Wayne Rooney has a lot on his plate at Birmingham City. But he may have quashed one issue after last night’s win at Cardiff City.
Birmingham City earned an important win away at Cardiff City last night.
The three points leaves Blues in 16th place of the Championship table and presents Rooney with only his second win and second clean sheet since coming into the club.
It remains a poor start for the former England man, but last night’s win has the potential to breed a newfound confidence ahead of a tough game against Leicester City next Monday.
And so to does the performance of Emanuel Aiwu last night.
‘Fantastic’ Emanuel Aiwu fills in at right-back
Birmingham City have their share of injuries right now, with a problem position being right-back.
Rooney is curently without Ethan Laird and Cody Drameh but summer loan signing Aiwu filled in at right-back last night and gave one of his best performances of the season so far.
After the game, Rooney said of the Austrian to Birmingham Live:
“I thought he was fantastic. With Ethan Laird injured, Cody Drameh injured, last game we played Bacuna there and we changed with Manu [Aiwu] a little bit to make us more solid.”
The 22-year-old is naturally a centre-back and had been pairing Dion Sanderson for most of the Rooney era so far.
But he’d failed to impress.
At right-back though, Aiwu looked a lot more comfortable, and Sanderson looked more comfortable alongside the tried and tested Marc Roberts in the middle of the Birmingham City defence last night as well.
Can Aiwu keep that right-back spot at Birmingham City?
With Aiwu now looking like a competent right-back, Birmingham City now seem to have three good options in that position.
And with Laird and Drameh both sidelined, Aiwu has a chance to stake his claim in the XI and keep both players out of the team.
It’ll be difficult, but expect Aiwu to start in the same position against Leicester City next week after his performance last night, and another good outing against Leicester will surely keep him in that spot for the foreseeable future.
And expect a largely unchanged line up for Blues.
They looked like a new team last night with Rooney’s overall ideas taking shape and making for an improved Birmingham City side.
Leicester though will be a whole new task for Rooney and his team. But another win would instill a huge amount of belief into the current project.