Birmingham City have enjoyed a fantastic recent run of form, with four successive victories putting Garry Monk's side on the brink of the play-offs.

It's a remarkable turnaround from Blues, who had been stuck near the bottom of the league earlier in the campaign.

Now though, they will be looking up and targeting five successive wins when they face a tough trip to Derby on Saturday.

Given the turbulent summer that the side had to endure, Blues won't be setting ambitious expectations for the season, instead just taking it one game at a time.

Monk will be drilling that into his players and he will hope they continue to respond as they have been recently.

The manager has taken chances that are paying off at the minute but there is still time for them to backfire.

Here we look at THREE gambles he has made recently...

Monk made a big call to not use David Stockdale in the summer and it was a controversial decision.

The former Brighton man established himself as one of the best in the league during his time with the Seagulls and was a coup for Blues at the time of signing.

However, after a tough first season, Monk decided to freeze him out, instead signing Lee Camp. It was a big risk given the keeper's struggles in the past.

Blues tough summer came because of breaking FFP regulations through the signing of Kristian Pedersen.

Whilst it's not his fault, the left-back will have felt added pressure given he was a relatively big-money signing for the side.

So far, he has handled it well, but a point deduction was mentioned earlier in the season and his addition could prove costly.

You can't argue with the approach Monk is going with as it's producing fantastic results.

But, it is very defensive and has Blues playing without the ball regularly. That's a risky strategy, as if they lose the first goal it can be an uphill battle.

It's so far, so good, but they might need to be able to play in a different way across the season.

[ad_pod ]