Birmingham City spent heavily in the summer transfer window and it has translated into an efficient team as wins over Huddersfield Town and Peterborough United sees them awarded The Deck’s League One Team of the Week for the first time this season.
Chris Davies’ side lead the table after seven wins and a draw from their opening eight matches and they are the latest Team of the Week, following Steve Bruce’s Blackpool, who picked up two impressive away wins last week at Huddersfield Town and Charlton Athletic.
Birmingham City Display Squad Depth To Beat Potential Promotion Contenders
Huddersfield Town and Peterborough United are struggling for form but both sides are well equipped to compete at the top of the table and the latter gave the Blues a real scare by racing into a two-goal lead within twenty minutes. Posh had a difficult transfer window but came out of the traps in terrific form to stun the home faithful.
Willum Willumsson kickstarted the comeback and the big-money signing has had an impressive start to his career at St. Andrews. The 25-year-old also formed part of an attacking trio that helped Birmingham City past Huddersfield, with Alfie May scoring the winner in that game after returning to the starting line-up.
Jay Stansfield and May are an excellent forward duo at this level, providing ten goal contributions between them. Emil Hansson is growing into the side and although the likes of Lyndon Dykes and Marc Leonard are yet to find some form, having players of this quality on the sideline in the third tier shows the quality in this squad.
Birmingham City are proving to be just as effective at the back, as Ryan Allsop stepped in after Bailey Peacock-Farrell made an error in goal during the win over Peterborough United and Krystian Bielik has been outstanding in the back three, scoring the winner to complete the comeback.
The Polish defender ranks third of all players in League One for interceptions and has been impressive in the air, winning over 60% of his duels. Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-Ho have been instrumental in central midfield with the former Celtic player particularly imposing, leading to Birmingham City having the lowest expected goals-against tally of 5.35 from their eight matches.
Upcoming Fixtures and Future Prospects
There has been a lot of attention on the Blues due to their spending in the transfer window but striker May believes his team-mates are thriving despite the added expectations. Speaking to BBC Sport, the former Charlton star said:
“We’re getting a lot of media attention – the outside noise – but we, as players, aren’t listening to that.
“It’s down to us on the pitch to do our jobs and, currently, we are.
“We need to stick to it, we’re the team to beat at the moment and we need to keep grinding.
“It’s very rare that you see seven wins in a row. It doesn’t matter what league you play in. That winning feeling is superb.”
Birmingham City travel to May’s former side Charlton at the weekend and the Addicks are on a three-game losing streak. However, all of their matches have been close encounters and they are more than capable of troubling the league leaders. Nathan Jones’s side have won the most aerial duels per game than any other team in the division and have the third-best record for expected goals against so they should be confident of a result.
It will be after the international break before the Blues are back in action in League One when they travel to Lincoln City in a difficult-looking away fixture. If they can beat both the Addicks and then the Imps they would appear to be almost unbeatable at this stage of this season.
They could get stronger as the campaign progresses as there are a couple of new signings that are yet to get into form and it is a frightening prospect for other teams in the third tier. It does not look like anyone can stop their rampant charge towards the League One title.