FORMER Birmingham City striker Clinton Morrison is urging Blues to go for the jugular in their vital encounter with Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Blues find themselves in the dropzone after a horror run of four matches without a win or a goal. And Morrison, who scored 14 goals in 87 matches for the club, reckons boss Steve Cotterill needs to abandon his one-up-front system in favour of two strikers.
Speaking to Blues’ principle sponsor 888sport, Morrison said: “They’re obviously really struggling for goals right now. They’ve been unlucky with Isaac Vassell’s injury as I think he’s a proper striker but they’ve still got good forwards at the club in Che Adams, Sam Gallagher and Lukas Jutkiewicz and I’d like to see something different against Forest because there’s definitely goals in that team.”
The former striker is expecting a tight and nervy affair on Saturday but expects the St Andrew’s faithful to play a massive role.
“The Blues have got some of the most passionate fans in the country and they’ll need to be a good atmosphere on Saturday,” he added.
“At the moment, a lot of the problems are down to confidence and if the fans can get behind the lads, hopefully it can kick-start the season.”
Morrison has been left shellshocked by events at the club in the past 12 months. And although he is backing boss Cotterill to turn things around, he admits results have to improve – and fast.
He said: “I do think they have more than enough quality to stay up. In fact, they’ve got the players to be top ten. But unless they start picking up results soon, all of a sudden the games start running out.
“The danger is the players don’t believe they will go down and before you know it there’s five games left and you’re on the brink. The next three games are absolutely vital I think.”
With Blues having parted company with three managers in the last year, Morrison says Cotterill will be fully aware of the expectations on him.
“Clearly, the owners don’t want to be in League 1 and they’ve already shown they are prepared to be ruthless,” said Morrison.
“He’s a good manager and in Lee Carsley they have one of the best coaches around but things need to turn around.
“I went to his first game against Cardiff and I thought they were great – full of intensity and in their faces, but for whatever reason, things have gone wrong.”
