McLeish stands by formation

02 November 2010 17:30
Alex McLeish has defended Birmingham's use of a 4-5-1 formation in many of their games, insisting playing two strikers risks "destroying" his players' confidence. Some Blues fans have questioned McLeish's tactics but the St Andrews boss told a supporters' Q&A session: "There's only 15 teams at the moment playing the one up in the Premier League. "You go and watch England do badly at the World Cup playing 4-4-2. "You watch the Champions League, the winners played with one striker. "And people want me to play with two, when I don't think that we're ready for playing with two." He added: "When everybody was looking for 4-4-2, we just weren't ready for it and I was afraid to take a couple of beatings which would've destroyed players' confidence, that would've set us back a mile."

Source: PA