Birmingham City take on Stoke City this weekend as they look to earn a victory in the Sky Bet Championship.

The Blues could only get a point last time out against Rotherham United thanks to a late goal and Karanka will be looking to his squad to bounce back from that.

With a little bit of time left in the transfer window, meanwhile, he may also be looking to tweak his squad further before the two respective deadlines this month and it sounds as though exits could be on the cards more than arrivals.

Quoted by Birmingham Live, he said:

"I don’t know yet but I said always I hope a few players will leave because we have now more players than I would like to have.

"In terms of bringing in players I don’t know."

Quiz: Can you name these 10 ex-Birmingham City midfielders?

The Verdict

Karanka has had a pretty busy window as he has got to grips with his new squad and it's been pretty clear he has known what he has wanted and got a fair amount of it done.

Now, he'll be looking to potentially shift on any deadwood and streamline the squad ahead of a season that is going to only get more and more hectic.

Let's see what he does in the final portion of the window.