Opinion: Who Should Start Up Front?

Unless you have been completely ignoring all forms of social media and websites, then you will know that the second city derby is this weekend where Birmingham City play Aston Villa in what is one of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of the football calendar even by non-affiliated football fans. Due to this, the pride that both sets of fans feel is unrivalled and this game means a lot so we have to put out a team to win the game. Even a draw isn’t good enough in these fixtures.

I don’t think I have written an article in my time of writing about Birmingham City whereby I discuss which striker that we should play. Usually it is all about Donaldson and then which midfielder will be wedged into playing alongside of him as a fake number 10. However, this time we have Donaldson, Adams and Lukas Jutkiewicz to choose from; all are very different players and it will be a tactical decision to see who Rowett picks rather than just who is the better technically.

In my opinion, Adams has to start. Having watched Aston Villa quite a lot this season, I am aware that they try and play it out from the back without actually having the talent and the players to make this tactic work. Now, I understand that Bruce has come in and maybe he will change this tactic, but it’s too early to say so I can only judge from what the players have been asked to do previously. But they try to pass out from defensive positions such as the tactics deployed by Barcelona but there is a high chance that this can go wrong. Therefore I feel that we have to press high up the pitch in order to force them to make a mistake in their defensive third.

So in my opinion, Adams is the quickest striker we have and has the ability to close down the Aston Villa defence and stop them playing out from the back. The goalkeeper isn’t even that great at long kicks so the high press often won’t get punished with a ball in behind especially if we have a defensive midfielder in the team to sweep up. So Adams is a definite for me and if he starts, we have every chance of scoring as he is also a great finisher if he gets the ball in and around the box.

For me personally, I would play Lukas alongside him. Now, this does mean dropping Donaldson who was many peoples player of the season last year and he has an eye for goal. I understand that completely but Lukas is high in confidence due to his recent purple patch in front of goal and therefore is more likely to take chances if they fall to him rather than snatching at it. I also think that he will be able to give their defence more of a run around as they like to man mark and double up. So the defence will be wary of Lukas in the area and therefore be more likely to leave Adams with a bit too much space. As a partnership it could work really well.

But we are in the great position whereby we are actually spoilt for choice and the management will have done their research and I am confident that no matter who is chosen as a striker; that we can score goals come what the second city derby!