Skipper’s missing for Rangers clash
THE Sky Blues take on QPR tonight in their opening match at St Andrew’s, where they are set to groundshare for a second season.
Mark Robins’s men settled quickly to their new environment last year, turning the Birmingham venue into a fortress in League One where they won 11, drew five and lost just one game en-route to the title.
City may have lost their opening match in the second tier, going down 2-1 at Bristol City last weekend, but the players will take great confidence from how well they played for the majority of the game, playing some exciting and enterprising football at Ashton Gate.
That being the case, the manager is not expected to make too many changes to his starting line-up.
The one change he is forced to make is Liam Kelly, after the skipper limped off with a hamstring strain last Saturday.
Although he only suffered a “small tear” he’s ruled out of the QPR game, leaving Jordan Shipley as the natural replacement to come in to the starting line-up alongside the impressive Gustavo Hamer.
Ben Sheaf is another option but, given the fact that he played a full 90 minutes in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night as he continues to get his match fitness back up to speed, the likelihood is that he will again start on the bench. With Fankaty Dabo and Michael Rose back to fitness, Robins is beginning to have plenty of options at the back.
Whether he risks throwing both of his star defenders in so soon after playing against Gillingham on Tuesday night remains to be seen.
If he opts to have them as back-up from the bench then Leo Ostigard is likely to be deployed to the right of the back three that should see Kyle Mcfadzean in the centre and Dom Hyam to the left.
Josh Pask is again expected to fill in at right wing-back while Ryan Giles appears the manager’s first choice on the opposite flank.
As for the attacking options, Robins is expected to stick with Jamie Allen and Callum O’hare in the advanced positions in his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation behind first choice striker Matty Godden who, of course, opened his season’s account at Bristol last weekend.
And the bench looks set to be strong again with plenty of striking options from Amadou Bakayoko and Tyler Walker, who are expected to be named among the subs, although there’s an outside chance that Max Biamou could be included after his midweek cameo and goal in the Cup. PREDICTED LINE-UP: Marko Marosi; Leo Ostigard, Kyle Mcfadzean, Dom Hyam; Josh Pask, Gustavo Hamer, Jordan Shipley, Ryan Giles; Jamie Allen, Callum O’hare; Matty Godden.