Birmingham City manager Chris Davies is under pressure again as his club’s patchy start to the season continues, but the Blues coach has one thing going for him as the squad enters the Christmas holiday.
Birmingham City manager Chris Davies is under fire after a 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United, his fourth consecutive loss. Tyler Bindon, Gus Hamer, and Patrick Bamford scored to secure a comfortable win for the Blades, while Tommy Doyle’s red card in the 18th minute rendered Birmingham’s task all but impossible.
Birmingham are still in play-off contention, but it is evident that the Second City team has underperformed in the Championship this season. With vocal ambitions to compete for a return to the Premier League, as evidenced by the club’s summer buying binge, the Blues have rarely seemed capable of battling for promotion, and failure to do so may cost Davies his job.
According to Football Insider, City’s senior brass have been putting together a list of potential replacements for Davies, who is currently fighting for his job at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.
But the Blues boss has one advantage that strengthens his position, especially with his team’s upcoming games during the Christmas and New Year period, but Birmingham’s performance in these games will be critical to his survival as manager.
Home form could be the key to relieving pressure on Chris Davies in Birmingham.
Birmingham City’s main difficulty this season has been their away performance. A cursory look at the Championship’s home and away tables is quite telling. The Blues sit 21st in the table based only on away results, with Sheffield Wednesday, Watford, and Portsmouth below them.
However, on the home form alone, the situation is quite different. The Blues sit sixth in this ranking, having played two less home games than the three clubs ahead of them. Hull City is the only team to have beaten Birmingham at St Andrews in the League this season, winning 3-2 in October.
It’s no surprise that three of their last four games have been away from home. Birmingham took one point from them, a 1-1 draw against Charlton Athletic on December 13th, but they lost all three away games.
Birmingham has three home games in their next four, which gives them an opportunity to get their season back on track.
The Blues will be able to put some of their great home form to use over the Christmas and New Year seasons. They will play three of their next four games at St Andrews. They will play Derby County there on Boxing Day, followed by Southampton three days later. Then, after a trip to Watford on New Year’s Day, they take on Coventry City at midday on January 4.
It is obviously critical that Birmingham learn something from these matches. While the Coventry encounter may be the most difficult they’ve faced at home this season, the Derby and Southampton games appear winnable.
Birmingham hasn’t played Derby too often in recent years, but the Blues have a solid record against them since the epidemic. They are unbeaten in their last three games against them, winning 2-0 and 2-1 in 2021, and drawing 2-2 in 2022.
The same cannot be said about their record versus Southampton. Birmingham has not beaten the Saints since a 2-1 League Cup victory in 2009, and they have lost all five games against them since then. However, Southampton’s recovery under Tonda Eckert has stagnated slightly in their previous two games, with a 2-1 loss to Norwich and a 1-1 draw against Coventry, and they remain in mid-table themselves.
If Chris Davies’ team can continue their strong home record for at least these two games, the pressure on the Blues manager will undoubtedly ease. Davies still has some credit for masterminding Birmingham’s record-breaking 111-point haul in League One last season, and it’s evident that the manager and the club’s ambitious owners have a positive working relationship.
With the game at Sheffield United all but over by halftime and the team showing few indications of improvement from their previous three outings, Chris Davies is under increasing pressure. However, the following two games provide him with a real saving grace: an opportunity to get the Blues’ season back on track while also reflecting the owners’ ambition by contending for a play-off spot.
xz
