Birmingham City take on Blackburn Rovers in the Championship this evening.
Birmingham City make the trip into Lancashire to face Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, in what promises to be another tough outing for Wayne Rooney‘s side.
But Blues will be buoyed after claiming their first win under Rooney last time out, beating bottom club Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at St Andrew’s.
It was a hard-fought win and Rooney will know his players need to be much better tonight if they’re to claim another win.
The latest Birmingham City team news
Birmingham City look set to be without five players for tonight’s game.
Defender Kevin Long is the latest to join the injury list after sustaining a calf injury in training last week, and Birmingham World say he’s unlikely to feature tonight.
Elsewhere, the likes of Tyler Roberts (calf), Keshi Anderson (hamstring), and George Hall (hamstring) remain injury doubts; all with persistent injuries which is pushing their returns back further and further.
Alfie Chang (knee) remains a longer-term absentee for Blues.
How will Rooney line up v Blackburn Rovers?
The Sheffield Wednesday performance wasn’t a great one.
Blues were pressed relentlessly by the Owls, at their home ground too, and so Rooney may make some changes to ensure that his side have more of a say on tonight’s game.
And expect the Blues manager to be keen on further implementing his style and his methods tonight, with Blackburn Rovers enduring an inconsistent season of their own and having taken just nine points from eight games at home this season.
Jordan James could be in for a starting spot tonight after he came off the bench to score the winner v Wednesday; he could start alongside Krystian Bielik in front of the defence and push Juninho Bacuna into the no.10 role, and Jay Stansfield into the no.9.
That could mean Oliver Burke dropping to the bench.
Other than that, expect a mostly unchanged line up from Rooney and Birmingham City tonight.
Here’s how we expect Blues to line up v Blackburn Rovers…
Ruddy (GK)
Buchanan
Sanderson
Aiwu
Laird
James
Bielik
Dembele
Bacuna
Miyoshi
Stansfield