Birmingham City man looks like the club's biggest flop since Deeney - Techie News Guru

January signing August Priske showed some promising signs on his full Birmingham City debut in the loss to Leeds United on penalties in the FA Cup last weekend.

The Danish centre-forward had only come off the bench in his previous four appearances for the Blues after his move to the club last month, and was finally given a chance to start alongside Jay Stansfield.

Whilst Priske did not get on the scoresheet, his mobility, physicality, and link-up play with the rest of the team caught the eye, particularly given that it was against a Premier League team.

The 21-year-old striker, who had a goal disallowed for offside against West Bromwich Albion recently in the Championship, should be given his full league debut for the clash with Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday.

That means that Chris Davies will have to drop either Jay Stansfield or Marvin Ducksch from the team’s last starting line-up in the league against the Baggies.

The Birmingham forward who should be dropped for August Priske

The Birmingham head coach should drop Ducksch from the starting line-up because he has not offered enough as a starter to suggest that he should keep his place in the side.

In the 0-0 draw with West Brom, the former Werder Bremen marksman missed a big chance to find the back of the net and failed to win a single duel throughout his time on the pitch, starting the match as a number ten.

Stansfield is far more suited to playing in the deeper position, as he did against Leeds, because he has created ten ‘big chances’ in the Championship this season, whilst Ducksch has only created one for his side.

25/26 Championship	Ducksch	Stansfield
Appearances	23	30
Goals	7	9
Big chances created	1	10
Assists	1	5
Tackles won	0	30
Ground duel success rate	14%	28%

The German striker lacks the mobility to be consistently effective in the league, losing a staggering 86% of his ground duels, and that is reflected in his fairly average output in the final third, which is why he should be dropped for Priske against Norwich.

Whilst the former Bundesliga number nine should be taken out of the XI and has struggled at times this season, there is another Blues forward who has been a bigger flop, and may be the club’s biggest flop since Troy Deeney.

Birmingham’s biggest flop since Troy Deeney

Birmingham made an exciting signing when they brought Birmingham-born Deeney to the club from Watford to bolster their attack in the summer of 2021.

He scored 140 goals for Watford, including 47 in the Premier League, and had scored ten goals in the top-flight as recently as the 2019/20 campaign, which is why he was such an exciting addition.

Unfortunately, though, Deeney only scored 11 goals, four of which were penalties, in 57 appearances across two seasons before his move to League Two side Forest Green Rovers.

Fast-forward to present day and Birmingham may have signed a forward who is their biggest transfer flop, weighing up expecation versus reality, with Kyogo Furuhashi.

The Blues paid a fee of up to £10m to sign the Japan international from Ligue 1 side Rennes in what was an exciting move for the club, given that he had scored 85 goals in 165 games during his time with Celtic.

Kyogo’s prolific form for the Scottish giants over several years gave some hope that he would be a regular goalscorer at St. Andrew’s, but he has been even less effective than Ducksch.

Like the German forward, the £10m-rated attacker has lost the majority of his physical battles as a striker, winning 33% of his ground duels and 16% of his aerial battles.

25/26 Championship	Kyogo
Appearances	26
xG	5.35
Goals	1
Key passes per game	0.2
Assists	0
Ground duel success rate	33%
Aerial duel success rate	16%

The Japanese attacker, though, has been far less effective in front of goal than both Ducksch and Stansfield, as he has significantly underperformed against his xG.

Only Colby Bishop (-5.19) and Ivan Azon (-4.53) have underperformed their xG by more than Kyogo (-4.35) in the Championship this season, which illustrates just how wasteful the Birmingham attacker has been.

Given the fee that he was brought to the club for and the excitement around his arrival because of his form for Celtic, the experienced number nine has been a flop for Birmingham so far.

Like Deeney, Kyogo has been unable to live up to the reputation that he arrived with, due to his form at previous clubs, and that is why he has been an unused substitute for the last three league games.

Whilst he still has time to make a success of his time at St. Andrew’s, the available evidence at the moment suggests that Kyogo is the club’s biggest flop since Deeney.