![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_JS386447213.jpg\")
Tommy Doyle of Birmingham City<\/p>\nOne of Birmingham City’s summer signings is really coming to the fore now after a difficult startTommy Doyle of Birmingham City<\/p>\n
A month is a long time in football. This time last month Tommy Doyle<\/a> was a bit-part player at Birmingham City<\/a> and probably wondering why he swapped a Premier League bench for a Championship bench.<\/p>\n Fast-forward and Doyle has forced his way into Blues\u2019 starting line-up in his preferred midfield position and contributed to two victories in the past three matches.<\/p>\n Doyle completed his first 90 minutes of the season on Saturday as Blues thrashed Portsmouth 4-0.<\/a><\/p>\n In order to get Doyle into his starting line-up, Davies<\/a> has had to break up the long-standing partnership between Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-ho. Iwata has successfully shifted to right-back to replace Bright Osayi-Samuel and Doyle has filled his shoes.<\/p>\n There was never any question over Doyle\u2019s ability in possession. The 24-year-old\u2019s technique and passing range means Blues are a more attractive and attacking proposition with him in the team.<\/p>\n Davies\u2019 reluctance to start Doyle initially centred around his understanding of a system that will only be tweaked, never compromised, and how he performed his defensive duties within it. Doyle is now moving in the way Davies wants his midfielders to.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke to Tommy in the week and he openly admits that he’s adapted now and got to grips with what I want from him,\u201d Davies told BBC Radio WM<\/a> after Blues\u2019 victory over Portsmouth.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s come from a club that played a different way, different principles, style and everything else, and he hasn’t played a lot in six months but I’ve really seen him getting stronger physically in the last three or four weeks and that ability he’s got to play forward and knit the game together is unquestionable.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s done that defensive work and covered the ground really well and to get a 90, his first 90 minutes, is really good news.\u201d<\/p>\n That isn\u2019t to say Doyle\u2019s place is guaranteed. Blues\u2019 midfield options are strong and Marc Leonard, who missed out on a starting berth against Portsmouth, is arguably in the best form of his St Andrew\u2019s career.<\/p>\n Davies could quite easily rest Doyle or Paik and start Leonard against Millwall on Tuesday with Saturday\u2019s trip to Middlesbrough in mind.<\/p>\n Knowing when to rest and rotate in the grind of a Championship season is vital.<\/p>\n But you get the feeling that when Blues are at their free-flowing best, as they were against Portsmouth on Saturday, Doyle will be in the middle of the park pulling the strings.<\/p>\n It\u2019s taken a little while longer than many thought necessary, but Doyle has arrived at the party and Blues are better for it.<\/p>\n Should Doyle start against Millwall? Let us know HERE<\/a>Get the latest Blues headlines sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n BirminghamLive has its very own Birmingham City<\/a> WhatsApp community to deliver the latest headlines straight to your phone. 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Read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Birmingham City’s summer signings is really coming to the fore now after a difficult startTommy Doyle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,748,8372,393,4884,81676,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-546740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-chris-davies-football-coach","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-tommy-doyle","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115487151232650981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}