Team selection headache ahead of Valley trip for Rowett?

Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett looks set to have a selection headache ahead of this weekends game against bottom of the table Charlton Athletic.

The former Burton Albion boss brought in the services of Norwich City striker Kyle Lafferty on the loan deadline day last week and he is just one of the many problems that Rowett now has to deal with.

It is safe to say that there are only really four positions on the pitch that are guaranteed to be confirmed starters. Tomasz Kuszczak, Paul Caddis, Michael Morrison and Jonathan Grounds are all likely to keep their places in the remaining nine games of the season but every other spot is up for grabs.

At the back, Rowett can choose between either Jonathan Spector or Paul Robinson to partner former Addicks vice-captain Morrison, and I have a feeling he will look to favour Spector more than he will Robinson purely because the ex-West Bromwich Albion defender won’t have the legs on him to do Saturday, Tuesday for the next three weeks.

Then you head into midfield where Rowett has several tough decisions to make. You have to look at the depth of the squad in order to determined who plays where and who plays when.

Lets start in those all important holding midfield roles. Over the past couple of games Rowett has reverted back to the three in midfield but it hasn’t quite worked out as he would have hoped.

For me, now Maikel Kieftenbeld is no longer on a knife edge with a suspension looming over his head, I think his energy levels will once again increase and I think we will see Rowett stick with the Dutchman and Stephen Gleeson in those two spots.

Moving into those wide positions now where there is competition for places on both wings. Sunderland loanee Will Buckley will be hoping that David Cotterill’s international spell over the weekend will allow him to get some game time this weekend but I am sure that Rowett will be keen to keep deadball specialist Cotterill in the starting XI.

Over on the left, Jacques Maghoma will be hoping to return to the first team after missing out on minutes in the last two games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham but teenage winger Viv Solomon-Otabor will be chomping at the bit to get some more minutes under his belt before the seasons end so who knows which way Rowett will swing.

In the number 10 spot, for me there is only really one obvious choice but Rowett will definitely be looking to change things around every game or so.

Arsenal loanee Jon Toral and January signing Diego Fabbrini will go head-to-head to see who gets picked most to fill in that spot behind the single striker and personally I would always choose Toral because I think he is more technically gifted but then again I am not the manager so who knows!

Finally, the big question is, who do you play as the loan striker? And the answer to that question is simple, all three strikers will play their part in the final nine games of this campaign.

Jamaican forward Clayton Donaldson is the obvious choice but Rowett may have told Lafferty that he will get plenty of minutes under his belt during his stay so you can’t rule him out playing a few of the remaining fixtures and then you have to look at James Vaughan.

The Huddersfield Town loanee has struggled for game time since his switch to his boyhood club but you never know, we could all be in for a surprise in the coming weeks and I for one would welcome that.

Blues fans, who would you pick to have in each of the positions mentioned above? Let us know in the comment section down below!