The Three Pointer Vs. Barnsley

Overview

Since Steve Cotterill won his first game in charge against Cardiff, his Blues side have failed to win any of their following three.

We gave a pretty decent account of ourselves in the derby against Aston Villa, but that was sandwiched in between a pathetic defeat at Millwall and, most recently, Wednesday night’s dour home loss to Brentford.

It’s fair to say that we’ve been extremely unlucky with injuries and the players do need to step their game up massively, but Cotterill’s decisions during the game a couple of days ago worried me.

To put it bluntly, I thought that his tactics and substitutions were clueless. There are a number of reasons for this, but lets focus on tomorrow’s game and trying to stay positive.

Approach

Changes have to be made tomorrow, there’s no two ways about it and I think that Cotterill is planning to do so.

Emilio Nsue will be the only likely enforced change after Maxime Colin’s injury, but I would like to see a bit of a shakeup.

There’s been a lot of talk about Michael Morrison’s displays not being up to scratch so there’s an argument there to recall Harlee Dean in his place.

I think it would be wise to bring Craig Gardner back into the fold as well as Jeremie Boga.

I’ve got no idea why Cotterill seems to prefer Sam Gallager out wide instead of a pacy, tricky and unpredictable natural wide man in Boga.

We need to see him through the middle and drop Che Adams back into either the number 10 position or even out wide.

Blues need someone up front who can lead the line and hold the ball up – Gallagher or Lukas Jutkiewicz are the men to do that for us, with Adams perhaps playing just off one of them.

We’ve got to head to Oakwell with the intent to win. We’re now at a point where the teams above us are beginning to leave us behind so every game now is crucial.

Exploit

Barnsley are only four points ahead of Blues but are on a decent run of just one defeat in their last six.

Paul Heckingbottom has seen some of his best players leave the club but has still managed to get them organised and playing as a team.

They’re always capable of pulling out results and this is another tricky test for Blues.

But let’s also be honest, on paper we’ve got players that can cause damage.

I think the key to getting something out of this game is keeping solid and then hitting Barnsley on the counter with pace and power.

We’re not free scoring, so any goal however it comes will be greatly appreciated right now.

Blues have got to stick together, up their game and believe that we can get out of this current rut.