Preview: Birmingham City vs. Sheffield Wednesday - prediction, team news, lineups

Birmingham City play host to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday afternoon still looking for their first win under Wayne Rooney.

At a time when Blues sit in 18th position in the Championship standings, the visitors remain bottom and nine points adrift of safety.

Match preview

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As each game passes by, Birmingham's decision to replace established boss John Eustace with what feels like an experiment under Rooney looks increasingly worse.

The West Midlands outfit have gone from promotion challengers to sitting seven points adrift of the playoffs, a consequence of four defeats in five under Rooney.

That relatively small margin highlights how much Blues could have been better off if they did not opt for a change in boss and style of play, and Rooney will hope that the extra time on the training pitch can pay off.

With eight goals being conceded in the last three games, though, that looks optimistic and Birmingham have led in just one of five games under the England legend.

Although they earned a 2-2 draw against Ipswich Town in their last fixture at St Andrew's, Rooney watched his team give up a lead in the final 11 minutes.

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Sheffield Wednesday will be taking confidence from such occurrences, yet there has been even little positivity at the Yorkshire giants of late.

Just six points have been collected from 16 matches, Danny Rohl delivering their solitary win against Rotherham United in his third game in charge.

Nevertheless, nine goals have been conceded in the other four outings without scoring a goal - a 4-0 reverse being suffered at home to Millwall last time out.

Sitting 10 points adrift of 19th spot, all is not lost for Wednesday, but Rohl is aware that he needs to find the right formula sooner rather than later to ease the discontent both on and off the pitch.

Team News

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Rooney will almost certainly make alterations to his Birmingham XI, including handing a recall to midfielder Krystian Bielik after a ban.

Siriki Dembele will also hope to feature, with Jordan James and Oliver Burke potentially dropping down to the substitutes' bench.

At least one change will be made to the Sheffield Wednesday starting lineup with Callum Paterson serving a one-match ban.

That could see Liam Palmer start at right wing-back, while Jeff Hendrick and Josh Windass will be considered for a recall in midfield and attack respectively.

Although Bailey-Tye Cadamarteri made his first Championship outing versus Millwall, the 18-year-old is unlikely to be drafted into the team at this stage of his development.

Birmingham City possible starting lineup:

Ruddy; Laird, Sanderson, Aiwu, Drameh; Bielik, Sunjic; Miyoshi, Dembele, Bacuna; Stansfield

Sheffield Wednesday possible starting lineup:

Dawson; Iorfa, Diaby, Bernard; Palmer, Hendrick, Bannan, Johnson; Windass, Musaba; Fletcher

We say: Birmingham City 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday

The international break came at the right time for each of these two clubs and there could be more quality on show than there was before it. Nevertheless, it is difficult to see either of these teams prevailing, leading us to predict a competitive draw.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.