Birmingham City urged to sign creative star who can "unlock defences" | OneFootball

FLW's resident Birmingham City fan pundit has laid bare his wish for the January transfer window

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Birmingham City have been urged to recruit a creative-minded player capable of unlocking League One defences and offering increased unpredictability to the side's attack in the January transfer window.

Granted the opportunity to hit the reset button under Tom Wagner and co following relegation from the Championship at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, Birmingham undertook an unprecedented summer transfer window by League One standards in a bid to not only escape English football's third-tier as swiftly as possible, but indeed to construct the nucleus of a progressive top-flight squad.

Birmingham have serious ambitions now, and they laid bare as much through the expenditure shelled out across the summer.

Of course, they shattered the League One transfer record by striking a sensational return for Jay Stansfield, which cost them in excess of £10 million, while adding a host of other exciting recruits such as Willum Willumsson, Christoph Klarer, Ben Davies, Tomoki Iwata and Alfie May.

However, it's now clear that they failed to source a mercurial creative talent who can open up defences and bring an air of maverick unpredictability - but they've got the opportunity to go again in January.

Birmingham City, Chris Davies urged to sign creative player in January transfer window

We asked our resident Bluenose fan pundit, Mike Gibbs, to name one concern he currently holds ahead of the January transfer window.

Birmingham supporters perhaps don't have all that much to complain about right now, but Mike has nonetheless emphasised the importance of adding a more unique, off-the-cuff creative profile to the ranks in January to offer increased unpredictability to Chris Davies' patient possession-based approach.

The aforementioned May, a seasoned frontman by trade, has played behind the striker on occasion, while Fulham loanee Luke Harris, who is an attacking midfielder, is yet to really hit the heights in the Second City.

"I think the number one concern for me ahead of the January window would be the fact that we've not been able to kill teams off and we're not really scoring enough goals for what our possession probably suggests we should," Mike told Football League World.

"If I could have one wish, it would be to find someone in that window who could possibly unlock defences. I think our build-up play is pretty pragmatic and efficient, but it's a bit predictable at times and you almost need someone who is going to do something a little bit different and unlock those defences.

"If you look at the amount of possession, we even have quite a lot of shots, but where those shots are coming from and how many are on target needs to be better, so that's the one thing I would be looking at.

Birmingham City simply must win League One title this season

Anything other than an immediate return to the Championship may well be classed as something of a failure for Blues, and it would most certainly be underwhelming given the magnitude of their investment, the evidence of their ambition and the strength of the playing squad which Davies has at his disposal.

Going into this month's two-week international break, Birmingham have been usurped in the race for first-place by Wycombe Wanderers, who have blown the division away thus far and are emerging as shock title candidates.

In fairness, Blues do have one game in hand over the Chairboys, whom they beat 3-2 away from home at the start of the season, but it's still a real surprise to see them not occupying top spot at the time of writing.

Bringing in a high-profile, ultra-creative attack-minded midfielder, then, and one who possesses the requisite vision and range of inventive forward passing to break down the low defensive blocks which teams invariably deploy against Blues, could be the key to toppling Wycombe and scooping the third-tier title this term.