The Three Pointer Vs. Brentford

Overview

Following Sunday’s Second City derby draw with Aston Villa, Birmingham City will be looking for a similar performance when Brentford visit St. Andrew’s.

Blues have been dealt a huge blow after Steve Cotterill revealed the extent of Isaac Vassell’s injury.

The striker has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and is set for a six-month spell on the sidelines.

It’s gutting for both the player and the club as he was really starting to shine, but hopefully he’ll come back stronger.

Approach

To a man, each and every Blues player were excellent against Villa so I don’t anticipate much change.

Someone will obviously have to come in for Vassell and Cotterill has options with Sam Gallager, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Che Adams all possibilities to play up front.

Brentford are a decent footballing side and do have the ability to pass Blues off the park.

What we’ve got to do is win our individual battles. Similar to Sunday, we knew Villa had the technical advantage on us, so we just dominated the middle by our sheer intensity and physicality.

It’s important that we win these home games and start to climb the table. There are slight signs that the team are starting to gel together, so gradually we may get there.

Exploit

Brentford had a poor start to the season but have since picked up and are now on a seven game unbeaten run in the league.

They picked up an impressive 3-2 victory at Preston on the weekend so will be full of confidence.

Blues have three ex-Bees players in their squad, with Jota and Maxime Colin both likely to start.

Their link up down the right-hand side could be the key to Blues unlocking Brentford’s rearguard.

If anyone is going to create for us, then it’s going to be Jota.

We’re finally getting to see him in action after his hamstring injury, and I’m sure he’ll be keen to make amends for his one-on-one miss against Villa.