Opinion: Who Will Replace Toral?

I think most Blues’ fans will agree that Jon Toral was our main midfielder last season upon joining Birmingham City for a year long loan from his parent club, Arsenal whom he has since rejoined with. This means that we have a big void in the centre of the park that needs to be filled.

He not only contributed to a very nice, high pressing game that Gary Rowett implemented last season, he also chipped in with goals; several of which were spectacular! The ability that the youngster had many fans hoping that we would be able to cling onto him for a further season but for whatever reason, this hasn’t been the case. So it was our job to find a goal scoring midfielder who can play in that number 10 rate, with a high work rate and the ability to support Donaldson. How hard can it be?

So, the man likely to fill this void would be Diego. Despite his small frame, he has the ability to work hard and effectively in a defensive capacity in order to push the opposition back and maintain Blues’ pressure. This fits in with Rowett’s philosophy so seems like the perfect player to really gel with the squad and make things tick in the middle of the pitch. Fab also has the ability to score, although I’d like him to contribute a bit more than he did in his previous loan spell at the club. With his energy, he can get up and support Donaldson easily but it is just his power that prevents any real threat from outside of the box. Personally, because of this, I would play him further back so he can utilise his range of passing rather than his lack of shooting ability.

Overall though, Fab was a great signing and I’m glad we secured his signature.

Another thought that I had was Maghoma. I have written a previous article about Maghoma’s strength in this role as a number 10 rather than out wide. In that article, I outlined the fact that he has the strength physically to be a threat and therefore pull a centre back out to mark him which leaves Donaldson in a one vs one situation which he should be favourite to win! Also Maghoma’s shooting is by far and away better centrally because he has the ability to side foot powerfully. That’s the trick. Out wide he tries to curl the ball and he simply doesn’t have the ability to do this.

So who would you pick to fill Toral’s number 10 hole?