Birmingham City boss Aitor Karanka has defended his decision to delay making substitutions in the 1-0 defeat to Barnsley yesterday.

Whilst Blues had a few chances from set-pieces, they were generally toothless against the Tykes side, who took the lead early into the second half after a powerful strike from Daryl Dike.

Despite that, Karanka was reluctant to make changes instantly, instead waiting until the 70th minute when he brought Ivan Sanchez and Jeremie Bela from the bench.

Another double substitution would follow 14 minutes later, but it didn't work, as Blues lost the game without having a shot on target.

Therefore, some fans were critical of the boss, feeling he wasn't proactive enough with his decision-making.

However, speaking to Birmingham Live, the Spaniard explained how he felt opening up too soon would leave them vulnerable defensively, as well as giving them a disadvantage from set-plays.

"If I had done the substitutions before we didn’t have players to defend set-pieces. I had to think about every single thing. If I had for example put Jeremie and Ivan for Raks and Jukey we would have had problems defending set-pieces.

"There were another 20-25 minutes and I didn’t want to concede another goal because I know how good they are."

The verdict

Firstly, it's good to hear Karanka explaining his decision in detail, which he does deserve credit for.

But, you can't imagine the reasoning will go down well, as it's such a negative outlook when you are losing in a game.

The fact is, Blues barely had a chance of note from open play, and it was clear from an early stage that they weren't posing enough of an attacking threat.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.