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Three in midfield is the key to derby day success

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Over the course of the opening 13 games of the 2016/17 Championship season, Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett has changed his formation on several different occasions, but there is one that he should stick to for the game against Aston Villa on Sunday.

When Blues played Norwich City before the international break took place at the back end of August, Rowett opted for a basic 4-3-3 formation and it was clear to see that it worked well for us on the day.

In recent weeks, Rowett has reverted back to his old 4-2-3-1 formation, one that many managers in the division know how to set up against.

So, in my opinion, Rowett needs to change it back to the 4-3-3 formation that was such a success against the Canaries.

In doing this, he will add stability to the midfield, precision to the attacking trio and solidity to the defensive structure of the team.

As I will discuss later in the week in my predicted line up article, I think there are only really three midfielders that Rowett can put in the side to try and deal with what Villa have to offer.

When Steve Bruce sent his side out against Fulham last weekend, they also played a 4-3-3 formation, with Mile Jedinak, Gary Gardner and Leandro Bacuna offering plenty of pace going forward as well as being a brick wall when the Cottagers were attacking.

Because Bruce is likely to field a similar sort of team again when they visit his old stomping ground, Rowett needs to play Stephen Gleeson, David Davis and Maikel Kieftenbeld in my opinion.

Irish midfielder Gleeson will act in the same way that Jedinak does. Blocking the play, sitting in front of the back four and occasionally ghosting forward to sit on the edge of the area waiting for a pull back.

Robust duo Kieftenbeld and Davis will then counteract what both Bacuna and Gardner do for Villa.

The Villa pair are both fantastic at getting forward and defending as well and since Bruce has come in, the pair have been a revelation, which is something we will need to block off straight away if we want to have any success in this game at all.

I am pretty sure that Rowett will know exactly how to approach the game but it is very important that the players don’t let themselves get caught up in the moment and they need to walk away from encounters which may have costly consequences.

For me, if we want to stand any chance of coming away with anything from this game, we need to play with three in midfield to counter balance what they are offering.

Blues fans, do you agree that we need three in midfield on Sunday? Or would you play a No.10 to try and occupy Mile Jedinak? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

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