If Fulham was the surprising club of Europe last season, Birmingham City was certainly the most amazing team in England last season. Birmingham City did not have a deep team with household star players and most fans even considered them to be a relegation favorite. To everyone surprise, Birmingham was very competitve and hard to beat. Their Scottish manager Alex McLeish may not be the second coming of Alex Ferguson just yet, but he had done a wonderful job in making Birmingham very well-organized and hard to beat. What Birmingham City has been relying on is team defense, resulting in some important 1-0 victories. Considering their whole key squad merely composed of local English and Scottish veterans such as MF Lee Bowyer, FW Kevin Phillips, FW McFadden, CMF Barry Ferguson without any quality foreigners, McLeish has done an unbelievable job to lead the team to 9th place finish. The question is if they can keep up with their outstanding 2009/2010 season. Usually promoting team can surprise in their first promoting season, only to see them slip up quickly down to Championship Divison the following season. In an attempt to improve the team's limited attack, they have signed Serbia 6'7' giant CF Zigic to provide an extra attacking dimension. With great team spirit and coaching, I still expect Birmingham to stay put in premiership but they likley will finish below mid-table as West Ham, Newcastle, Fulham and Sunderland could all improve.
Strongest line-up: <4-4-2>
Strongest line-up: <4-4-2>
Taylor
Carr Ridgewell Johnson Murphy
Larsson Bowyer Ferguson McFadden
Zigic Jerome
Prediction: Survival - Mid-table
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