Birmingham City defender Marc Roberts believes that the Blues are beginning to show signs of their new identity under Pep Clotet, ahead of their game against Blackburn Rovers at St Andrews on Tuesday night.

The Blues suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat at high-flyers Leeds United on Saturday, but after Clotet's side produced a battling display in the first half to keep the game goalless at the break, they began to show their composure in possession and ability to cause problems going forwards the longer the game went on.

Birmingham's tactics in the last few seasons have been more of attempting to sit deep and absorb pressure from their opponents, before looking to hit on the counter-attack, but Clotet is wanting his side to use the ball more in transition and play their way up the pitch this campaign.

Speaking to the Birmingham Mail ahead of the game against Blackburn on Tuesday, Roberts suggested that he believes the Blues are starting to show signs that they are implementing the type of football Clotet is wanting from them, saying: "I think you can see our identity coming into the games now, you look at Middlesbrough, you look at the Leeds game, we have tried to control the game a little bit more.

"You can see what we are trying to do, it’s coming together but we have just got to show a bit more composure in the final third.

"The first half we were poor but I think it was because we didn’t really get to grips with what they were doing, we needed half time to come and thankfully we did get in there at 0-0. It is just disappointing we have ended up losing to that goal."

The Verdict

Roberts is right to highlight that Birmingham are starting to show real signs of being able to play the type of style that Clotet is wanting to see from his side, with the Blues' last two games against Middlesbrough and Leeds showing their improvement in terms of their build up play up to the attacking third of the pitch.

What Birmingham now need to do is start converting their opportunities to be able to start winning games consistently, and Clotet has managed to get his players familiar with his methods gradually so that it has not had too much of an impact on their ability to pick up results.

If the Blues can start to show a little more ability in the final third, then with the way they are playing currently they will have every chance of going on a positive run of form, but Clotet will be hoping his side can pick up the points their current performance levels deserve in the coming weeks starting with Tuesday's meeting with Blackburn.