Birmingham City host Preston Noth End at the St. Andrew’s Stadium on Matchday 9 of the 2021/22 EFL Championship season. The Blues are currently 11th in the Championship standings with eleven points from their first eight games. On the other hand, visitors Preston are currently 16th with nine points from their eight games.
Both teams have been decent going forward as The Blues have scored 10 goals in their first eight games, with an overall xG of 12.50. Preston North End have scored nine goals in their eight games with an xG of 10.17. Birmingham City have had a total of 95 shots on goal, out of which 33 have been on target, while The Lilywhites have had 83 shots on goal with 32 on target.
Birmingham City have not been great so far this season in keeping possession and passing the ball around. They have been a bit more direct in their attacking approach and have defended decently in most games. They have accumulated the third least passes so far this season with 2205, while the visitors in this upcoming game have had a total of 2522 passes. It seems that the Lilywhites will look to dominate possession in the game, and Birmingham will hope to strike them on the counter.
Frank McAvoy’s Preston North End have adapted to a style where they play a lot of through passes while going forward. The Lilywhites currently have the most successful passes in all of the Championship with 33, while The Blues have had just seven. It will be interesting to see how Lee Bowyer decided to deal with the through passes and crossing of Preston North End.
Both teams have been using the set pieces to create goal-scoring opportunities, with 12 shots from corners by Preston and eleven by the home team Birmingham City. the game will be interesting as both teams are good going forward and will look to come out with a victory.
The above viz is the shot map of Scott Hogan, who is currently Birmingham City’s top scorer so far this season with three goals. He has taken almost all of his shots from inside the penalty area and has scored all three goals from close range. The Blues will hope that Scott Hogan once again gets on the scoresheet for them.
The above visual is the shot map of Riis Jakobsen, who has scored three goals for Preston North End in the Championship so far, being their top scorer, he has also had the most shots from inside the box for his club. Frank McAvoy will hope he gets on the scoresheet for them to get a result when they visit the St. Andrew’s Stadium.
Birmingham City’s Predicted Starting XI (3-4-3): GK: Matija Sarkic; RWB: Maxime Colin, CBs: Marc Roberts, Harley Dean, Kristian Pedersen; LWB: Jereme Bela; CDMs: Ryan Woods, Ivan Sunjic; RW: Tahith Chng, ST: Lukas Jutkiewicz, LW: Scott Hogan
(Injuries: Etheridge, Gardner(suspended))
Preston North End’s Predicted Starting XI (3-4-1-2): GK: Daniel Iversen; RWB: Sepp Van der Berg; CBs: Jordan Storey, Patrick Bauer, Andrew Hughes; LWB: Josh Earl; CDMs: Ben Whiteman, Ryan Ledson; CAM: Daniel Johnson, RCF: Sean Maguire; LCF: Emil Riis Jakobsen
(Injuries: Ched Evans. Mathew Olosunde, Tom Barkhuizen)
