Gary Rowett explains Oliver Burke decision after Birmingham City winger booed at Rotherham
Gary Rowett says Oliver Burke was handed a start against Rotherham for his physical attributes, but conceded his Birmingham City change didn’t go to plan.
Burke was drafted in for his first league start since New Year’s Day at the expense of Koji Miyoshi. Burke added some height to Blues’ line-up against a Rotherham side that is among the most direct in the Championship, but he wasn’t able to make an impact in the final third.
When Burke was freed down the right wing he couldn’t pick out Keshi Anderson in the middle and his touch let him down on other occasions. Blues’ supporters became frustrated towards the end of the half and turned on Burke, who joined the club on loan from Werder Bremen last summer.
Rowett commented: “It’s a tough game when you come in. We felt as though if they played with a back five, which they have done recently, and there was lots of space down that side, his pace could cause them problems.
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“And you know it’s going to be a physical game with set pieces. You saw that late on, when we changed it with our technical players, we lacked physicality. You just have to make a decision sometimes on it.”
Burke has had a muscle injury and appeared to be struggling with the pace of the game at the end of the opening half. Rowett didn’t just put his substitution at half-time down to injury, though.
“A little bit of both,” Rowett explained. “He felt his hamstring but I think it was one we were probably going to make very early in the second half anyway. I could just feel first half we couldn’t quite wriggle into room with enough quality.
“We were just perhaps a little bit too predictable at times and we thought about making a double change at half-time. That one was quite easy to do in the end for different reasons.”