Blues boss Paul Lambert was pleased with Andre Dozzell’s performance at Gillingham on Saturday, in which the 20-year-old played a significant part in Kane Vincent-Young’s winning goal, but admits that finding the best way to utilise the England U20 international’s talents is still ongoing.
Dozzell was making his third start of the season, his second in the league, in addition to one appearance from the bench.
"I thought he did well, he hasn’t played for a long time for the first team for a while, although I know he played with England [one start and one sub appearance earlier this month],” Lambert said.
"His pass in the move was the catalyst for the goal because he’s the one that changed the pace of the ball at that time.
"I was happy for him for that hour he was on. The kid’s not played that much. He’s a big talent Andre Dozzell, he really is, we’ve just got to get the balance of what his main, main strength is. If we get that then he’s a really good player.”
Lambert says it’s about playing the right players around Dozzell and also playing to his main attributes.
"There is that, and what his strength his,” the Blues manager continued. "What’s his main strength, whether it’s scoring goals or assisting goals or being a playmaker. I think he’s in between that at the minute because he’s such a good footballer.
"It’s getting that final thing from him to see where he is, but he’s only a kid, he’s only a young boy, that’ll come. He’ll settle into something that he’s really good at.”
Like his father Jason, the midfielder made a scoring debut as a 16-year-old at Sheffield Wednesday in April 2016.
However, more than three years on he has made only 23 senior starts and 13 sub appearances, fewer than the likes of Luke Woolfenden - 62 starts and five games as sub for Town, Bromley and Swindon - and Flynn Downes - 43 starts and 20 matches from the bench for the Blues and Luton - who both had loans spells as part of their development.
Lambert says that it’s understandable that Dozzell is still finding his feet in first-team football.
"I think so because he had a bad injury, he was out for a length of time, that’s probably stopped him going on loan when he might have gone out,” he reflected.
"His game time is not as high as Woolfy and people like that. But Andre’s a really big talent.
"Put it this way, when I play him, I’ve got absolutely no fear whatsoever about what I’m going to get from him.”