Blues buoyant & Hammers make statement – Championship Catch-up

Welcome to The Championship Catch-up, a new Sky Sports column in which Andy Hinchcliffe rounds up some of the key stories from the second tier. This week:

• Birmingham City’s incredible recent form under Chris Davies
• West Ham asserting their title credentials by winning at Swansea
• Preston’s lack of improvement under Graham Alexander

Davies deserves huge credit for Birmingham form

You have to give Chris Davies a huge amount of credit for the transformation he’s overseen. Last season, Birmingham were a possession-dominant side, but they struggled to turn that control into goals on the road. Their away form was particularly poor, and they ultimately finished well outside the play-off places.

I saw the potential there, but what Chris has done over the summer is clear. He’s made them a bit more progressive. They’re ranked 10th now for possession, which shows they still want the ball and want to control games, but they’re playing forward a little bit more and being a bit more direct.

They’ve got August Priske leading the line, who’s not just scoring goals but is also a big focal point they can play to. They’re a team now that can play through you, over you or around you.

Liam Millar has to be in the top three best Championship players since he arrived. Davies has always said he was a player he wanted to sign, but he hadn’t been able to get it done until now. You can see why, because Millar is fitting in perfectly.

I heard an interview with Millar about his own form and how well he was doing individually, but he also spoke about the team and the attacking mix they’ve got now. They’re not predictable anymore. Last season, you could work out who was going to play, how they were going to play, and you could deal with it. Teams did that last season.

This season, with the development in their style and the signings they’ve made hitting the ground running, things are different. It’s all about Davies.

He had to develop the style because he couldn’t just say, “We’ll go with Plan A again and hope it works better this season.” He needed a Plan B, and that’s what he’s done. The players seem to really enjoy playing this new style, which is a bit more direct at times, and it’s paying dividends.

Lots of people I’ve spoken to believe Birmingham are the best team to watch in the league and one of the most dangerous sides going forward. It really highlights the transformation Chris Davies has overseen from last season to this.

West Ham make statement with win at leaders Swansea

That was the biggest standalone game of the season so far and the biggest test for both teams. Swansea weren’t that far off, but I think West Ham have again shown they’ve got huge attacking talent.

Looking at the numbers, they’ve had 11 different scorers in their last five games. If you’ve got that attacking variety, you’re going to cause teams a huge amount of problems. They’ve got a great balance, with the top scorers and the fourth-best defence.

Everything we’ve seen from West Ham so far has been right. They’ve only lost one game and have won six of their last eight, so they’re starting to go through the gears.

The signings they’ve made, with Joel Piroe and Manor Solomon coming in, have gone straight into the team and are scoring goals, doing what they were brought in to do.

That win at Swansea was only 1-0, but it was a massive 1-0 away from home. You might have expected them to win at home, but to go to Swansea, given their form and the way they’ve played at the start of the season, was a huge test. Swansea aren’t an easy team to play, so that was a massive statement win.

There haven’t been many games this season where West Ham have looked vulnerable. Perhaps for half a game against Millwall, when Millwall swarmed all over them and took a 2-0 lead, but they couldn’t see it out.

I haven’t seen anything from West Ham so far that leads me to believe the wheels are suddenly going to come off. They’ve got depth, quality and creativity. Most importantly, they’ve got application and a desire to enjoy playing in the Championship.

Lots of players coming down from the Premier League think they don’t want to be in this league. It looks like the West Ham players have embraced it, and their fans are travelling in such numbers that they’ve embraced it too. They’ve effectively said they might as well enjoy this season rather than endure it.

Everything has fallen into place for West Ham so far, but they’ve also made their own luck through the way they’ve approached each game.

I probably would have said West Ham would be favourites even if they’d been eighth or ninth in the league. With what they’ve got, I still would have backed them.

They’re further down the line now and have embraced the league much more than I thought they would in the opening 11 games. I think you’d have to say West Ham are title favourites.

Preston looking doomed as Alexander struggles to make impression

To me, it doesn’t look like anything tactical because, if you remember what happened previously, they’re virtually playing the same way with roughly the same personnel that Paul Heckingbottom had.

I think it shows how much Paul overachieved last season. They finished 14th with a team whose numbers were really down in the bottom three or four. He coached the life out of that team to enable them to get results and finish around mid-table. It showed what an incredible job he did.

Graham Alexander talks about going home, and I can completely understand why he wanted to go back to the club. But he probably knew what he was taking on in terms of the squad he had. There hasn’t been a huge amount of investment in players.

It was a question of whether he could do what Paul had done, coaching the life out of those players and getting them to pick up results that Paul, for some reason, wasn’t able to get.

But when you look at the games and the goals they’re conceding, that’s the major problem. Your defensive foundations are all-important in any team, particularly in the Championship.

Under Graham, they’ve conceded around nine goals and scored only one. Confidence is being seriously knocked as well. When a new coach comes in, there’s usually a bit of a lift, but that hasn’t really taken off.

They’re really struggling. They’ve lost nine games out of 11 and aren’t even drawing matches. They’re not picking up a point here or there when they manage to find a way to get a draw. That’s not happening either.

If things don’t change drastically, they’re going to be in real trouble.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com