Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles will be favourites to operate in midfield, with Victor Torp vying to start and Liam Kelly another option.
Further forward, there’s a strong case for Fabio Tavares to make a rare start wide on the right of an attacking three after his impressive impact from the bench at Southampton, while Robins could go back to the effective use of Kasey Palmer on the wing that worked so well against Leeds United.
Callum O’Hare is surely a must in the number ten role given his background and history against Blues – coming from a Birmingham supporting family and having a tendency to score against his home town club. Haji Wright is also a virtually guaranteed starter on the left, as is Ellis Simms leading the line on a day when Matty Godden should be available again after missing three games with injury.
It’s pretty much win or bust for Coventry City, who head to Birmingham knowing they really have to collect three points to keep them in the hunt for the Championship play-offs.
The Sky Blues are currently five points off sixth-placed Norwich, who go to Preston this weekend. Mark Robins’ men will be hoping the Lilywhites – who are level on points with Coventry but have a hugely inferior goal difference – can do them a favour at Deepdale by keeping David Wagner’s men on 68, That would give the Sky Blues four remaining games to get the job done.
So what does Robins do at St Andrew’s? The manager said in his pre-match press conference that his players need to ‘have a right good go’ in their remaining matches, starting with the big Midlands derby against Blues. But does that mean all out attack, or a more cautious approach to start with?
Well, Brad Collins is expected to start in goal behind a back four, with Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching likely to continue as the central defensive partnership, with either Joel Latibeaudiere or Milan van Ewijk at right-back and one of Jake Bidwell or Jay Dasilva at left-back.
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