“Unfortunately, a few are going to be disappointed, he’s one of those” – Gary Rowett explains Siriki Dembele’s snub in team squad

Gary Rowett is urging Siriki Dembele to combine his talent with the essential elements of football to reclaim his prominence in the Championship.

Despite a promising start with Birmingham City, Dembele’s form has dipped since the beginning of the year. Despite his initial success under Tony Mowbray, the 27-year-old has struggled to make an impact, failing to score or provide assists in the past three months.

Dembele found himself out of favor under Mowbray and barely featured during Mark Venus’s interim tenure. Rowett has preferred Juninho Bacuna and Keshi Anderson over Dembele in the left-wing position. So far, Dembele has only played 10 minutes in Rowett’s five games in charge, prompting the interim manager to challenge the Ivorian winger.

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.”