The 3 big dilemmas John Eustace faces as Birmingham City get back to Championship action this weekend against Blackpool | OneFootball

Despite a 2-1 defeat at home to Sunderland last time out, it’s been a very positive season so far for Blues under John Eustace, with the side 14th in the table and just three points away from the top six, having been tipped for relegation before a ball was kicked.

So, fans will be excited ahead of the trip up north this weekend and Eustace will want a big performance for his players.

And, here we look at THREE dilemmas facing the boss…

Whether the World Cup players are ready

Krystian Bielik and Hannibal Mejbri were at the World Cup with Poland and Tunisia but with both countries having been eliminated, they will be back at Blues and available for selection.

However, that doesn’t mean they will both go straight into the XI, particularly in Bielik’s case considering he played 20 minutes on Sunday against France in the last 16 tie.

You would imagine both are physically fine but it may be harder to judge mentally. Playing at the World Cup is arguably the pinnacle of each players career, so going out will have been tough and it might be difficult to re-focus so soon.

That’s down to Eustace to analyse ahead of the game after working with the pair on the training pitch.

Have any of these 14 ex-Birmingham City players ever made a World Cup appearance?

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Does Tahith Chong start?

The midfielder impressed earlier in the campaign but the past month was tough for Chong who didn’t actually start against the Black Cats last time out.

At his best, the 23-year-old has qualities that nobody in the squad can really match so he would be in the XI but he wasn’t at that level previously.

So, the World Cup break came at the right time for Chong and he may be refreshed and ready to go, but again, Eustace’s judgement will need to be trusted after watching the player day in, day out.

The injured players

There’s no denying the World Cup break came at the right time for Marc Roberts, Harlee Dean and Gary Gardner – among others.

Blues had a pretty bad injury list last month and it’s thankfully eased somewhat, meaning the boss has something of a selection dilemma going into this one.

The three experienced players named are all pushing to start and it will give Eustace a welcome headache going into this one.