The midfield conundrum

In the build up to what could be a potentially exciting week for all those involved at Birmingham City it got me thinking about Blues’ current situation in the centre of the park.

As it stands, Gianfranco Zola has Stephen Gleeson, Reece Brown, Maikel Kieftenbeld, David Davis and Robert Tesche at his disposal and it looks as though he is about to add two more midfielders to his ranks.

Last week we reported that Slovenian international Rene Krhin was the subject of a £2 million bid from the club and that Blues were also working on a deal to bring Craig Gardner back to St.Andrew’s.

If both complete moves to the club this week, which one of our sources suggests will be the case, that would leave Zola with seven central midfielders to choose from.

In any team, whether that be in the Conference or the Premier League, seven midfielders who all play in the middle is something that is going to be difficult to manage because everybody wants game time and if there are that many players for one position, it then becomes difficult for a manager to keep everyone happy.

With that in mind, the question that Zola will have to answer is what will he do with the current crop of midfielders that he has at the moment?

Will he sell one or two of them? Will he send Brown out on loan to get some experience? Does he rotate his midfield every game to make sure he keeps everyone happy? It is a conundrum that he is going to have to come up with an answer for.

In the game against Newcastle United at the weekend, Davis, Kieftenbeld and Gleeson were all superb and they looked as though they were back to their best which is always encouraging to see, but again, where does that leave Tesche and Brown?

If I was Zola (which I’m clearing not), I would consider sending Brown out on loan to a side in League One to get some valuable playing time. Maybe somewhere like Sheffield United who are fighting for automatic promotion just to give him that cutting edge.

The lad has undoubted talent but he isn’t being given the time to display that at the moment so I believe a loan move away from the club for the remainder of the season would be good for him.

Then you are left with the other four senior players, plus the two that are potentially coming in. What happens with those?

Well, again if I was Zola, out of the four that are currently at Blues, I would have to sending Tesche packing. A controversial decision maybe but one that I think would pay off.

The former Nottingham Forest man really hasn’t earned his wages since he joined the club in the summer under former manager Gary Rowett and I don’t think Zola will utilise him that much either this season, so for me, he is the player I would sell if the time came.

Blues fans, do you think there is such a thing as having too many midfielders? Out of this five that the club currently have at their disposal who would you sell/keep? Let us know in the comment section down below!