adminChris Davies hails Birmingham City duo who have ‘brought to life’ new tactic
Birmingham City have witnessed the birth of a promising new partnership over the past month
Chris Davies is reluctant to discuss the scintillating form of Patrick Roberts without intertwining Tomoki Iwata into the conversation.
Birmingham City’s right-sided duo have been wreaking havoc for Championship defences since Davies switched Iwata to right-back last month.
The pair impressed at Wrexham and threatened to unlock Bristol City before a double dose of brilliance against Portsmouth and Millwall in Blues’ back-to-back 4-0 wins.
The 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough before the international break proved a step too far for Iwata who is sprinting more than every other player on the park to offer support to Roberts.
In Davies’ system, the right-winger would ordinarily drift inside in possession and the right-back would be expected to provide the width, but there has been flexibility to that rule in the case of Iwata and Roberts. Roberts often hugs the touchline and Iwata has underlapped more often than not to take up the central positions that he is used to.
As the attacking player, Roberts will take a lot of the credit with three goal contributions in 10 appearances and 19 chances created in the Championship – more than any other Blues player – but Davies wants to focus on the budding partnership.
“Pat has done well,” Davies began. “I’ve known him a long time, if you can get the ball to him one-v-one he’s really hard to stop.
“I think you have to mention Tomoki Iwata in the same breath really at the moment because of his movement around him to create space by taking a defender away or just staying away from him to open up the one-v-one.
“Tomoki’s movement isn’t just a jog, it’s a sprint and a change of speed which is creating situations.
“Pat is a one-v-one specialist, I think you would say. He can go both ways. If you do show him the line he will take it and he can pick someone out. He has always been the same and that’s his game.”
Davies was forced into playing Iwata at right-back against Wrexham after an injury to Bright Osayi-Samuel and then again when the Nigerian defender incurred a suspension that forced him to miss Bristol City away.
The signs were positive and prompted Davies to leave Osayi-Samuel on the bench once available again.
Unless Iwata is urgently needed in midfield again, which could be the case following Paik Seung-ho’s injury, there is no reason to break up a partnership between Iwata and Roberts that has become Blues’ best route to goal of late.
“They have brought it to life,” said Davies. “As a coach you set guidelines around positioning but the players animate that and bring it to life. That is a good example of two players who have been guided into their positions and put their own slant on it.
“The opposition have struggled to close off that side and Phil Neumann has added to that, feeding them the ball.”
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