Wayne Rooney drops ‘failing’ midfielder as star player
These are the 11 players that we believe Wayne Rooney will start in the Sky Bet Championship match between Coventry City and Birmingham City.
This Friday night, Birmingham City will return to the Sky Bet Championship when they travel to Coventry City, another West Midlands team. Wayne Rooney will be hoping for an improvement from his team, since he has only managed to register one victory in his first eight games as manager.
The previous time around, Birmingham and relegation-threatened Rotherham United drew 0-0 at St Andrew’s, which was another sad outcome. Even though they are now in 15th place, Blues are just seven points above the bottom three and, if their current bad play continues, they will soon be worried about their future.
Coventry, on the other hand, has recently shown improvement as they have defeated Plymouth Argyle and Millwall twice in their previous five games. In that run, they have lost twice, the most recent being in the test, although those losses came against elite teams like Preston North End and Ipswich Town.
Before this match, Rooney will be well aware of the threat posed by the Sky Blues and will be hoping his team can shake off their current trend of making mistakes. These 11 guys are our guesses for the starting lineup when the team travels to the Coventry Building Society Arena.
1. GK: John Ruddy
Probably one more poor game away from being swapped out for Neil Etheridge but remains between the sticks for now. The goalkeeper will be keen to bounce back after consecutive below-par performances.
2. RB: Cody Drameh
Reliable and impressive whenever called upon, Drameh comes back into the XI due to Ethan Laird being a doubt with a groin issue. We doubt Rooney will risk Laird from the start – and that’s if he’s even available.
3. CB: Dion Sanderson
Definitely not at his best at the moment but remains the top central defender at the football club. There’s definitely a correlation between Sanderson’s form dropping and that of the team itself.
4. CB: Emanuel Aiwu
In poor form, to say the least, but Rooney is limited when it comes to his central defensive options. Kevin Long is out with a calf issue, whereas Marc Roberts has had very few minutes.
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