Cotterill reveals he’s the man with a plan for Sam!
STEVE Cotterill praised the ‘maturity’ of Sam Gallagher’s performance in the win over Nottingham Forest and sees him continuing to develop at Blues.
The manager repeated his belief that Gallagher is best deployed out wide and insisted he coped well with manning the left of Blues’ midfield in the 1-0 victory.
Gallagher played another full 90 minutes and, while he didn’t add to his single Blues goal, he did set up a clear-cut chance that begged to be tapped in and also contributed to a rearguard action as Forest pressed.
“I did say a few weeks eeks ago if you are going to play him up top in a two he can probably do that,” t,” said the manager.
“I would say he would be more effective with a bigger man but because he’s 6ft 4ins it gets portrayed he’s the bigger man. But he doesn’t play his game like that, for me, so coming from m the sides Sam is more ore effective.
“He did a lot of work at the week weekend, hopefully he can g grow a bit more beca because he is still getting used to his teamm mates and what peop ple are going to do b behind him. “I thought he was quite mature the way he played because we knew their wide men were coming off the l line, we knew then th the full-backs would go on and there was only one opportunity where (Tendayi) Darikwa got in behind be him.
“He took him the other way as well. I was really pleased with him and for him.”
Indeed, Cotterill was satisfied with many aspects of Blues’ first win in five attempts.
“The desire and energy was very good,” he said.
“The organisation and the desire and discipline to stay within that organisation was really, really important.
“It’s always more difficult to stay organised and stay disciplined at home.
“You can get wrapped up in the euphoria of the game and 20,000 people driving you on. Sometimes that can take you off shape.”