Luke Turner gives an idea of what we can expect tomorrow afternoon…
The new season for Blues kicks off tomorrow as they face Cardiff City at St Andrews but what should we expect of the two sides?
Formation-wise, for Blues, I think that Gary Rowett is settled on a 4-2-3-1 system that we saw for the majority of last season.
The only real changes to look out for will be personnel-wise. Don’t be surprised if we see Jonathan Spector at right back instead of Paul Caddis.
The American won’t give us the attacking threat that Caddis does but he is a lot more solid and reserved.
That could come in handy against Cardiff against the likes of Craig Noone and Anthony Pilkington who are both tricky players to face.
The other dilemma is who plays in midfield. It’s unlikely that Maikel Kieftenbeld will be fit enough to start so we could see a pairing of Stephen Gleeson and Robert Tesche.
It will be interesting to see how Blues begin the game but I expect that a lot of our good play will come through Diego Fabbrini.
If he’s on song then our forward play will flow a lot better. We all know that when he finds pockets of space, he has the ability to hurt defences.
But that defence of Cardiff might be tough to break down as new manager, Paul Trollope, has implemented a fresh approach playing a 5-3-2 formation with wing backs.
This is how Wales played in the European Championships which proved so successful as Chris Coleman`s side reached the semi-finals in France.
As well as this, Trollope has been working hard to get his players even fitter so that they can cope with the change in formation.
The midfield have to work even harder and it will be a real battle for our midfielders against Whittingham and Ralls.
It’s hard to predict how the game will pan out due to both sides looking first at having a solid rearguard and, secondly, working hard off the ball.
We could see a cagey start so it will be down to the attacking threat of Fabbrini, Cotterill and Maghoma to get things going for Blues.
Cardiff, being the away side, will look to counter so it could make out for an interesting game with the onus being on Blues to break their defence down.
Whatever happens, though, it’s great to have the football returning and to be back down St Andrews following the Blues.