Birmingham City boss Chris Davies previews the clash with Middlesbrough at St Andrew’s
Chris Davies, head coach of Birmingham City(Image: Lindsey Parnaby/Shutterstock)
Chris Davies has set out how he plans to approach Birmingham City’s clash with Middlesbrough – and it could be good news for Kim Hellberg’s side.
Boro head to St Andrew’s on a three-match winless run. And after their four closest competitors for automatic promotion all secured victories on Saturday, it amplified the pressure on Boro to do the same on Monday evening.
Their recent struggles have largely centred around goalscoring, particularly when sides come with approaches to be more defensively focused, as Oxford United and Leicester City did.
But heading to Birmingham, who have lost only once at home so far this season, Hellberg expressed his opinion that the Blues would be unlikely to follow that precedent.
Instead, he laid out his expectations for an open game where two sides will go at one another, which could benefit Boro if more space opens up for them in the final third, providing they can then win their individual battles and produce the quality in both boxes on the night.
Confirming that to be his approach for the game, the Birmingham head coach previewed: “They’re going to come here and want to dominate the ball, make lots of passes and really control the game. That’s how they play.
“But we’re at home, and we’ve been strong at home. We’ve got to make sure we’re trying to impose ourselves on them. We’ve got to try and play our normal game.
“We don’t want to change anything, we want to try and make it uncomfortable for them. It seems to me that it’s geared up to be a good football match, in that sense.
“It will be different to the one we’ve just seen at Millwall. A night game, St Andrew’s atmosphere, that’s where we want to be.”
FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK! Keep up with all the Middlesbrough FC latest via the Gazette’s dedicated Facebook page
Birmingham are strong at home this season, but Boro have a good recent record at St Andrew’s, winning their last four games there. Birmingham go into the game on the back of a 3-0 defeat to Millwall, and Davies is convinced his players will relish testing themselves against one of the best sides in the Championship.
“The aim now is to start a new run,” he said. “But we know this next game is Middlesbrough, they’re up there, they’re a really good team. I think the lads will be looking forward to it.
“When we’ve played the big teams, the best teams, in the league, we’ve always got ourselves up for it. I think we’ve been competitive against all the three teams that I consider the three that are particularly strong this year.
“We beat Coventry, we drew with Ipswich and now you’ve got Middlesbrough coming here who are flying high. I’m sure the players will look forward to it, because they’ll want to go and prove themselves.
“I’m sure Middlesbrough will come into the game as favourites, as the team that are up there and pushing for automatics. But we are generally strong at home, and we’ve got to try and use that to our advantage.”
Ensure our latest Middlesbrough FC headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings
———-
Here at TeessideLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the best Middlesbrough FC coverage and analysis.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest Boro news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.
Your information will be hidden, you’ll only ever receive messages from the Teesside Live sports team, and you can leave any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice .
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.