Wayne Rooney makes Birmingham City demand and Romelle Donovan point after Hull blow
Latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive includes Wayne Rooney on Blues' fitness and youngster Romelle Donovan after the defeat to Hull City
Wayne Rooney says his Birmingham City team aren’t currently fit enough to play his brand of football.
Hull City inflicted a second successive defeat on Rooney on Wednesday evening. Goals from Tigers pair Liam Delap and Jaden Philogene ensured Rooney’s dugout debut at St Andrew’s ended in jeers from the home crowd.
Rooney conceded afterwards that some of Blues’ players aren’t comfortable in their new playing style and that he will need to adapt to pick up points in the Championship. The fitness of the team is part of the problem according to Rooney, who replaced John Eustace in the hot-seat two weeks ago with Blues sixth in the Championship.
“We have to be fitter,” said Rooney. “The way I want to play, we need to be a fitter team. That is all part of what we are looking at, not just changing how we want to play, but also changing the fitness levels because players are tiring a lot quicker than I thought they would. We’re playing a little bit differently and they need to get used to it.”
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READ: Rooney reacts to Birmingham City boos after miserable St Andrew's debut
There were few positives for Rooney to take from Blues’ second defeat under his management, but the emergence of Romelle Donovan does fall into that category. Donovan, 16, made his Blues debut in the closing stages at St Andrew’s and appeared confident on the senior stage.
“When he’s trained with us, he’s trained really well,” his manager said. “He’s got a really good mentality, good quality. I felt he could give us something a little bit different. He deserves to be with us. It’s about trying to build him up to be a future star with us.”
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