A downturn in results and goals has left Birmingham City looking for answers and hoping one exists within Chris Davies’ squad
Willum Willumsson of Birmingham City(Image: Phil Bryan/Shutterstock)
With the Championship entering overdrive and Birmingham City facing four matches in 12 days, things can change quickly in football’s most unpredictable competition.
Indeed, unlike last season when Blues spent months and months suffocating their opposition en route to the League One title and a record-breaking 111 points, this campaign has already been a rollercoaster.
A promising August was followed by a troubling September and October, which gave way to a thrilling November and now, a December that is already half over but the narrative remains TBC.
Predictably, the main barometer of Blues’ prospects comes with their goal return, with 14 of their 30 Championship goals, nearly half, coming last month as Portsmouth, Millwall and Norwich were all battered at St Andrew’s.
It escaped no one that the team proliferated when Marvin Ducksch finally attained fitness and was partnered with Jay Stansfield in a 9-10 combination that brought balance and potency to Chris Davies’ team.
Between them, Ducksch and Stansfield combined for seven goal involvements as the former provided a focal point for the team to build off, while the latter busied himself, with and without the ball, in a slightly deeper position. Both contributed goals and assists.
The German wasn’t brought to the club to play centre forward and Stansfield, who spearheaded England Under-21s’ defence of their European title, was initially bought by Blues to be a striker. The partnership was counterintuitive, but it worked. For a while.
However, November turned into December and the momentum has not been maintained. Ducksch’s effectiveness has tailed off, especially away from home, and Stansfield has just one assist and no goals to show for his last five games.
That has left Davies pondering his options up front and with the transfer window to open in just two weeks, a position that seemed to be relatively settled is once more a question mark. Ducksch’s downturn, Kyogo Furuhashi’s inability to find the net and Lyndon Dykes’ World Cup aspirations means January could be coming along at the perfect time for a squad in need of a boost.
That said, it is unlikely Blues will be in a position where they can simply buy their way back into contention. Goal-scoring target men are difficult to find at the best of times and even harder to sign – on the basis that every other club wants one.
Throw in the fact you only have 31 days in which to sort it and we are in the realms of the football recruitment version of alchemy.
The recruitment department might have a ready-made answer just waiting to come through the door and plunder 15 goals to power Davies’ Blue Machine into the Premier League. Or they might not.
Instead, it could be on the manager to find a way to tease performances – and goals – out of those he has already got.
One option would be to simply swap Ducksch and Stansfield, although the older man’s pressing game might present an issue there. We have also seen the slighter Stansfield get outnumbered and squeezed out in congested penalty areas. He has not started up front since Bristol City away – the last game before Ducksch came into the side.
Another possibility would be to return Stansfield to the striker’s role and opt for another No. 10 – and on the brink of a return to fitness, Willum Willumsson must be hoping Davies does exactly that.
The Icelander, who 12 months ago was one of the jewels in what was to become Blues’ League One crown, has barely played this season. Injury has limited him to just three appearances, two starts and none since August. Those he did make were inconclusive.
Davies is well aware of his imminent availability and said: “I do feel there’s a role for Willum to play. He’s a different type of number 10, he gets between the lines and in the small spaces. He has the intricacy to turn and thread a ball through.”
If anything, Blues’ new set-up, with inverted wingers, has created a need for a more traditional No 10 type, a role to which Willumsson seems perfectly suited. Whether he can demonstrate that at a higher level remains in doubt, but all footballers want is an opportunity and the door seems to have opened for the 27-year-old.
If he can step through it and operate in the only currency that counts for No. 10s, goals and assists, then Birmingham City’s transfer window might not be so exacting as it looks at the moment and Willumsson could inspire in the second half of this season in the way he did the first half of last.
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