Gary Rowett wants Siriki Dembele to marry up his undoubted talent with football’s non-negotiables to become a force in the Championship once again.
After a rip-roaring start to his Birmingham City career, summer signing Dembele has lost his way since the turn of the year. The 27-year-old has failed to register a goal or assist since starring in Tony Mowbray’s first game in charge three months ago.
The enigmatic winger lost his place in the line-up under Mowbray and barely featured in Mark Venus’s six-game tenure as interim. Rowett has also overlooked Dembele in favour of Juninho Bacuna and Keshi Anderson in the left-wing position.
Dembele has only played 10 minutes across Rowett’s five games to date and the interim Blues boss has thrown down the gauntlet to the Ivorian.
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Speaking about Dembele, Rowett said: “He was one that trained really well today, that is probably the best I have seen him train. Siriki is like everyone else, I have to make decisions based on I need to know what I’m going to get when players get out onto the pitch.
“I’ve seen him over the years, he is such a talented player. I think when he matches that with the energy and the workrate and the determination then he could be almost unstoppable in this division. It’s making sure we get that. If I’m not sure then I’m always going to go with someone who I see every day doing that. But he’s been fine.
“There are players we’ve had to leave out so far who are really good players. There’s players we’ve had to leave out that have actually trained really well. If I came into a group of 20 players and all 20 stayed fit, it would be absolutely fantastic, all 20 could be in the squad and involved, but I’ve inherited a group of 24, 25 players and all of those players think they should be in the starting line-up.
“Unfortunately, a few are going to be disappointed. He’s one of those. A great talent but at this moment we need to make sure everybody is doing the right things for that talent to come in.”
