Luke Turner previews the big derby clash tomorrow…
It seems strange to have a local derby match so early in the season but that’s just what we have tomorrow as Blues face Wolves at St Andrews.
Both sides have made unbeaten starts to the season, picking up five points each in the process so it’s difficult to predict what sort of game we`ll have on our hands.
Being the home team, the onus will be more on Blues to attack Wolves and I’m sure they’ll be happy for us to have possession of the ball.
We really struggle to break teams down at home so it’ll be interesting to see what side Gary Rowett picks and what formation he goes with.
He`ll obviously want to keep the team solid and have that core in the middle which could mean that he opts to keep the trio of Gleeson, Kieftenbeld and Davis in the midfield.
However, that will still limit our attacking options and maybe we`ll see Diego Fabbrini come back into the line-up, but who knows.
What we can expect is a feisty encounter between two sides who will look to cancel each other out, which is why I’m predicting a close game which will be swung by a goal either way.
The reason Rowett may have to stick with his 4-3-3 formation is because a Wolves are likely to play the exact same way as us.
He`ll want to match their three in the middle with David Davis perhaps playing closest to Clayton Donaldson up front.
As the game wears on, it might be the best opportunity to bring on the likes of Fabbrini, Che Adams and Greg Stewart to give us more attacking flair as the gaps begin to appear.
But Wolves will always pose a danger with the likes of Teixeira, Bodvarsson and Joe Mason making up their front three. Dave Edwards will also relish the challenge against Blues and scored in this fixture last season.
I do think that Wolves will be fairly hard to break down but what we don’t want is Blues to panic. But, when we get our chance, we have to take it.
For us to have a good season, our form at St Andrews has to improve. We need to show that quality in the final third that will win us the games that are the difference in finishing mid-table and closer to the play-offs.
What better way to get our first home win of the season than against Wolves? I’m hoping that we can just edge a tight encounter at St Andrews and get another three points on the board!