Birmingham City defender Jake Clarke-Salter has admitted that the team need to improve at both ends of the pitch over the international break.

The Blues have made a positive start to the season under Pep Clotet and are currently 13th in the Championship table going into the two-week break.

However, Birmingham suffered their second successive defeat at the weekend, losing 1-0 to Fulham at St Andrew's - thanks to Aleksandar Mitrovic's second-half strike.

Clarke-Salter - who is on loan at Birmingham from Chelsea - made his second league appearance for the Blues at the weekend and put in a solid performance at centre-back.

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However, despite impressing, Clarke-Salter was unable to save the Blues from defeat and the defender has insisted that the team have plenty to improve on going into the international break.

Speaking to Blues TV, the defender insisted that the Blues still have plenty of work to do on the training pitch, admitting that the team need to improve both offensively and defensively.

“We just need to start taking our chances, but we are working hard in training every day to put it right and it will come.

“There are a lot of new players gelling now, we are working really hard on the pitch, taking to Pep’s ideas and I feel like we are playing good football and I feel like the fans are feeling that too.

“We have a lot of time to reflect now and to see what we need to improve on, I think it’s clear what we need to improve on at both ends of the pitch, we work so hard to keep that going and build it into the next part of the season.”

The Verdict

There's no doubt that Birmingham still have plenty of work to do, but all things considered, I think they've made a positive start to the season under Clotet. They're only a few points outside the play-offs and have picked up some very positive results.

The players have now got two weeks to really focus on what they need to improve on and I'm sure the likes of Clarke-Salter and his Blues teammates will be determined to make sure that the team return to winning ways after the break.

Clarke-Salter is a promising young player. He's certainly got a lot of potential and even though he's found minutes on the pitch hard to come by so far, he's shown that he's got what it takes to make an impact for Birmingham this season.