Gary Rowett has 3 Birmingham City lineups to create Coventry difficulties

Alex Dicken tries to guess how Gary Rowett will line up Birmingham City for their crucial meeting with Coventry.

Gary Rowett will announce the most significant starting XI of his second spell at Birmingham City later today.

After Wednesday’s disaster against Cardiff, the Blues cannot afford another defeat at home. Coventry City must be sent back down the M6 with their play-off hopes dashed.

Blues, presently 23rd in the Championship table, have only four games to avoid relegation to League One. Rowett is unlikely to remain with the same starting lineup for the fourth game in a row after being disappointed in midweek.

“Of course, at this stage of the season when you perform like that there’s always going to be an opportunity potentially to make quite a few changes,” he said. “We attempted to keep the same team, who I believed could win football games.

“We didn’t perform to that level and after trying to get that consistency and continuity I think it’s maybe the time to look at whether people get an opportunity.”

Who will get those opportunities, though? Rowett’s substitutes haven’t exactly set the globe alight.

Will Keshi Anderson, Gary Gardner, or Scott Hogan improve on the players already in Rowett’s XI? Probably not. Cody Drameh has a legitimate case to be heard. The on-loan right-back has been in and out of the XI in recent months, but it may be time to reintroduce him.

Drameh may have to play left-back if Lee Buchanan is unable to start. Buchanan was substituted on Wednesday due to a groin issue. If Buchanan is fit, Drameh may threaten Ethan Laird’s spot.

Rowett surprised many by not rejoining Krystian Bielik and Ivan Sunjic in midfield. Sunjic has been ignored by Rowett for a starting spot, despite the interim manager promoting the Croatian previous to his arrival. If Rowett were to return to the 4-2-3-1 formation that brought John Eustace success in the first two months of the season, Bielik and Sunjic would be logical midfield fits.

If Rowett goes to form and deploys a 4-1-4-1 formation Paik Seung-ho and Jordan James are likely to play in front of anchorman Bielik. Paik and James could also play in midfield in the 3-4-3 shape Blues used against Queens Park Rangers if Rowett wants to use Bielik at centre-back. Emanuel Aiwu has kept his place in defence by default in the past six weeks.

Koji Miyoshi, Juninho Bacuna and Jay Stansfield are all deserving of starting places in attack. If Rowett went for the 4-2-3-1 he could reintroduce Siriki Dembele – although that feels unlikely after the Ivorian was omitted from the squad on Wednesday. Six-goal attacker Dembele has fallen out of favour in the past two months under Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus and now Rowett.

The possibility of playing Hogan – who has only started three league games since September – has been mooted to give Stansfield some much needed support. The ideal foil for Stansfield would be Lukas Jutkiewicz but the experienced target man is still sidelined with a knee problem. Maybe Hogan is worth another shot at this stage.

We’ve put together three different line-ups with three different formations that Rowett could pick below…