Luke Turner has his say on the form of our Welsh winger…
When David Cotterill entered the field at the back end of Saturday`s 3-0 victory over Norwich, he was welcomed by boos from sections of Blues fans.
Now, firstly, to answer the question in the headline, I think that it was totally wrong of those fans to act in that way towards Cotterill.
Of course, fans have a right to express their opinions on players but those that booed stepped beyond the mark in my opinion.
The Welshman hasn’t had a great start to the season and was deservedly dropped by Gary Rowett, which may actually help Cotterill in the long run.
He is still a big player for us and is very much someone that can be a match winner. He showed that in his first season at the club and towards the end of last season, which was a campaign disrupted by injury for him.
When he isn’t scoring 30-yard screamers or putting in a pin-point cross for someone, then Cotterill is a very frustrating player.
He can become lazy and does hold back from putting his foot into tackles. What I’m trying to get at is that he doesn’t really help himself.
If he’s having a disappointing game then he never seems to do something else that might make up for a poor cross or a wayward shot.
His body language is very much ‘I’m the main man` and I do think that he’s becoming too big for his boots and the life as a footballer is getting to him.
Us fans want to see players putting in 100% effort for the club and, if their performance isn’t up to scratch, then we expect the basics of putting the work in.
Cotterill`s style of play is very stand-offish which makes it seem like he doesn’t care or isn’t interested. It does become frustrating for fans and I think it’s his work rate that’s letting him down.
If he starts to get stuck into the action, then he`ll regain that form. There’s no hiding that he can contribute goals and assists to the team, it’s more a case of delivering on a more regular basis as well as doing the ground work.
He now has competition for his place with Greg Stewart coming in and David Davis will take some shifting after his start to the season but I’m expecting Cotterill to come back fighting.
If he’s still at the club after Wednesday`s transfer deadline, then he just needs to get his head down and work towards getting back to his best.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the player that Rowett was talking about ‘sacrificing` in order to bring others in but if he does stay then he is still a crucial player for us.
The boos directed towards him were uncalled for and it’s something that won’t help the player.
I’m sure that Rowett has had a word with him so let’s leave it for him to deal with and hopefully look forward to Cotterill producing match-winning performances.