Alexander Hleb urges Blues to fight
Thursday 23rd September 2010, 11:26AM BST.
Birmingham midfielder Alexander Hleb has told his team-mates to show more fight if they are to improve on last season’s ninth-placed finish.
The Belarus international, on loan at St Andrew’s from Barcelona for the remainder of the season, has tasted both victory and defeat in his opening two games for the club.
Memories of the 3-1 derby reverse to Albion were quickly cast aside with a win by the same scoreline and a goal on his home debut against Milton Keynes Dons in the Carling Cup three days later.
But Hleb, while admitting the Blues are lacking the quality he is used to after playing for Arsenal and Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League, is still demanding a big improvement.
He said: “Of course it’s different to Arsenal and Barcelona.
“I know that, everybody can see that it’s different. I need to accept this and try to bring my best to this team. Here there is not the same quality from players, people don’t keep the ball as much.
“This is a different side and we need to fight for points. Saturday was difficult, I don’t know what happened. We recovered but then we didn’t keep the ball, we didn’t play football.
“On Tuesday, we did well in the first half and scored three good goals. We were playing well but after that it was not so good.
“I don’t know why, we were so scared and didn’t control the ball.”
UK Sport
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