Birmingham City Boss Chris Davies Has Made Another “Tough” Decision Amidst A Very

Chris Davies has three options to replace Birmingham City player who ‘always gets in the team’

Birmingham City’s 2-0 win over promotion rivals Stockport County on Wednesday night wasn’t all sunshine and roses.

Alfie May’s brace handed Blues another precious three points in front of owner Tom Wagner to claw back top-two Wycombe Wanderers and Wrexham. Blues also maintained their unbeaten home record in League One.

But a yellow card for the influential Keshi Anderson, who assisted both of May’s goals on the night, took some of the gloss off the result for manager Chris Davies. Blues are already without wingers Scott Wright and Emil Hansson and now have to do without Anderson against Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday.

“It’s a bit of a pain,” admits Davies. “Some of the challenges that weren’t booked, and some that were, you don’t know what’s happening next. It’s disappointing but he was teetering on the brink so it was going to happen at some point. We’ve got a squad for that reason so we’ll adapt to it.

Keshi’s numbers have been very good this season. If you look at his goals and assists per 90 minutes he will be right up there.

“Firstly, Keshi always gets in the team because of how hard he works and how disciplined he is. He’s tactically good. Even for that first goal, if you watch it back he was playing a bit of cat and mouse between the centre-back and the wing-back with his pressing position. He was tempting the keeper to throw the ball and he did.

“That’s all part of his game, defensively he’s really good. Then when he does win it, he has the poise and the calmness to pick a pass out as well. Keshi has got pace, he’s got discipline, he works hard and he’s having a good season.”

Anderson has switched between the three positions behind Blues’ striker this season but he has excelled on the right-wing in the last two victories. If Davies doesn’t want to change a system which now has Krystian Bielik at right-back and wants a player to provide width on the right, the like-for-like replacement in the squad is Ethan Laird.

Davies’ other options are Luke Harris, who has played on the right on occasions but in a very different way to Anderson, and Ayumu Yokoyama. Yokoyama tends to play off the left but Davies has used him on the right.

The Japanese starlet isn’t likely to start, though, having been omitted from the squad on Wednesday. Explaining Yokoyama’s absence, Davies said: “It was just a selection decision. Yokoyama is obviously new to the country and still adapting. He’s been good and shown his qualities but I brought Lukas Jutkiewicz onto the bench purely to reward his outstanding contribution in training and on the weekend. Competition for places for the team and the squad is what I want, long may it continue.”