Chris Davies’ Birmingham City take on Ipswich Town in their Championship opener on Friday night
Tommy Doyle of Birmingham City
When Chris Davies set his summer objectives for Birmingham City at the end of last season, improving their effectiveness at set pieces was near the top.
Blues have packed their squad with speed and athleticism and Davies has acquired players with the ability to create and finish chances, his final target was to improve at set pieces.
For all of their dominance in League One last season, Blues didn’t excel in dead ball situations. They scored 13 goals from set pieces – only seven teams scored fewer.
You can balance that statistic out by saying Blues only conceded 12, which is commendable, but Davies wants more productivity at the other end.
“Defensively we were very good, our record was excellent,” he said. “We conceded a couple from wide free-kicks towards the end but we were good on corners.
“Attacking-wise, we got better at wide free-kicks and corners as the season went on.
“Do I think it will be more important? I think it can decide a game more for us this season than it did last season.
“If we went a goal down last season from a set piece we could come back and back ourselves to get the two goals, it could decide more games this season potentially.”
Admittedly, Blues don’t have much height to hit when they do get corners and free-kicks in promising positions. The only outfield players who exceed six feet in Blues’ starting line-up against Ipswich Town on Friday night are likely to be Phil Neumann and Christoph Klarer.
Blues will have to be creative and that’s where Tommy Doyle comes in. During his last foray into the Championship on loan at Sheffield United, Doyle averaged 3.55 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes and totalled 12 goal-creating actions.
The 23-year-old is expected to take the lion’s share of Blues’ set pieces this season.
Davies added: “I’ve done a lot of work on the training pitch and created a clear plan for our strategy, plus Tommy Doyle arriving with the set piece quality that he has and we are still in the transfer window, trying to bring players who can be dangerous attacking set pieces as well.”
German striker Marvin Ducksch, standing at 6ft 2ins, will add to Blues’ prowess on set pieces and he has also scored plenty from direct free-kicks in his career to date.
Outside Derby County and Oxford United, who scored 22 and 21 respectively from set pieces in last season’s Championship, no other second tier teams were particularly potent in this area.
As Davies suggested above, if Blues get their strategy right at both ends, it will make a difference.
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