Chris Davies reveals pre-game surprise that Birmingham City were beyond prepared for
Burton Albion surprised Chris Davies by switching to a back five – but Birmingham City are now so used to opposition teams lining up that way at St Andrew’s that they seamlessly adapted to notch up another win.
The beleaguered Brewers were dispatched 2-0 by League One leaders Blues thanks to goals from Jay Stansfield and Max Crocombe (OG).
Burton have often played a back four this season, but they switched to a back five for the trip to St Andrew’s. Eight of the 10 teams to visit St Andrew’s in League One this season have started with a back five formation.
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“I gave the players a load of messages about them playing a back four before the game and then I had to change when I got the team sheet because I saw they were playing a back five,” said Davies. “We’ve had that a few times. The good thing is 50 percent of our games have been against back fives and because of the amount of games we’ve played we’ve had a lot of practice against different shapes. We’ve had a lot of games against 5-3-2, as they’ve played today, so we’ve got a lot of reference points for me to go back to the players and say ‘This is what we need to do against this one’.
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“They’ve set up to be hard to beat and dangerous on counter-attacks and set pieces which is absolutely fine, I have no issues with that at all, it’s our job to play the game that’s in front of us.
“I thought we played the game well. At 2-0, I thought there was a control about us. There was concentration and control, we didn’t have to chase the game too much. We got ahead with a couple of good goals and I like the look of us.”
Burton couldn’t muster an attempt on target to hand Ryan Allsop his 10th clean sheet of the season. Blues now face Blackpool on Sunday before trips to Stockport and Wigan in the New Year.
