Birmingham City are hovering above the relegation places in the Championship and just five points separate Gianfranco Zola's men from the trapdoor in the division, with just a handful of games to play.

In what has been a rather horrific turnaround in form, the Blues have nosedived down the division over the past couple of months, going from genuine play-off hopefuls to serious relegation scrappers in absolutely no time at all.

It's seriously worried the Blues faithful, who have repeatedly questioned Zola's ability to take the side forward after Gary Rowett was dismissed before Christmas.

But with it being far too late in the season to change things again, Zola is the man who needs to mastermind victories from somewhere, but with a tough run of fixtures on the horizon, it's certainly not going to be easy.

And it seems like a handful of players have gone backwards rather than forwards under his leadership, which has come as a real surprise, especially considering the pedigree the Italian had as a player.

So with that in mind, here's the TWO players that have regressed most under Zola at St Andrews...

Che Adams

Che Adams was brought to Birmingham by former manager Gary Rowett, who at times, got some quality performances out of the former Sheffield United man.

But under Zola, Adams has been bordering on unaffective at times, cutting an often frustrated an isolated figure when chosen to lead the line on his own.

At times, you can't question his work-rate in the slightest but he seems to have lost that natural goalscoring touch that probably brought him to St Andrews in the first place.

Ryan Shotton

Arguably one of the best Gary Rowett signings of the past couple of years, Ryan Shotton's decline in form could be down to a couple of things.

He's been without partner in crime Michael Morrison for some weeks now and has struggled to carry the likes of Dacres-Cogley and Robinson, who have both struggled against some of the league's better teams.

He's also featured extremely heavily this side of Christmas too, with that expected to continue to the end of the campaign.

Zola doesn't have a big enough squad to chip and chop week-in, week-out, so he'll have to continue playing shed-loads of games when in retrospect, it looks like the former Stoke City man just needs a break.