It’s full steam ahead for Birmingham City ahead of the next international break after the win over Huddersfield Town on Wednesday evening gave Aitor Karanka fresh impetus - and a reminder of the squad that he has at his disposal.
Blues won it late thanks to Lukas Jutkiewicz’s first goal of the season, minutes after Isaac Mbenza’s free kick had cancelled out Gary Gardner’s first half opener.
Blues have by no means been easy to beat under Karanka so far this season, but they had previously struggled in front of goal and had not won since the opening day of the season.
Against the Terriers, they addressed both of those issues and now head to Preston North End this weekend much more upbeat than they otherwise would have been.
Indeed Karanka is particularly enjoying the selection headache he’s now facing; the bench on Wednesday showed more depth in experience and quality, and it’s where the winning goal was made and delivered.
Is the Spaniard now hopeful that this is a sign of things to come?
“I think so, to win a game is always important. You can play well but if you don’t win the games you are going down,” Karanka explained.
“Now just the win, especially in the way we won this game is more encouraging for the future.
“Now we have three really important games before the international break, the main thing for me that now I have 20 players to choose from. One or two months ago I hadn’t.”
One call that the boss made this week was to shift George Friend out wide into the left-back spot ahead of the benched Kristian Pedersen so that he could revert to a back four.
Friend, signed on a free transfer this summer after his departure from Middlesbrough where he’d worked with Karanka previously, has made an impact in Blues’ tightened up defence this season and Karanka explained his thinking behind the switch in personnel.
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“When you have Robbo [Marc Roberts] and Harlee Dean playing so well, I have to choose 11, I can’t play with 12,” he said.
“I wanted to be more offensive and I think with George we could have been more offensive.
“Kristian is doing really well but the main thing for me is we have 11 players on the pitch knowing if they don’t perform one hundred per cent they have another ten ready and desperate to get their position.”
