Opinion: Will Viv Be A Starter This Season?

Many of our young players come through the academy from a young age such as 10 or 11 years old and are taught to play the Birmingham City way for want of a better phrase. For those players who come later in on their youth spell, the only thing that will ensure that they blend into the setup is if they have a good attitude.

Viv Solomon-Otabor came from Crystal Palace as a 16 year old upon his release from the Eagles. At that age, often that group of players know each others strengths and weakness and bond off the pitch so for a new player to be welcomed and adapt to others styles is often very difficult. It is noticeable that players often take time to adapt to new team mates at all levels of the game, but it is very hard at youth level because each academy plays in a different way and has a different philosophy. What I liked about Viv was that he adapted straight away.

Instead of coming in and showing off with fancy footwork, he did the simple things well. Such as he played the way he was facing and often tracked back with great effect; he worked hard for the team. This was definitely appreciated by his team mates and this built bridges between the entire squad.

Therefore, mainly due to his attitude, I think he could fit in perfectly to the first team squad permanently this year. With Gray leaving also and Cotterill being injured for a large part of last season, I was quite disappointed that Rowett didn’t utilise Viv more, especially after the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday made the ambition of the play-offs seem unlikely.

His pace would cause a lot of full backs problems. In the modern era, full backs tend to push on and like to overlap their attacking players in front of them. Due to this, it leaves space in behind for the opposition wingers to exploit and Viv has pace in abundance so I feel he could certainly cause damage this way. He also has very quick feet and more often than not delivers the final ball. He is maturing into a complete player that I believe has the ability to step up and be a regular first team player this season.

If he gains confidence with his shooting, I think that he could be more influential than Maghoma out wide and with the amount of games that the players have to play with the cups included, the likes of Cotterill will have to be rested. So I’m hopeful that Viv will shine.