Birmingham City Coach Aims to Improve Away Form for Promotion Hopefuls
Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies acknowledges that the team’s away performance last season is a significant concern that needs to be addressed for any hope of promotion this year. The Blues finished 10th in the Championship during the 2025-26 season, trailing sixth-placed Hull City by nine points and sitting 20 points behind Ipswich Town, who secured second place. The gap to champions Coventry City was even wider at 31 points.
In Davies’s first season, the team secured promotion as League One champions in 2024-25. They displayed a strong home record, remaining unbeaten with 19 wins and four draws, while only losing three matches on the road and collecting 50 points away from home. However, the subsequent season saw a stark decline, with the team averaging less than one point per away game, finishing with only 20 points from 23 matches.
Reflecting on this dip in performance, Davies told BBC Radio WM, “We had an opportunity this summer to reflect and ask what we needed to get better at.” He emphasized that while promotion remains a clear objective, the glaring issue is the team’s away form. “We need to score more goals and keep a few more clean sheets,” he added.
Last season, Birmingham managed to score just 18 away goals in 23 games, with notable competition from only two other Championship teams—Stoke City and Sheffield Wednesday—who netted fewer goals. Among those 18 goals, one was an own goal, and another was from a penalty scored by Jay Stansfield to secure an away victory in their first match of the season against Preston.
In a positive turn, Birmingham initiated this season well, winning their opening match 1-0 against Swansea City in the League Cup. Davies highlights an improved tactical approach adopted towards the end of last season, one that has started to show benefits. “The last three away games gave us a template,” he stated, considering the changes made to help the team get the ball forward more quickly.
Last year with 57 goals scored, Davies noted that an increase to over 70 goals would be vital to make significant progress this season. He stressed the importance of being more clinical in converting opportunities.
Despite challenges in the transfer market due to the World Cup, Birmingham has secured three new signings: Anderlecht striker Luis Vasquez, Middlesbrough defender Dael Fry, and Palermo left-back Kristoffer Lund. Additionally, they re-signed midfielder Jhon Solis and brought back goalkeeper James Beadle on loan.
Davies remains optimistic about further additions while expressing his desire for quality over quantity in the squad. He remarked, “I’ve got no loyalty to a style of football. I don’t care how it looks… I want to win and I’ve got to work out the best way to do that.”
With the team’s televised opener against Sheffield United approaching, Birmingham City aims to make a mark in the new season, focusing on overcoming hurdles from the last.
Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies says that Blues’ away form last season is a “glaring” issue that must be rectified if they are to stand any chance of winning promotion for the second time in three seasons.
Blues finished 10th in the Championship in 2025-26, nine points shy of sixth-placed and ultimately promoted Hull City in the play-off places, a full 20 behind Ipswich Town, who went up in second, and 31 adrift of champions Coventry City.
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In going up as League One champions in Davies’s first season at the helm in 2024-25, Blues were unbeaten at home (19 wins and four draws) and only lost three times on the road, picking up 50 away points out of a possible 69.
But after averaging over two points per away game in the third tier, performances dipped markedly last term, as they averaged less than a point per game away, collecting just 20 points (five wins, five draws and 13 defeats) – out of a possible 69.
“We had an opportunity this summer to reflect and ask what we needed to get better at,” Davies told BBC Radio WM.
“We can’t say our objective is promotion because that’s obvious – everyone in the Championship wants to get promoted.
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“The home form has been excellent. What did we need to really focus on? And the away form was pretty glaring. We need to score more goals and keep a few more clean sheets.”
Marvin Ducksch was Birmingham’s top scorer on their away travels in 2025-26, hitting four of his side’s 18 goals in 23 Championship games [Shutterstock]
Only two other Championship sides – Stoke City (17) and bottom club Sheffield Wednesday (15) – scored less away goals than the 18 managed in 23 games by Blues last season.
One of those 18 was an own goal and another a penalty, Jay Stansfield’s injury-time spot-kick equaliser when Blues won their first away outing of the season 2-1 at Preston – the 2024-25 top scorer’s only away strike of the campaign.
But after ending last season with two encouraging 1-1 draws at Hull and Portsmouth, Blues have started this term positively by winning 1-0 in the League Cup at Swansea.
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Before this Saturday’s televised opener against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane (17:30 BST), Davies points to an improved tactical approach on their travels at the end of last season, beginning with a narrow but spirited defeat at Ipswich.
“The last three away games gave us a template,” he said. “If you add in Swansea, we’ve drawn two, won one and should have got something at Ipswich.
“There was a change – I basically took out that slower build-up around our box. I didn’t want to change everything and say ‘now we need to sit back, defend, hang on and try to break away’. I still don’t feel that’s the way to go.
“I want to us to keep putting pressure on the opposition, but I want us to get the ball forward quicker and use our set-pieces and counter-attacks more.
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“There were so many games where, on many metrics, we outplayed an opposition, but it was pretty embarrassing to even suggest that after a game because you might have lost 1-0 or 2-1. We didn’t look a threat, yet we did a lot of good things.
“Other managers said that, for the first two-thirds, we’re as good as you get in terms of movement patterns and the structure is really hard to stop, but we run out of punch in that final third.
“In the Swansea game, they had more possession than us, but we had more box threat. It was a tight game that could have been 1-1 or 1-0 to them, but we won. There’s no chance last season that we get anywhere near that. We probably lose that match.
“We scored 57 goals last season and if we’re going to push on and make that next step, that needs to be 70-plus. That’s a lot of goals, set-pieces. We need to be clinical.”
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‘No loyalty to a style of football’
Bringing in new additions has been harder because of the World Cup and Blues have so far added only three actual new signings – Anderlecht striker Luis Vasquez, Middlesbrough defender Dael Fry and Palermo left-back Kristoffer Lund.
They have also signed midfielder Jhon Solis, who was on loan last season, on a permanent basis and re-signed Brighton keeper James Beadle on loan.
But there could be more to come – with Davies highlighting Ghanaian winger Ibrahim Osman as another of last season’s signings they would have liked to have back.
“He gave us a real thrust and he had killer pace. He could really scare a defender, take you up the pitch and be dangerous.
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“We just need to make sure that for all of our good bits of play, we can score goals.
“We’re working hard. We know exactly what we need. We don’t need quantity, we just need quality.
“I’ve got no loyalty to a style of football. I don’t care how it looks. I don’t care what people say. I want to win and I’ve got to work out the best way to do that. That’s my job.”
Chris Davies was talking to BBC Radio WM sports editor Richard Wilford
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