Chris Davies explains why he overlooked Ayumu Yokoyama in Birmingham City's draw with Blackpool
Chris Davies has told Ayumu Yokoyama to keep plugging away after overlooking the winger during Birmingham City’s drab 0-0 draw with Blackpool.
Blues ended 2024 by drawing at home to the Tangerines and Yokoyama was the only outfield player Davies didn’t introduce. When left-winger Emil Hansson had to be replaced towards the end of the first half, Davies opted against like-for-like replacement Yokoyama in favour of Luke Harris.
Yokoyama hasn’t featured in League One since a late cameo appearance in the defeat to Shrewsbury Town in November and hasn’t always been part of Blues’ 18-man squad. He was drafted back into the squad for Blackpool due to Keshi Anderson’s injury.
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Explaining his decision to leave Yokoyama on the bench, Davies said: “With that one, I think Luke has been close to the team on a few occasions and hasn’t quite made it and I’ve got to make a decision there – Luke has played a bit more football than Ayumu so, as an early sub, has he got the physical capacity to go the rest of that game? That played into my thinking as well.
“Ayumu has just got to keep going. He’s a talent, he’s young, he’s still adapting to English football, absolutely, and he’ll have a part to play this season. That was just a decision I made in the moment.”
Injuries to Lee Buchanan and Hansson forced Davies to use two of his permitted three opportunities to stop the game for substitutions before half-time. Davies introduced Jay Stansfield at half-time and made all five substitutions by the 58th minute.
He said: “Two were enforced and that gives you only one more opportunity so I wanted to use half-time to make one of them at least to get Jay on. It wasn’t that Lyndon was doing anything wrong, it was just a case that I thought I need to use one now because we’ve only got one more opportunity and I wanted to get Jay on earlier into the second half.”
