Birmingham City are finally living up to the expectations after returning to the Championship last season.
The Blues are currently sixth in the table, with only leaders Middlesbrough (1) having lost fewer games than them (2).
They have been incredibly tough to beat this year, a big contrast compared to the previous campaign in which they nearly lost (16) as many matches as they won (17).
The board surprisingly kept Chris Davies in charge, and so far the Welshman has more than justified their decision. He finally looks to have completely understood the squad he has at his disposal and everyone seems to be in more comfortable and adequate roles in the current campaign.
What has changed at Birmingham City from this season to the last?
Play style
Birmingham have adopted more direct style this season. It favours their wingers, who thrive in open-pitch situations with space to run into and take defenders on.
They have gone from averaging 54% possession last year to 51% this term. While it doesn’t look like a dramatic drop-off, what they do when they do have the ball stands out more.
The Blues averaged 424 passes per game last season, a tally that has dropped to 388 in the current campaign. The same has happened to 10+ pass sequences (6.6 now, 8.9 last season) and percentage of passes that are long (17% to 14%).
Advanced Opta metrics also show that they are moving faster down the pitch. Birmingham average 1.49 metres per second in-possession towards goal, the sixth highest in the division. And also considerably more than the 1.35 m/s from last season, that put them 19th in this ranking.
This has not stopped them from reaching the final third. In fact, it has helped them be more present inside the opposition box: 25.5 touches per game there this season, compared to 22.9 last year. Not to mention their expected goals (1.7 xG to 1.4 xG) and big chances (3.2 to 2.3) tallies all rising from last season. Meanwhile, they are still averaging about the same amount of shots (13.5 to 13.6).
One may think all these numbers are related to them spending more time in winning game states, giving them less of a need to dominate the ball and be on the front-foot. But their detailed possession splits tell a different story.
When the Blues are either level or behind, they average 52.5% possession – last year it was at 56.2%. When they are just losing, they still don’t feel the necessity of controlling the actions: 52.5% now compared to 58.4% last season.
Striker
Birmingham have also finally managed to find a striker that fits the system and delivers goals. Everyone probably felt like they had already done that last season, bringing the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch. But neither matched the expectations surrounding them.
Ducksch at least reached double figures in goals in the Championship last season, scoring 10 in 33 matches. He even led them in this regard alongside Jay Stansfield. But the eye test wasn’t too positive. Furuhashi was a complete disappointment, scoring just one goal from 5.4 xG and missing 12 of his 13 big chances.
The Blues moved on from him after just one year and he is now struggling to get in the scoresheet for LA Galaxy in the MLS.
Now, Danish striker August Priske is delivering the goods for them. He arrived at St. Andrews in January and also struggled to score last season. But he has completely turned things around as of late, netting five of his six league goals this year across his last four games – featuring braces against Lincoln City and Preston North End.
Internal improvement + additions to the squad
We’d be remiss not to mention the addition of Liam Millar, who has proven to be a great signing. The Canadian isalready on seven goal contributions in just nine games.
Patrick Roberts also seems to be rediscovering the finest moments he had at Sunderland, especially under Tony Mowbray. Both him and Millar lead the Blues in assists in the Championship (3 each).
James Beadle has been much better between the sticks, ranking second in goals prevented (+4.1) among all goalkeepers in the division so far. Last season, he ranked 21st in this metric (+1.4). He has also gone from saving 69% of the shots to 74% this term.
Phil Neumann and Chritoph Klarer have also improved compared to the previous campaign. They were solid as a duo in 2025/26, but have been arguably the best centre-back pairing in the league this season.
Full-backs Bright Osayi-Samuel and Alex Cochrane have also improved to help lock things up at the back. The latter has been more of an attacking weapon as well, ranking third among all players in the division for big chances created (9). It’s already more than twice as many as he managed last season (4).
Chris Davies’ main remaining challenge may be to get goals and assists out of Jay Stansfield, however. The 23-year-old will always attract a lot of attention due to the heavy fee Birmingham payed to snatch him from Fulham (over £15 million ahead of a season in League One).
Apart from goal contributions, he seems to do everything right. He has looked much better this year, but has just one goal and assist to show for it. Last season, it was the opposite – poor performances but somehow finding his way to 10 goals and 6 assists.
Things are finally looking good at St. Andrews – but they do have a tough run of fixtures in front of them: Millwall and Swansea at home then Stoke City away.