Birmingham City host bottom club Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship this weekend, in what is surely Wayne Rooney’s biggest game as Blues boss.
So far, Rooney has taken just one point from his opening five games as Birmingham City boss; a worse record than what Gianfranco Zola had in his first five matches at Blues.
The club has dropped from 6th to 18th place in the Championship table, but go up against a Sheffield Wednesday side this weekend who’ve won just one of their opening 16 league fixtures.
Danny Rohl is the man in charge. He’s taken one win from his first five games at the helm and he too may be viewing this game as a potential three points, given Blues’ poor form.
The latest Birmingham City team news
Rooney revealed ahead of this weekend that full-back Lee Buchanan is back and available for selection, but said that whether or not he starts remains to be seen.
George Hall is set to make his return from a hamstring injury too, whilst Rooney also played down fears of a potential injury for Juninho Bacuna over the international break.
Blues remain without Tyler Roberts, Kevin Long, and Keshi Anderson.
How will Wayne Roney line up this weekend?
Given poor recent form, and having had two weeks to mull over proceedings and where to go from here, predicting Rooney’s next Birmingham City XI will be difficult.
He’s certainly tried to make changes and we have seen evidence of a more attacking-minded Birmingham City, and it may well be a case of the players adjusting to Rooney’s means rather than Rooney changing things from his end.
On that basis, we could see a relatively unchanged Blues line up; Buchanan should no doubt start if he’s fit too, and being a player that Rooney has already worked with in the past, he may well entrust him with a starting spot tomorrow.
Elsewhere, the likes of Bacuna may start on the bench as a precaution following the international break, whilst Jay Stansfield was in action for England’s U21s, albeit not playing a full 90 minutes across the two weeks.
Jordan James impressed during the break and Rooney may well be eager to deploy him from the off again and see how he fares.
Here’s how we expect Birmingham City to line up when they host Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship tomorrow…
(4-2-3-1)
Ruddy (GK)
Buchanan
Aiwu
Sanderson
Laird
Bielik
James
Dembele
Miyoshi
Burke
Stansfield