John Eustace Talks On His New Line Up After Dembele And Sanderson Transfer 

Birmingham City now have three line-ups after Dembele and Sanderson transfers
Latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive takes a look at how John Eustace could line his team up after Dion Sanderson became their seventh summer signing

Birmingham City’s starting line-up will look very different at the beginning of next season.

No fewer than 11 senior players departed St Andrew’s in May after Blues secured a 17th-placed finish in the Championship. Three of them – Kevin Long, Krystian Bielik and Dion Sanderson – have returned, and Blues have added four more new faces during a busy summer window to date.

Ethan Laird, Koji Miyoshi, Siriki Dembele and Tyler Roberts are all exciting signings on paper. They will give John Eustace important options and all of them are able to fit into multiple systems.

Blues have operated in a 4-4-2 formation in pre-season after Eustace used 3-5-2 and 4-2-3-1 shapes last term. Here is how Blues could line up with their current personnel

Eustace has used almost identical starting XIs in Blues’ opening two pre-season fixtures. The only change he made for the second game against FC Cartagena was to replace the injured Bielik with Alfie Chang.

New arrivals Sanderson and Dembele could slot into Eustace’s 4-4-2 system quite easily. Sanderson can play at right-back as well as in central defence, while left winger Dembele has previously operated as a second striker.

With John Ruddy in goal, Eustace has been using a back four of Ethan Laird, Marc Roberts, Kevin Long and Manny Longelo. Laird and Longelo are currently unchallenged for their positions, but £2m new recruit Sanderson will attempt to dislodge one of Roberts or Long.

In midfield it would be one of Chang or Ivan Sunjic alongside Bielik to create a more defensively solid pairing. Jordan James has impressed in a new role on the right wing, while trialist Keshi Anderson has starred on the left. Once Koji Miyoshi gets more minutes under his belt he will become James’ main challenger, while Dembele is favourite for the left wing spot.

Dembele could be used as a striker in this system, but it would most likely be two of Tyler Roberts, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Scott Hogan.

(4-4-2): Ruddy; Laird, Sanderson, Long, Longelo; Miyoshi, Bielik, Chang, Dembele; T Roberts, Hogan