FA Cup the focus for Alex McLeish
Friday 18th February 2011, 10:00AM GMT.
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish insists Blues are focused on progressing in the FA Cup – despite resting players for next weekend’s Carling Cup final.
The manager is expected to leave out a host of his stars, with the Wembley game against Arsenal in mind, when former Albion boss Gary Megson brings League One side Sheffield Wednesday to St Andrew’s.
McLeish did the same for the third round tie against Coventry, where he made nine changes after winning the Carling Cup semi-final against West Ham three days earlier.
And the Blues boss believes the amount of games his players are playing are starting to take their toll, pointing to Tuesday’s Premier League defeat at home to Newcastle as an example.
With that in mind, McLeish will ring the changes tomorrow.
He said: “It will be an opportunity for some players to be rested, recharge their batteries and try to get an edge back. There was definitely a flatness about some performances the other night after a fantastic month.
“We will look at that closely and the FA Cup will allow us to utilise the squad. There are some fantastic players to come into the team. But I stress we still want to progress in the cup which is a fantastic competition.
“We made changes and played well in the last round against Coventry to come from two goals down to win.
“Gary Megson will also have his players fired up, but we want to put on a performance in front of our fans and get through.”
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
