Copyright birminghammail
By the time Birmingham City face Portsmouth at St Andrew's on Saturday, the clocks will have gone back and the calendar will have flipped over into November. Three months into their return to the Championship and there is no need for ringing alarm bells - but there are undoubtedly issues that need addressing. One of them was all too apparent in Blues ' last game, a 1-0 defeat at Bristol City where a surfeit of possession was once again counterbalanced by a dearth of chances. Possession, it seems, is nothing like nine-tenths of football's new law. Chris Davies knows this, of course he does, and there should be no babies tossed out but the tactical bathwater does need heating up. At Ashton Gate the Blues boss himself admitted: "We just didn’t do enough with it to create the clear openings and the chances that we needed to." He would go on to talk about tempo, 'lacking zip', a 'tentative mindset' and playing 'quicker'. It's a familiar issue. Here's two facts for you. Blues are the fifth lowest scorers in the Championship. Blues have had no impact from summer signings Kanya Fujimoto and Marvin Ducksch. Those facts are not unrelated because the No. 10 position seems to be at the nub of Blues' issue. Injury has denied Davies of last season's incumbent Willum Willumsson - that's assuming the Iceland international is even the solution. While knocks have also limited Ducksch to one start and Fujimoto to just a single appearance off the bench. Davies has tried with other contenders, Jay Stansfield, Paik Seung-ho, Keshi Anderson, Tommy Doyle, Lyndon Dykes - even Lewis Koumas in a central/second striker role - but the answer is yet to reveal itself. Here we look at some of the leading contenders and - more importantly - combinations. Blues started the season with Stansfield playing behind Kyogo and it looked pretty promising. The former's movement and the latter's ability to put the ball in the net seemed to complement each other well. However, Kyogo's inability to break his league duck and obvious nervousness in front of goal has seen him start the last four games on the bench. Davies can keep 'pounding the rock' in the hope the law of averages sees Kyogo score and go on a run - but James Vaughan will tell you all about the law of averages. For me Stansfield has to start as often as possible, he's the only player who seems remotely dependable in front of goal - but he needs a partner, one that doesn't leave him facing two or three centre backs on his own in the penalty area. Even having pinned down Stansfield as one of your 9/10 starters, it's still complicated. In an ideal world it'd be Kyogo and Stansfield or Ducksch and Stansfield. You really want one of your keynote summer signings to justify their transfers. Kyogo has had plenty of chances and to be fair to the Japanese his movement really is top notch - but that only gets you so far if he looks so tentative at the key moment. If Davies goes for Kyogo, Stansfield goes in as the ten. But for me the next stone that needs looking under is Ducksch and Stansfield, who have started once together. That came against Swansea and lasted 67 minutes. Neither scored and it was left to super-sub Dykes to secure the win with a late strike. However, there was enough in three quarters of a match to suggest Ducksch and Stansfield might be able to build a partnership. In some ways they are similar in that neither is an out-and-out nine or ten - but that can be a strength, interchangeable in and around the penalty area with a combination of craft and mobility. The German has shown throughout his career he can influence games and the time to start doing that in England is upon us. Potentially yes, Dykes has shown himself effective off the bench - and the pair combined well at times last season. The Scotland international feels like a Plan B rather than a Plan A - but that's just a personal perception. It's probably fair to say he needs to do more with the starts he does get to swing the argument his way. He might respond one of his two starts this season came in the wreckage at Coventry City when Blues were reduced to ten men and failed to cope. Quite. Brought to the club having played 10 at Gil Vicente he has played one minute of Championship football and been an unused substitute in the last four. In September Davies spoke about finding a route forward after he had started 'training well'. That route is yet to present itself. I'm never a fan of the 'try it and see' approach, Davies clearly has way more information than we do at his disposal. But as creativity continues to be an issue, so too questions will mount. I'd be surprised if it was as simple as plugging in Fujimoto behind the striker of your choice - but sometimes you just have to find out. Anderson did pretty well playing centrally against Hull - but he feels like a more natural winger. The same can be said about Koumas. Doyle and Paik are No. 8s who start to look unconvincing too high up the pitch. Willumsson had his moments last season and was showing in flashes this term that he could apply himself to the physical nature of the Championship. When he's fit it would be no surprise to see Davies give him his opportunities having invested so much faith in him in League One. But with Ducksch back in the squad - and off the bench at Bristol City - the feet of the former Germany international seem like a good place to start looking for the missing ingredient.
