Tony Mowbray reveals plan for surplus Birmingham City players following ‘difficult meetings’

Tony Mowbray claims Birmingham City’s bloated squad is forcing him to have ‘tough conversations’, but he has sworn not to form a bomb squad.

The Blues now have 28 senior players, including those on the injured list, after signing Andre Dozzell, Paik Seung-ho, and Alex Pritchard in January.Mowbray can only pick 20-man squads for Championship fixtures and risks leaving a number of players out on a weekly basis.

Last weekend’s game against West Bromwich Albion saw Manny Longelo, Gary Gardner, and Oliver Burke get the chop. The trio traveled to The Hawthorns and participated in training drills with unused Blues substitutes.

Mowbray announced on Thursday that individuals who are not in his team for tonight’s game against Sheffield Wednesday would be training instead. He stated, “I would prefer to have fewer numbers and higher quality throughout the group. Today, I got down with four or five first-team players and informed them that I would rather they practice than travel when they are not part of the 20-man squad.

“They’re difficult conversations to have with young footballers who are working hard to make the team only to find out from the manager that they won’t even be on the bench.” They are difficult chats to keep them believing that there is still hope for them in the future.

“It’s the most difficult part of your job, leaving out the ones that train well every day and work hard, but you feel like there are better options in their position. The situation will worsen when Dion (Sanderson), Cody (Drameh), Juke (Lukas Jutkiewicz), and George Hall get more prepared. The gang appears to be too large.

“I don’t need to practice with 26, 27 guys; I’d rather train with 20 players so that we can play a 10v10 game, and it’s easier to drop some of the younger, 18, 19-year-old footballers back down with the 21s.

“I don’t hide from it. But the reality is that if you’ve been working hard in training every day and hoping to be selected on Saturday, and then the manager brings you in and tells you you’re not even going, that might deflate your expectations.

“As every football manager has observed, some players react negatively and stop trying, kicking balls away. I attempt to tell everyone, ‘You’re only hurting yourself and pulling yourself further away from the group. You have to work hard, be dedicated, and support the team that is playing.”

Mowbray will definitely not tolerate any negative influences, but he does not want to ostracize anyone just for the purpose of it. The Blues manager does not intend to form a group that trains separately from the first team.

“I’ve never done that in 20 years,” he told me. “You have to admire these guys, especially when they work hard every day and are supportive of the squad. The coaches’ and my role is to organize and design training programs that accommodate that number of players if necessary.

“The difficulty is that when it comes to game preparation, you can’t go 10 versus 15. You play 10 against 10, so the five or six extra players will usually work with a coach or a goalkeeper on finishing exercises, long passing, or whatever their position is.

“It is not nice. It’s difficult because they’re being pushed over there to do more work. But if you only have 20 people, you’ll quickly realize you don’t have enough, and I’ll be sitting here complaining about the squad’s insufficient depth.”