EXCLUSIVE: Chris Davies doesn’t want Blues to have possession for the sake of it, he wants them to play with attacking intent, reveals in interview
According to Chris Davies, the new manager of Birmingham City, he is intending to create an entertaining and attacking football style that would see the Blues return to the Championship on their first attempt after relegation.
Davies arrived at Blues’ training base in Henley-in-Arden on Monday morning, ready to begin his first management role at St Andrew’s after signing a four-year contract.
The 39-year-old departs from Tottenham Hotspur, where he served as Ange Postecoglou’s assistant for a year, following a 13-year tenure on Brendan Rodgers’ coaching staff at Swansea, Liverpool, Celtic, and Leicester City.
It is well-known that Davies shares a vision with Blues’ owners, Knighthead, regarding how football should be played. His coaching philosophy emphasizes style, swagger, and maintaining possession, which has been evident in all the teams he has coached.
Explaining his philosophy, Davies said: “For me it’s a high energy, high intensity style of football. We want to be very proactive in the way we play, not passive in any way. I want the team to be attacking and to try to be dominant.
“Playing with an energy and a relentlessness is very difficult for the opposition and that’s the team we’re going to try to work to create here. The number one rule for all the best teams is to be the most hard-working team. We want to play with intensity, energy and physicality.”
“It’s about effective football. It’s not about football for any aesthetic purpose.
“The football I believe in and I’ll coach at this club is the best football to play, to coach, to watch in my opinion and I’m pretty sure that’s universally accepted. The pragmatism side is making sure we’re very clear on what we’re doing and how we hurt the opposition and how we can manage their threats.
“Each game asks for something slightly different and it’s about being clear what that is as a team and an individual on the pitch. That’s what I enjoy the most because that’s the art of coaching. It will all be based around a very clear model that will be recognisable.”
Davies has been given the green light to build ‘a Championship ready squad for League One’ by Cook and must now set about replacing the 10 players who have already departed the club. Blues’ recruitment drive will now shift into gear and Davies is determined to recruit the right players and characters.
“Recruitment is critical for every team and we have quite a few positions to fill,” he commented. “We must do it calmly and clearly, and bring the right characters in, because it’s imperative that who we do bring in fit what we’re trying to create here both on the pitch and with their behaviours off the pitch. There are some skilled people here already that are working hard on that and that will be a big focus in the next few weeks, getting that going.”
