Birmingham City’s new signing Andre Dozzell won’t play in Saturday’s FA Cup clash against Leicester City.
Andre Dozzell was captured on loan from Queens Park Rangers last week as Tony Mowbray confirmed his first signing for the club.
The 24-year-old made his debut in the 2-1 victory over Stoke City on Saturday afternoon, replacing midfielder Ivan Sunjic, who was particularly poor on the day.
Sunjic only recorded a meagre 53% of his passes, won one of his four ground duels and misplaced all three of his passes, as per Sofascore.
When Dozzell entered the fray 20 minutes from time, however, he showed glimpses of his capabilities.
The 60-year-old likes his players to be comfortable in possession, showing they’re capable of taking the ball in tight spaces and driving forward.
Dozzell demonstrated that in his brief cameo and although he impressed from the bench, he is unable to follow that up with a start against Leicester City in Saturday’s FA Cup clash.
Why can’t Andre Dozzell play against Leicester City?
The rules state that a player isn’t allowed to play for two different clubs in the same domestic cup competition in the same season.
In the case of Dozzell, he played ninety minutes in QPR’s 3-2 defeat in the FA Cup against Bournemouth, which means he’s ineligible to play for Birmingham in this competition.
Mowbray’s side secured their passage into the next round by beating Hull City in a third-round replay last week as Koji Myoshi’s 93rd-minute winner sparked scenes of jubilation in the home end.
With Birmingham eight points clear of safety, there is every confidence that their new manager can get them flying up the table.
As a result, they could attempt to go on a cup run – as they did in the EFL Cup in 2011 – and field a strong team against Leicester.
Birmingham City shouldn’t be scared of Leicester
In the last round, Leicester showed their intentions in this competition by giving several of their fringe players a start.
The Foxes played the likes of Ben Nelson, Wanya Marcal and Marc Albrighton while resting some of their key men, including Harry Winks, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jannik Vestergaard.
Although they beat Millwall 3-2, fielding a similar team on Saturday will give Birmingham every chance as Mowbray is likely to go strong.
Enzo Maresca can also ill-afford to lose any more his key players after seeing Wilfred Ndidi suffer an injury and the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho and Patson Daka jet off to AFCON.
Birmingham can go to the King Power with the pressure off and hopefully secure their passage into the next round of the competition.