Opinion: Where Is Che Adams Best Position?

Despite being born in Leicester and having the middle name Everton, Birmingham is where Adams calls home now and he has settled into life really well at the Blues’. After impressing for Sheffield United with a brilliant goalscoring record for such a young and inexperienced player, it was a pleasure to see Birmingham City bring him to the club. He had the pace that we missed with Donaldson and at the time, many thought that he would partner Donaldson or even replace Donaldson as a lone man.

For me, it’s not a case of discussing what his best position actually is because quite frankly, it depends on the players around him and the formation of the team. But from what I can gather Zola prefers to play him in a wider position either as a very loose front 3 or as a winger. I can actually see this working. He has the pace to beat players out wide which is what is missing with the likes of Cotterill and Stewart in my opinion and he can also cut inside and shoot. Something that we have missed since Gray departed. If you want a player that drives at the opposition and really causes unpredictable chaos then Che really is your man and I don’t see any harm in trying considering Maghoma’s DR Congo side are currently doing well in the AFCON at the time of writing.

The only issue I have with this is the fact that we have a severe lack of strikers. Adams did learn his trade as a striker and he knows the role inside out. He has an eye for goal and is selfish which most strikers have to be. However this selfish attitude isn’t a positive on the wing as partnerships are needed more than ever and often the angles are too tight to get a shot off. He also seems to be at his most effective inside the penalty area which he is more likely to be as a striker but if a cross is coming in from the opposite flank, then he will cut inside to get onto the end of it. If we remove Che out of a central position, with Donaldson being injured, it leaves Lukas. Not only does Lukas play best when he has support around him, he also could get injured so we can’t rely purely on Lukas to be the only striker.

If Adams is going to play out wide which I would be happy with. Then we really have to invest in a striker. If this doesn’t happen then we leave a hole which no-one else in the side can fill. So he will have to play a more central role. Furthermore he will have to learn the role of a winger which may take time and we musn’t expect results straight away if this is going to be the case. It will be interesting to see where Frei plays under Zola and whether he could cover the role vacated by Adams. But as he hasn’t played yet, it’s hard to see where Zola will play him.