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Opinion: What to look out for Vs. Rotherham

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Luke Turner discusses what Blues should be looking out for tomorrow…

Next up for Blues is a trip up north to visit relegation threatened Rotherham United who, last night, announced Neil Warnock as their new manager.

The Millers won the reverse fixture 2-0 at St Andrews back in September and Blues will be hoping for revenge that gets their play off push back on track.

Both sides will be looking for a win after suffering defeats last week. Rotherham are deeply in need of a victory to push them away from the bottom three where as Blues will be looking to apply more pressure to the top six.

The appointment of Warnock will give Rotherham players that extra incentive to play well in hope of keeping their places in the team.

The obvious thing to look out for is how fragile the Rotherham back line is. Blues should get plenty of opportunities in front of goal and they need to apply pressure to their defence.

Conceding six in their last two versus relegation rivals Charlton and Bolton doesn’t read well and Blues will see that and fancy their chances.

On the other hand, there have been positives for Rotherham. Blues should be particularly wary on ex-winger Chris Burke who is on loan to them.

Burke has scored in his last two games and we all know what he can do in the attacking third when on top form.

Along with Burke, Blues should look to stop Rotherham`s other wide man on the pitch, Joe Newell.

The 22-year-old has stepped up to the plate since his move from Peterborough last summer by contributing five goals and five assists.

So both Caddis and Grounds need to be up for the task of facing Burke and Newell tomorrow afternoon.

As I said in a previous article, I expect there to be plenty of space for Blues to exploit and, so, Jon Toral could have a big impact.

He will be looking for pockets of space in behind their midfield to turn into and attack the back four. His relationship with Donaldson will also be important as we don’t want ‘The Don` to become isolated.

They both tend to work well together and keep within close proximity of each other so I am also expecting plenty of knock downs from Donaldson for the Spaniard to run onto.

The Millers could become desperate at times whilst searching for a goal which will play right into Blues` hands.

Our counter attacking ability will no doubt be used to great effect the longer the game goes on and I am fairly confident going into the match.

After last weeks defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, the thing we don’t want to happen is for the gap between us and them to widen.

A win tomorrow will get us back on track straight away as well as keeping the confidence within the team high which is crucial if we are to maintain this push for promotion.

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