'Enough quality' - Eyebrow raising claim emerges on Birmingham City board's final Championship position target
Birmingham City are currently trailing behind their rivals in the promotion race
Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner is adamant that the team have enough quality to secure automatic promotion this season despite their slow start.
The Blues currently sit 17th in the Championship table with just three wins from their opening 10 matches. It means they are already five points behind the play-off places and concerningly nine points adrift of Middlesbrough in second position.
Birmingham are winless in their last four Championship matches and have only managed two victories in their nine matches across all competitions, with a League Cup defeat to Port Vale also featuring in that barren run.
Pressure is slowly beginning to increase on manager Chris Davies, who recently experienced his first home loss at St Andrew’s during a 3-2 defeat to strugglers Hull City.
Tom Wagner expects more from Birmingham City
Birmingham’s US-based owners have made no secret of their mission to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2011 and after spending big on reinforcements they expect that aim to be achieved sooner rather than later.
According to reports from Football Insider, Wagner and the rest of the club’s hierarchy jetted into the UK to attend recent games against Sheffield Wednesday and Wrexham. Both finished as draws which failed to satisfy the hierarchy, with Wagner reportedly entering the dressing room after the Wrexham game to remind them of his expectations.
It’s believed the feeling amongst those in the hierarchy is that Birmingham should be achieving back-to-back promotions and finishing inside the automatic promotion spots.
Birmingham City have been underwhelmed in the Championship so far
After spending around £10m on reinforcements, Birmingham City are yet to see the best of additions like Kyogo Furuhashi, Demari Gray, Marvin Ducksch, Patrick Roberts and co.
Kyogo hasn’t netted once in 10 matches since arriving from Ligue 1. Gray has one goal and one assist in 10 appearances but hasn’t settled in the way many had hoped. Ducksch has only managed to get on the pitch three times due to injury and is still goalless. While Roberts has a goal and an assist but hasn’t yet looked as effective as he had been at Sunderland during their promotion-winning season last term.
This could simply be a case of those players all needing time to gel, but could also be a sign that perhaps the right players weren’t brought into the football club.
Time will tell for Chris Davies and his side, but one thing that certainly needs to improve in the short-term is the team’s lack of potency in the final third. Birmingham have scored just 10 so far this season from as many matches, making them the joint fifth lowest-scoring side in the league at this stage.
The Blues travel to Preston North End this week needing an immediate response to ease pressure on Davies before following that up with a trip to face an in-form Bristol City side at the weekend.