{"id":848774,"date":"2026-03-25T06:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/848774\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T06:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:50:18","slug":"birmingham-city-must-get-chequebook-out-and-address-key-position-in-summer-transfer-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/848774\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham City must get chequebook out and address key position in summer transfer window"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City’s place in the Championship is effectively guaranteed for next season now\"birminghammail\"<\/p>\n

06:00, 25 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Birmingham<\/p>\n

Birmingham City forwards Marvin Ducksch and Jay Stansfield<\/p>\n

Birmingham City\u2019s failure to sign a number 10 in the January transfer window was somewhat surprising.<\/p>\n

A few days after the summer window closed, Chris Davies<\/a> revealed that he spent deadline day analysing options in the number 10 position<\/a> and it has been problematic for Blues<\/a> all season.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t on the agenda in January, even after Willum Willumsson was sold to NEC Nijmegen, when Blues moved for a left-back, a centre-back, a midfielder, two wingers and a striker instead.<\/p>\n

Davies has settled on Marvin Ducksch<\/a> more often than not, but the German\u2019s output from behind the striker isn\u2019t what you would associate with a natural number 10 \u2013 or \u2018the classic number 10\u2019 as Davies puts it.<\/p>\n

Ducksch is low on assists (2) and chance creation \u2013 only one big chance created all season \u2013 but he is Blues\u2019 top scorer with 11 goals in all competitions.<\/p>\n

Jay Stansfield<\/a> did the job before Ducksch, with much more mobility but no more guile.<\/p>\n

Blues haven\u2019t had enough guile, creativity or \u2018craft\u2019 \u2013 the word Davies used to describe last season\u2019s number 10, Kieran Dowell<\/a> \u2013 from that position since they returned to the Championship.<\/p>\n

You can point to some of Blues\u2019 recent draws at home and a whole bunch of their away defeats, where they just haven\u2019t been able to penetrate the opposition\u2019s defence with an incisive pass or the ability to beat players in tight spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had two strikers,\u201d says Davies. \u201cThat\u2019s been a thing I\u2019ve looked at in terms of our goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone into away games with a very attacking line-up most of the time, we\u2019ve always had two strikers and two wingers and a lot of attacking intent, but we haven\u2019t had enough goals to show for it and that maybe suggests our link hasn\u2019t quite been there to create the meaningful chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

\"AuthorAlex DickenREAD MORE: Wolves, Tommy Doyle and the transfer outcome Birmingham City expect this summer<\/a><\/p>\n

By link, Davies means someone who can receive the ball from the two midfielders and paint attacking pictures. Neither Ducksch or Stansfield has the ability to do that.<\/p>\n

Stansfield is capable of carrying the ball and Ducksch can make exceptional first-time passes, but they won\u2019t dribble, probe, bounce passes and wait for the gaps to appear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a classic number 10 these days is quite tricky (to sign) because the ones that are really pure maybe don\u2019t do the defensive work,\u201d added Davies. \u201cI want them to be able to run and press as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are ones out there that are able to get it on the half-turn, run and slide people in, but they don\u2019t want to run or work hard. You stay away from those, so you\u2019re asking for a lot, but a lot of our sixes are sixes, they\u2019re very much get the ball off the back four and pass, so it\u2019s an area we\u2019ve had to find solutions in.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarvin and Jay have done it in different ways but it\u2019s something we have to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proper number tens do exist in the Championship. Coventry have one in Jack Rudoni, Bristol City have Scott Twine \u2013 who has 10 goals and five assists in the league this term \u2013 and Finn Azaz has done the business for Southampton.<\/p>\n

These players do tend to come at a premium though, particularly those who have already experienced and excelled in the Championship.<\/p>\n

For Blues it feels like a must-have. If they want to win promotion they can\u2019t go into another season without natural fits for a position that is absolutely essential in a 4-2-3-1 formation for a team that favours possession.<\/p>\n

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. Just click this link<\/a> to receive daily Blues content and breaking news. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. Click on the name at the top of your screen while in WhatsApp and click ‘Exit Group’. Read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City’s place in the Championship is effectively guaranteed for next season now 06:00, 25 Mar 2026 Birmingham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,42707,748,8372,393,4884,1206,118990,11653,16,15],"class_list":["post-848774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-birmingham","tag-birmingham-city-fc","tag-birmingham-city-fc-transfer-news","tag-britain","tag-chris-davies-football-coach","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-jay-stansfield","tag-marvin-ducksch","tag-premium","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116288489357087625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848774","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=848774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}