When Blues were on the road last season it became a journey of hope rather than expectation.
A lot of matches followed a familiar pattern. Concede first and usually in the opening quarter, spend the best part of the rest of the game trying to find a breakthrough.
Blues were ranked 21st in the Championship away table, and accumulated just 20 points with five wins.
At St. Andrew’s, they were tough to crack. The fourth best home record in the division and 44 points garnered.
So to open the campaign with a long trip to Swansea City, even though in the Carabao Cup, is it going to be the same old, same old?
Towards the end of last season, in fairness, there were clear signs of a shift in approach. And Blues were unlucky not to have got a result at Ipswich Town – Ibrahim Osman’s cross that was deflected in was wrongly chalked-off – before draws at Hull City and Portsmouth. The latter two games should have been victories considering the chances Blues squandered.
“We know that our home form was exceptional and our away form was poor,” said Chris Davies, at his pre-match press conference when asked about what might be different this season.
“I don’t think we got what we deserved on the road. I do think there were very close games we could have easily got more points from then it wouldn’t have been such a difference between the two.
“I will say that. I don’t think there many disaster performances in there, where we got smashed away from home and things like that. There were a lot of fine margins and we didn’t score enough goals, basically.
“I think you saw towards the end of the season we were a little bit more pragmatic away from home.
“We had 80-odd per cent possession basically every game in League One, that was home and away, and it’s how we were.
“Even in League One I did feel we had a different face to us away from home. We were excellent.
“But then last season we had a lot of control, we would dominate matches and, in my eyes, we would be the better team in the sense that not just aesthetically but statistically we’d have more possession, we’d have more final third entries, but then we’d just lose 1-0 off a set-piece and we wouldn’t have a final punch in us. We’d just look a little bit . . . we weren’t potent when we did get there.
“So we did look at that and reflected on that. Where we ended up was a team that was more pragmatic, we got the ball forward earlier, we looked to use transitions and counter-attacks more, set-pieces more. We understood that maybe we weren’t going to be as fluid in our early build-up through the goalkeeper as we had been before. So we would miss that out and not invite pressure.
“I thought we looked competitive. In our last game at Portsmouth we scored from a corner that came from getting the ball forward a bit earlier, a cross into the box. If that was the start of last season, we would have had a lot of control but there might have been very little to show for it.
“So yes, to answer the question, there needs to be an emphasis on that and that’s one thing we have been talking about. I have asked the players to not just do what I say, but talk and open up and work together on what we need to get better at. And we have had some good teams meetings and exercises around that. They know what to do and now we have to go and show it.”
Blues head for south Wales for the first round tie without Paik Seung-ho and Demarai Gray is likely to be absent too. Both are making progress on their injuries.
However, Taylor Gardner-Hickman (above) faces a long spell on the sidelines, Davies has revealed.
He came off in the Burton Albion pre-season friendly with a hamstring issue and will be out for ‘months, not weeks’, the manager said.
Combined with Marc Leonard’s absence due to rehabilitation on an Achilles tendon rupture sustained on loan at Heart of Midlothian last season, midfield has become a cause for concern.
“We do have to look at that sort of area,” said Davies, in regard potential new recruits in midfield this transfer window.
“You look at us in the back half of the pitch and we’ve got decent stability and numbers but probably need reinforcement in the front half.
“It’s quality not quantity that we want. It’s a cliché but it’s true. We need to try and make the team better rather than the squad.
“With Tommy Doyle leaving and Taylor picking up that injury, and Paik not coming back, has left us a little bit lighter. We’re looking at it.”
