Talking Tactics | Swansea City v Birmingham City
The Championship is back and Swansea City kick their campaign off against Birmingham City at the Swansea.com Stadium. Ahead of the action, WhoScored.com preview the opening weekend clash, taking a look at what to expect from the Blues, the key battle and a key stat.
What to expect from Birmingham
In the 2022-23 campaign the Blues managed to steer clear of the drop zone and ended the season in 17th position with a total of 53 points, in what was their highest Championship finish since the 2015-16 season when Gary Rowett was in charge.
There has been a fair bit of transfer activity at Birmingham during the summer window already, with them securing the signatures of Krystian Bielik from Derby - who spent last season on loan at St Andrew's - Tyler Roberts from Leeds and Ethan Laird from Manchester United.
They have also had two significant departures, with Tahith Chong moving to Premier League new boys Luton Town in a deal worth around £4m. The Blues have also lost the services of Jobe Bellingham, who made the move to Sunderland for a fee of £1.5m
Birmingham have also, of course, announced in the last few days that seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady has become a minority owner, which will spark excitement amongst Blues fans.
According to the WhoScored.com strengths and weaknesses of the visitors, you can expect Birmingham to look to dominate in the air and use that aerial prowess to create scoring chances in abundance.
Key Battle
The WhoScored.com calculated strengths and weaknesses for these two sides suggest Birmingham will dominate proceedings in the air. Swansea were the lowest-ranked side in the league for aerial wins per game (10.2) last season compared to Birmingham’s 25.2, the second-highest tally in the league.
Swansea know this all too well from the last time they faced Birmingham, where the Blues (20) managed to win 16 more aerial duels than the Swans’ four. Swansea found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-3 defeat that day thanks to two late goals back in February.
But the Swans are under new stewardship with Michael Duff at the helm, and he has been clear in his desire to make his new side a more robust proposition, meaning the Blues will be intriguing opening opponents.
The hosts can also continue to call on the goalscoring talents of Joel Piroe, who netted 20 goals in all competitions for the second season running last term.
The Dutchman has looked sharp once more during pre-season, scoring a brace in their final friendly at Reading, and his 19 league goals last season meant Piroe finished fourth in the Championship top scorer table behind Chuba Akpom (28), Viktor Gyokeres (21) and Carlton Morris (20).
Key Stat
Last season Swansea boasted the highest average possession in the Championship with 64.6%, whilst Birmingham enjoyed just 41% of the ball in 2022-23. Despite the change of head coach over the summer, expect Swansea to still have a greater share of the ball.
Both sides also had contrasting pass success rates in the previous campaign with only Rotherham recording a lower pass accuracy (65.2%) than the Blues (67.4%). On the other hand, The Swans topped the charts with an 87.2% accuracy rate.
Interestingly, both sides here adopt an aggressive style of play so you can expect this to be a feisty affair. Swansea received the most cards in the league last season with 109 bookings and three red cards. Birmingham weren’t too far behind though, ranked in sixth with 95 bookings.