{"id":391284,"date":"2025-09-02T07:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/391284\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T07:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:13:17","slug":"birmingham-citys-new-line-up-with-patrick-roberts-and-a-fully-fit-marvin-ducksch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/391284\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham City\u2019s new line-up with Patrick Roberts and a fully fit Marvin Ducksch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City signed Patrick Roberts on loan from Premier League side Sunderland on transfer deadline day\"Alex<\/p>\n

Birmingham City reporter for BirminghamLive and the Birmingham Mail<\/p>\n

\"PatrickPatrick Roberts celebrates with the trophy after Sunderland’s play-off final victory<\/p>\n

The loan signing of Patrick Roberts was Birmingham City\u2019s<\/a> deadline day splash to end the 2025 summer window.<\/p>\n

Roberts joined Blues on loan from Sunderland<\/a> a few months after helping the Black Cats clinch promotion to the Premier League at Wembley.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old is a left-footed right-winger who should fit Chris Davies\u2019 system like a glove.<\/p>\n

Roberts\u2019 numbers have never been off the charts in the Championship but he did enjoy two seasons at Sunderland where he recorded in excess of 10 goal contributions.<\/p>\n

Imperatively, his availability record holds up too with Roberts having played 48 of the Black Cats\u2019 49 league games last term.<\/p>\n

Blues have added another proven second tier player to their arsenal, but how will he fit in?<\/p>\n

Right-wing has been a problem position for Blues in the opening weeks of the season. Demarai Gray started the campaign there before Davies realised he would be better suited on the left and made the change.<\/p>\n

Willum Willumsson<\/a> has provided the left-footed option in Blues\u2019 last two games and Roberts will likely take over now.<\/p>\n

The one obvious problem that brings to the make-up of Blues\u2019 starting XI is height, or a lack of it. Willumsson is 6ft 4in, compared to 5ft 7in Roberts, and his absence from the starting XI would create a hole on defensive set pieces.<\/p>\n

Davies usually starts at least three big players to defend zonally on set pieces so it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see Marvin Ducksch drafted in to correct the issue.<\/p>\n

Ducksch<\/a> will use the international break to get up to speed physically after playing two games in which he looked a way off due to being hampered by an injury in pre-season.<\/p>\n

The 6ft 2in German appears to be the perfect foil for Jay Stansfield when both are fit and he would provide an additional presence to centre-backs Christoph Klarer and Phil Neumann.<\/p>\n

Away from Roberts and Ducksch, Blues\u2019 strongest XI isn\u2019t likely to veer too far away from what we have seen thus far.<\/p>\n

Blues\u2019 new XI with Patrick Roberts\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

(4-2-3-1): Allsop; Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik; Roberts, Ducksch, Gray; Stansfield<\/p>\n

Do you like this XI? Let us know HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City signed Patrick Roberts on loan from Premier League side Sunderland on transfer deadline day Birmingham City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,42707,748,8372,393,4884,118990,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-391284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","10":"tag-birmingham-city-fc-transfer-news","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-chris-davies-football-coach","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-marvin-ducksch","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115133468631424730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}