Birmingham City will be aiming to bounce back from their 3-0 defeat to Swansea City last weekend when Stoke City travel to St Andrew's on Saturday.

Pep Clotet's side have had a mixed start to the season as they have already secured victories over Brentford and Barnsley, but Sunday's performance at the Liberty Stadium left much to be desired as Swansea dominated the match.

The Blues are so far unbeaten at home this campaign following a draw with Bristol City as well as that success over Barnsley, and they now have a good chance to extend this record against Nathan Jones' struggling Potters' side.

It has been confirmed via the Birmingham Twitter account that a number of players will become available for Saturday's clash following lay-offs, with Maxime Colin, Jefferson Montero and Kerim Mrabti all in contention for a starting place.

With this in mind, here's the starting line-up Clotet should name for the Stoke clash...

 

I can see Clotet sticking with Camp in between the sticks despite the three goals he conceded at the Liberty Stadium. He couldn't do much to stop each of the strikes and managed to keep a clean sheet in the first half even though Swansea were dominating the match. There have been some calls for Real Madird loanee Moha Ramos to get a chance in goals, but I think it will be some time before he challenges Camp.

Clotet's 5-3-2 formation has come under some criticism from Blues fans, but I don't think he should abandon his vision just yet if he has been trying to drill this into the players during his tenure so far. Therefore, I think Clotet should start with three centre-backs in Harlee Dean, Kristian Pedersen and Jake Clarke-Salter. The Chelsea loanee was not included in the squad for the trip to Swansea, but I think he is worthy of a starting place on Saturday and would provide a refreshing look to Birmingham's damaged defence.

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It was revealed in the pre-match press conference that Maxime Colin is likely to be available for selection on Saturday, so he should start at right wing-back ahead of Harding. Steve Seddon is likely to keep his place on the opposite flank.

In midfield, I can see a trio of Ivan Sunjic, Danny Crowley and Fran Villalba being an exciting combination for the Blues. This should add a good balance to the centre of the park, with Sunjic sitting in a holding position while Crowley and Villalba are deployed in more roaming roles. This could provide the Blues with some of the creativity they were lacking against Swansea. Clotet can also call on Montero if they are in need of a second-half goal, but this could involve a slight formation change to permit Montero freedom on the wing.

I can see a striking partnership of Alvaro Gimenez and Lukas Jutkiewicz having real potential for Birmingham this season, so I would like to see it given another run-out at St Andrew's on Saturday. Mrabti will also be pushing for a start given he is available, but I think Clotet will stick with the duo who started against Swansea.