Birmingham City is a club thats been through a lot in recent years.
While the club played in the Premier League for most of the 2000s, 2011 proved to be a turning point.
Despite heavily investing in the squad and even winning the EFL Cup, beating Arsenal in the final, their Premier League season was a disaster.
They ended up in 18th place and were relegated to the EFL Championship.
Despite a decent push in the season immediately after their relegation, the club fell short of getting promoted back to the English top flight.
They quickly fell into the lower midfield of the second division and have remained there since, struggling financially as well.
In 2024, Blues were relegated from the Championship to EFL League One.
In this tough time, Birmingham City decided to hire Chris Davies, a former assistant coach to Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou, as their new head coach.
Under Davies and new ownership, further disaster was averted.
With a strengthened squad and a new manager, they collected 111 points, won League One, and returned to the second tier.
However, that is only supposed to be the start; Birmingham City have bigger plans, with a return to the Premier League in their sights.
With a strong summer transfer window, which saw multiple players from the top-five leagues signed, including Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi, the start to the season went rather well.
Its early days in the season yet, but Davies‘ men are currently in mid-table, just outside the playoff spots, and they look like they have a chance to reach the playoffs this season.
In this Birmingham City tactical analysis, we will examine Chris Davies tactics at Birmingham City, what the Blues did to start the season successfully, and what we can expect from the team throughout the 2025/2026 campaign.
Birmingham City Work Against The Ball
Birmingham Citys start to the season under Chris Davies was rather successful, and this was mostly due to their defensive work.
The team has a clear plan against the ball and can execute it against different opponents and approaches.
The basic shape that Davies uses against the ball is a 4-4-2, a formation that has been out of fashion lately, but still has a lot of tradition in England.
Overall, their entire approach against the ball is relatively simple and basic.
Davies implemented many principles that have been around since the back-four and the concept of a press were introduced in England.
Although it is not the latest tactical trend, it remains very effective for Birmingham City.
What’s really interesting about Birmingham Citys games so far this season is that most of their opponents are trying the same solutions against Davies‘ 4-4-2.
As seen in the picture above, most teams build up with a back-three against Birmingham.
Most of them keep on
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