Birmingham City’s goal shy attackers must start producing

It was once said that scoring a goal is the hardest thing to do on a football pitch and Birmingham City are certainly a decent case study.

In 27 Championship games this season, Blues have found the net 31 times, with only 12 of them coming on the road. While Gianfranco Zola attempts to embed a style of play that’s attractive on the eye, there’s a requirement for his team to score scruffy goals too.

Under Zola’s watch, Blues have netted seven times in eight games. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to establish where the problems lie.

Lukas Jutkiewicz is carrying the burden admirably, he sits on 10 for the season so far. Clayton Donaldson is on six despite missing more than a month through injury. But other players – most notably Che Adams and David Cotterill to name two – have to start chipping in. Between them, the duo have scored five which is paltry for the amount of games they’ve played.

From the new signings, only Kerim Frei is a natural attacking player. He could possibly add a goal threat which would be a timely and welcome boost.

Perhaps Blues’ problems lie deeper, after all the forward players are hardly drowning in quality service. The hope is that Craig Gardner can add that little cutting edge to the middle of the park, something that has been lacking so badly for too long.

And with Zola chasing another attacking player before the transfer window slams shut, Blues will hopefully have enough in their armour to produce an upturn in goal scoring return.