August Pliske, signed in January, showed positive signs in his full debut for Birmingham City, despite losing on penalties to Leeds United in the FA Cup last weekend.
The Danish centre-forward has finally been given a chance to start alongside Jay Stansfield after only coming off the bench in the last four games since joining the Blues last month.
Pliske didn’t get on the scoresheet, but his mobility, physicality and coordination with the rest of the team caught the eye, especially considering it was against a Premier League team.
The 21-year-old striker, who recently had a goal ruled out for offside against West Bromwich Albion in the Championship, should make his full league debut against Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday.
That means Chris Davis will have to remove either Jay Stansfield or Marvin Dush from his final starting lineup in the league against the Baggies.
Birmingham forward to be left out for Augusto Pliske
Birmingham’s head coach should remove Dakush from the starting lineup. That’s because he hasn’t made enough offers as a starter to suggest he should keep his place in the side.
In the 0-0 draw with West Brom, the former Werder Bremen marksman missed a big chance to find the back of the net and although he started the match as number 10 on the pitch, he failed to score a single win during the match.
Stansfield is far better suited to playing deep, as he did against Leeds. That’s because he has created 10 “big chances” in this season’s championship, while Dakush has created just one for the team.
25/26 Championship | Dakush | Stansfield |
|---|---|---|
Appearance | twenty three | 30 |
the goal | 7 | 9 |
A big opportunity has arisen | 1 | 10 |
assist | 1 | 5 |
tackle win | 0 | 30 |
Ground duel success rate | 14% | 28% |
The German striker lacks the mobility to be a consistent player in the league, losing a staggering 86% of his ground matches, which is reflected in his near-average performance in the final third, and is why he should be left out of Plisske against Norwich.
While the former Bundesliga No. 9 should have been left out of the XI and has struggled at times this season, there is another Blues forward who has made an even bigger mistake and could possibly be the club’s biggest failure since Troy Deeney.
Biggest failure for Birmingham since Troy Deeney
Birmingham made an exciting deal when they brought Birmingham-born Deeney to the club from Watford in the summer of 2021 to strengthen their attack.
He has scored 140 goals for Watford, including 47 in the Premier League, and has 10 in the top flight so far in 2019/20, which is why he is such an exciting addition.
Unfortunately, Deeney only scored 11 goals in 57 appearances over two seasons before moving to Forest Green Rovers in League Two, four of which were penalties.
Fast forward to the present, and Birmingham may have weighed expectations against reality and made their biggest transfer mistake by signing forward Kogo Furuhashi.
The Blues paid up to £10 million to sign the Japan international from Ligue 1 side Rennes, an exciting move for the club considering he had scored 85 goals in 165 games during his time at Celtic.
There was some hope that Kyogo would become a regular goalscorer at St Andrew’s following his prolific years with the Scottish giants, but his effectiveness was even less than that of Ducks.
Like the German forward, the £10m-rated attacker also lost most of his physical battles as a striker, winning 33% of his ground duels and 16% of his aerial duels.
25/26 Championship | Kyogo |
|---|---|
Appearance | 26 |
xG | 5.35 |
the goal | 1 |
Key paths per game | 0.2 |
assist | 0 |
Ground duel success rate | 33% |
Aerial duel success rate | 16% |
However, the Japanese attacker significantly underperformed against xG and was far less effective in front of goal than Duckush or Stansfield.
Only Colby Bishop (-5.19) and Ivan Azon (-4.53) have had a lower xG than Kyogo (-4.35) in the Championship this season, showing just how wasteful the Birmingham attacker has been.
The experienced No. 9 has been a failure for Birmingham so far, given the amount of money he was brought to the club and the excitement upon his arrival due to his good form at Celtic.
Like Deeney, Keigo has not been able to live up to the reputation upon arrival due to his form at his previous club, which is why he has not featured as a substitute in the last three league matches.
There is still time to find success at St Andrews, but the evidence currently available suggests that Kyogo is the club’s biggest failure since Deeney.
Fewer touches than Allsop: Birmingham City’s star player seems to be their weakest link
After a disappointing performance against Leeds, Birmingham’s failure should be written off.
