Andrew Shinnie - The Scottish Iniesta

Andrew Shinnie, known as Shinniesta by the Birmingham fans, is making some waves in the Midlands. Originally he was brought in by Lee Clark, but severely misused, left out on the wing or forced to play up-front. Shinnie looked disinterested and much poorer than he really is.

Fast forward a year and a half, and the hiring of Gary Rowett, whose sense of style is only bettered by his tactical nous, has caused the rebirth of Shinniesta at Birmingham. Playing in his favoured role, the number 10 role, Shinnie has been able to display the artistry and skill that gained him the nickname.

Where most number 10's are becoming more physical-orientated, be it quick or strong or a combination of both, Shinnie is neither. In fact, it's his pace which is his main weakness. Fortunately, his intelligence, spatial awareness and skill allow him to overcome these issues. Shinnie is a style of player which seemed to fade away 10/15 years ago - rather than Iniesta, he plays more like Riquelme.

What has been really striking is his ability to make defenders look completely and utterly stupid. Whilst he is most dangerous facing the opponents goal, his innovation is matched by his ability to pull off some very clever turns that leave defenders helpless. For a perfect example, check out the second goal in Birmingham's most recent game:

(Skip to 0:58)

Shinnie's turn took two defenders out of the game, his shot hitting the post leaving an easy chance for front man Donaldson.

His movement and intelligence are a big part of how he plays, and it has to be. Slower players have to know how and where to move to find space, and Shinnie is very clever at finding pockets of space. He has no qualms about moving wide to find space if the middle becomes too congested, which leaves oceans of space for inside-forward Demarai Gray to exploit. His movement not only creates space for him, but the players around him.

Shinnie has a deadly strike on him too, capable of scoring from range if given the chance. His scoring record is far from impressive at Birmingham, as he has been misused and even now is more of a creator than a finisher, but at Inverness he had an extremely impressive record.

So far, I've made Shinnie sound like Zidane, so it must be noted he does have his flaws. He struggles with tight man marking sometimes, though this can also backfire if the wingers move infield. His vision is not always matched by his passing ability and occasionally his low percentage passes don't come off and attacks break down. Shinnie works hard but his defensive capabilities aren't that of an Oscar or Rooney, but he does a job defensively.

Overall, Shinniesta has become an important player for the new look Birmingham, a counter-attacking side in the mould of Dortmund, Shinnie being the Enganche which the front 3 revolve around. He is a player who is not known very well, but he could quite easily become a hipster cult hero. Not just for his style, but his beard.

The Shinniesta revolution is here and Scotland have their own Riquelme - Andrew Shinnie.

The Rowett Tactical Revolution

Us football fans are prone to hyperbole. Every young Argentinian is the 'new Messi', every 30 yarder is goal of the season and every retiring player is a legend. That's why when Birmingham fans refer to Gary Rowett as 'Bromsgrove Mourinho' it's taken as a joke.

But is there a bit more to it that that?

Whilst I'm not claiming that he's anywhere as good, stylistically there is more than a few similarities. When Rowett took the job, he said pretty early on that he wanted to cut the size of the squad - fair enough, I thought. Clark kept recruiting more and more players then not using them, so a smaller squad seemed a good choice. This allows Rowett to keep a settled side which he chooses to do with his starting eleven. Blues have kept the same starting team in the league as much as possible - something which Mourinho is famous for doing at Chelsea.

I know all that is a stretch but it's just part of the philosophy. Rowett seems to be implementing a style reminiscent of Dortmund and Chelsea's Premier League conquering side. It's the antithesis to Pep Guardiola's possession game. If you've ever read about Mourinho's ideas on football, you'll know that he states:

"The team who commits the fewest mistakes wins the game.

"Whoever has the ball has fear.

"Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake"

Mourinho is one of the most successful coach in English football in recent times, so it makes sense to emulate him. The mistakes part of his philosophy was abundantly clear in last year's game against Liverpool - the most obvious example, but in general it doesn't mean big mistakes. Small mistakes. A defender putting the ball out for a throw-in instead of a simple pass, a midfielder overhitting a pass out to a full back. The team who makes more mistakes generally loses.

That is why counter-attacking can be so devastating. You pounce on a mistake. Blues pounced on 6 different mistakes at home to Reading. Rowett obviously uses the same or similar points for his own philosophy, as Blues don't ever attempt to control possession. We sit deep, keep our shape then if we win the ball, we attack with pace. Demarai Gray is key to this, as his pace helps to stretch teams and push them deeper so we can start to play our football. We pick on their mistakes whilst trying to reduce the amount we make.

Early on, we retreat deep and play long ball up to Clayton Donaldson, our Didier Drogba. Though Donaldson doesn't have the raw strength of a Drogba, he wins a surprising amount in the air - 44% of his aerial duels. It's more about pushing the opponent back, though. It forces them to drop deeper to deal with the long ball and the physicality of Donaldson, which gives Gleeson the space to find the passes to start our attacks later on. Donaldson's pace and work rate creates space for those around him too, as it makes the defence drop deeper to remove the space behind them.

Donaldson is a game-planning nightmare. If you drop deep to counter his pace, it allows the ball to be played into feet so he can hold it up and leaves more space for Andrew Shinnie. If you mark him tightly and compress the space, he can spin in behind using his pace. Speaking of Shinnie, his revival has been down to the space created for him. He's always been an intelligent footballer, but the speed of the game and lack of space made him useless. Now, under Rowett, he's being afforded space as the opposition drop deeper. When we're not playing quite so direct, Shinnie is instrumental in creating chances and finding space. Not only that, but he is involved defensively, closing down and shutting off passing lanes, which is quite rare for an attacking midfielder.

Unless you're Mourinho or Rowett.

The system Blues are implementing is similar to that of Chelsea's all conquering side. The Rowett Revolution is more than just new manager bounce - it's the implementation of a successful system where there was none before. 

Rowett is more than just lucky. He's creating an identity for a team who before were struggling with form, with style and with quality.

He is the Bromsgrove Mourinho.