Marvin Ducksch has the potential to become one of the Championship’s most influential attacking talents.
Unfortunately for Blues, the German’s contributions have been stymied so far due to injury.
Ducksch, a two-times capped international, suffered a calf injury on his first day pre-season training with Werder Bremen.
And following his transfer to Blues, he had a set back at Coventry City when he pulled his hamstring in the warm-up. That was going to be Ducksch’s second successive start, after a couple of appearances in the league as a substitute.
Chris Davies is desperate for the 31-year-old to get fully fit and firing.
“When he played against Swansea City (his Championship starting debut), he gave us something different because you can pass up into his feet and he can control it and link off people.
“Just a different type of striker and we were really excited when we looked at him in the summer and the work we did on bringing him in.
“I watched him a lot, and it was ‘right, this guy’s got quality, he’s got good touch, he can score, he’s intelligent, he’s a good physical size, he’s going to be great’.
“We just haven’t quite got him on the pitch, basically, but I think if we can get him fit and keep him fit, I think we’ll have one of the better attacking options at this level, definitely.
“And he will give us something different. which I think Jay (Stansfield) and Kyogo (Furuhashi) are quite similar in that their first thought will be to run in behind. Marvin’s first thought will be can he probably link, and then maybe get in behind.
“They’ve all got different strengths and qualities, but Marvin I feel is a really important piece of this puzzle and I’m hoping this week he can sort of show that.”
Ducksch got six minutes off the substitutes’ bench at Bristol City and is primed for more action on Saturday, when Portsmouth visit, and on Tuesday, when Millwall are at St. Andrew’s.
Davies added: “I’d love it if he was, you know, fully firing now and you say ‘right, go on, off you go’, but he’s probably still not quite there. But with the three games (including Middlesbrough away a week on Saturday), I’m hoping that he can have a lot more minutes this week. And I think that’ll change a bit for us in terms of the final third.”
