has hit us and that means only one thing to football fans; that the transfer window has closed and it is time to properly assess whether Birmingham City have really managed to fill in the gaps that meant that we missed out on a play off position last time out.

I must be honest, I am happy with the personnel. If I was playing football manager, the virtual reality game, I would be fairly happy to sign the players that we have because they all are Championship level and have a good skill set. However, do they fill in the gaps that we needed them to? I think it does especially in an attacking sense.

One of the signings that I am most pleased about is Rhoys Wiggins. It is evident that Grounds has had a rough patch recently and has looked tired. It is unfortunate as a couple of seasons ago he was one of the most consistent players in the entire league. He rarely used to give away passes and his defending was one of his best attributes; it was just his attacking flair that let him down. However, he has had to play nearly every game, if not every game for the past couple of years and it looks like he just doesn’t have the fuel to fully take part in every single match. We needed a left back crucially in order to add more stability.

In the Leeds game in particular, amongst others, the oppositions goals have come from that left hand side; exploiting Grounds lack of pace and ability. This is a weak spot I’m afraid to say but Wiggins looks to be the man to fill that gap now. He is a young player who looks physically able to get forward and get back. It sounds simple but Grounds was not able to do this especially in the latter parts of games. I think Wiggins will also give us more of an attacking option and he can form a good link with the left winger in front of him. A great addition due to the skills of Wiggins but also it really was needed.

In terms of the defence however, we do seem a little bit bare. As centre halves go, if we discount Robbo, we only have 3 and even then one of them is preferred at right back. If Shotton is a centre back then that just leaves Caddis really who is first choice and he also looks to be tiring and be a bit out of sorts. I worry that if an injury hits, then we may be a bit bare at the back but the additions are better than I was expecting.

The best signing of the entire window I believe for any team was Che Adams. He is without doubt one of the best strikers that we could have hoped to lure into St Andrews. He has pace and an eye for goal which compliments Donaldson. It also forces Rowett to play two up front which I believe to be a better attacking formation and therefore will allow us to score more goals. With Lukas also coming in from Burnley, I think that we have plenty of opportunities to change games if we are losing or to really set a marker in terms of goals scored. I will be disappointed if we don’t score one a game because I think we have the players who can do this.

The only slight disappointment I have is out wide. Viv isn’t preferred which I think is ridiculous so that just leaves Maghoma on the left. Cotterill is having a bad time of it lately and is on international duty a lot so he doesn’t seem first choice. This leaves Stewart as first choice or dragging someone else out of position. It does leave us a bit exposed out wide and we often like to play the ball onto the wings for crosses so that is the only gap I feel that we still have.

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