Birmingham City boss John Eustace believes talented Manchester United loanee Hannibal Mejbri will only “get better with experience”.
The 19-year-old is in the midst of his first loan spell away from United having joined the Blues on a season-long loan in August.
After slowly being integrated into Eustace’s starting line-up, the 18-time Tunisia international is starting to make quite the impression at St Andrew’s and the fiery all-action teenager is relishing competing in one of the most physical leagues in the world.
But the former Monaco prodigy, who certainly relishes playing on the edge, may have been lucky to have escaped a second yellow card in Friday night’s 2-0 win against Queens Park Rangers.
After picking his third Championship booking from 11 appearances in the seventh minute, Hannibal tripped fellow United loanee Ethan Laird, which left Eustace with his heart in his mouth.
Birmingham’s number six was replaced in the 54th minute after making his fourth foul of the game.
Birmingham boss Eustace makes exciting prediction about Hannibal Mejbri
Following the win against Michael Beales R’s, Eustace revealed that he would have a chat with the Tunisian about trying to avoid the attention of referees.
But in his pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Championship clash against Millwall, Eustace explained that he had no intention of changing anything about Hannibal, who he believes is “very special”.
Eustace said: “Hanni is a fantastic player, he plays on the edge and the personality he brings onto that pitch is something very special, so I’m certainly not going to change anything about that he’ll get better with experience.
“I think that’s maybe his fourth game in a row at this level, so it’s all new challenges and experiences for him which he is doing brilliant at.
“Listen he was good for an hour, I brought him off and Bacuna came on, who did fantastic as well, so it’s all about his learning and development.”
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