Birmingham caretaker boss Pep Clotet has made a steady start to his Blues career so far.

With a currently symmetrical record of five wins, one draw and five losses, the Blues lie in 12th spot after 11 games - a position most fans would have settled for at the start of the season.

Defence has generally been Birmingham's strong point, with Kristian Pedersen, Marc Roberts, Harlee Dean and Maxime Colin all having made decent starts to the season.

Up top, goals have been more a problem, but the emergence of 16-year-old Jude Bellingham, in conjunction with fellow youngsters Daniel Crowley and Fran Villalba, gives the West Midlands side a new attacking threat that was previously lacking.

With former Oxford gaffer Clotet hinting that the Blues might take the attack to Leeds at Elland Road, we look at two potential areas of weakness for Leeds to exploit on Saturday.

Weakness against through balls on the floor

The Blues' regular centre back pairing 6 ft 3 Harlee Dean and 6 ft 4 Marc Roberts are very comfortable at dealing with long balls into the box.

Indeed, according to stats from WhoScored.com, they (on average) both win over 5 aerial duels per game, which ranks them amongst the top 7 of defenders for this statistic.

Clearly, playing long balls against Birmingham is unlikely to produce much success.

However, they are not so adept at defending through balls on the deck, and this must be an area for Leeds to exploit.

With the pace and energy of both Patrick Bamford and Eddie Nketiah, whoever gets the nod to start at Elland Road on Saturday, can cause the Birmingham defence a lot of problems if given the right service.

Struggling to keep possession of the ball

Despite a very promising display from Birmingham's attacking young-guns against Boro last time out, over the course of the season the Blues have struggled to keep possession of the ball.

The overall standard of passing has been poor, clearly supported by further stats from WhoScored.com, and Clotet's side tend to give away the ball cheaply.

Therefore, it is vital that Marcelo Bielsa's side make good use of the ball when it is presented to them, as opposed to giving it straight back.

If the Yorkshire side can keep things tight and refrain from making silly mistakes, it is likely this Blues side will give them the chance to create good opportunities.