Opinion: Where Blues could win or lose Vs. Cardiff City

On the back of two successive draws away from home, Gary Rowett`s men return to St Andrews on Friday night to face Russell Slade`s Cardiff City.

Here are some points on where the game could be won or lost for Blues?

Play like the home team?

This season Blues have gained a reputation for being a very good side away from home, however it has been a different story in front of the home fans.

The team have picked up just three wins from ten home matches and have failed to score in six of their last seven at St Andrews.

It is crucial that, if we are to win this game, we take the initiative as the home team and take the game to Cardiff.

Stephen Gleeson and Maikel Kieftenbeld need to dominate the midfield and feed the likes of Demarai Gray, Jon Toral and Jacques Maghoma with accuracy. More importantly, those three have to be positive and take on the Cardiff defence.

Gray was excellent against Preston on Tuesday and all he lacked was the finishing touch. If he continues to get into goalscoring positions, then the goals will come.

Give James Vaughan decent service?

As seen on Tuesday at Preston, there were far too many balls played into Vaughan that were over hit and he had to make something out of nothing. But, credit to him, he did a very good job in changing a poor ball into something.

However, too many times he was stretching to win headers and therefore he was unable to direct them to any of the runners.

Play the ball into his feet, play a little one two with him and he will be off. Then, he will get into the goalscoring positions and we might actually score a home goal!

Dangerous wide men?

Blues full backs Neal Eardley and Jonathan Grounds will have to be well aware of the threat that Cardiff wide men Craig Noone and Anthony Pilkington possess.

The Bluebirds tend to feed a lot of the ball to their wingers and get their opposition defence on the back foot. Our defence need to stand them up without giving them a yard of space.

If Grounds dives in, which he quite often does, then either Noone or Pilkington will most certainly take advantage of that. And, with the likes of Kenwyne Jones in the area, a good delivery could be costly for Blues.

Key player for Blues?

The key performer on Tuesday was Demarai Gray and if he is in the same mood against Cardiff then we definitely have a strong case for winning the game.

His pace and trickery is good enough to get past any defender and, hopefully, this time he can add that finishing touch his build up play deserves.

Blues fans, do you agree with the points that have been made? Do you think Gray will get his first home goal of the season against Cardiff? Let us know in the comment section down below!