May out, Yokoyama in: Our Birmingham City XIs for Shrewsbury Town clash
Birmingham City return to League One action against Shrewsbury Town
Birmingham City will finally return to action at Shrewsbury Town today (12:30pm) after the third international break of the season.
Club football will now be uninterrupted until March and Blues have the chance to string some results together in League One. Blues now have a run of 17 matches in the next 70 days and their fixture list could become more congested with progress in the cups and rearranged games.
Blues battered bottom-of-the-table Shrewsbury 4-0 in the EFL Trophy last month but Salop now have a new manager at the helm in Gareth Ainsworth. Ainsworth takes charge of his first game against Blues.
Chris Davies revealed at his press conference on Thursday that Alfons Sampsted has been added to Blues’ injury list. Here is how our writers want to see Blues line up at Shrewsbury…
READ: League One’s most in-form player tipped for Blues rejects ‘club record offer’
READ: Chris Davies has made his position on January exits crystal clear
Alex Dicken
Davies didn’t rest Paik Seung-ho when he returned from international duty in October, so it’s hard to imagine him going down that route this time.
As ever, the selection conundrums come in attacking areas for Davies. I would like to see Willum Willumsson used centrally and the Alfie May/Jay Stansfield partnership, in its current state, should be shelved. May is a striker or a substitute for me.
Keshi Anderson is comfortable in the right-wing position in this system and capable of coming inside to combine with Willumsson. It would open the door to Ayumu Yokoyama on the left wing. Yokoyama has made more impact in his recent substitute appearances and played well at Shrewsbury last month.
(4-2-3-1): Allsop; Laird, Klarer, Bielik, Cochrane; Paik, Iwata; Anderson, Willumsson, Yokoyama; Stansfield
Brian Dick
The goalkeeper and back four pick themselves, Krystian Bielik’s ability on the ball is key to teasing open Shrewsbury’s defence and therefore retaining his position ahead of Ben Davies. Ethan Laird has licence to get forward from right back.
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