Birmingham City backed to make Kyogo decision in January - "They've invested too much" | OneFootball

Kyogo Furuhashi is still yet to score in the Championship for Blues

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City have been one of the most in-form sides in the Championship of late, with Chris Davies' men surging up to eighth in the table ahead of the weekend's upcoming fixtures.

After taking some time to reaclimatise to the second-tier following promotion from League One, Blues have certainly proved a handful for many opponents of late, particularly at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, responding to a chaotic first home defeat in Davies' tenure against Hull City on October 18th with four successive home wins and 14 goals scored across 270 minutes' worth of action.

Indeed, the West Midlands side have begun to come out of their shell, having ranked within the division's bottom-five clubs when it came to shots on target per game and goals per game less than two months ago, with their tally for the season now standing at 27 goals scored after 18 games played.

A handful of tactical tweaks have certainly been instrumental to the change in fortunes, such as the introduction of big German forward, Marvin Ducksch, to the starting lineup after the two-time international arrived in the Second City from Werder Bremen with injury and fitness issues.

The 31-year-old has certainly been a key influence of late, coinciding with three goals in two recent games against Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion, whilst Jay Stansfield has remained as influential as ever, playing in behind the summer recruit and alongside Demarai Gray and Patrick Roberts.

Such feats have also coincided with the fact that big-money summer signing, Kyogo Furuhashi, has been dropped to the bench and remains without a league goal for Blues since joining from Stade Rennais in July.

Unsurprisingly, initial doubts have now turned into serious question marks regarding the transfer in the eyes of some, although Football League World's Birmingham City fan pundit, Jason Moore, believes form will eventually click for the Japanese international.

Kyogo Furuhashi backed to find form for Birmingham City amid January transfer question

Blues' striking department has seen plenty of changes in such a short period of time, with Alfie May's departure to Huddersfield Town in the summer after scoring 16 league goals in the club's record-breaking League One campaign last season, an example of how ruthless they have operated in some instances.

Given his prior exploits at Celtic, during which he boasted a stunning record of 85 goals and 19 assists in just 165 games, there was plenty of expectation placed on Kyogo's shoulders after his reported £10m switch from Rennes, where he only featured six times and failed to register a solitary goal contribution, was confirmed.

To his credit, the 23-time international certainly produced an impressive performance on his league debut against Ipswich Town on August 8th, seeing a stunning strike disallowed after he was adjudged to have fouled Jacob Greaves in the lead-up, before opening his account five days later in the EFL Cup first round success over Sheffield United at St. Andrew's.

However, 16 appearances later, and Kyogo is still yet to score in the league for Birmingham, and didn't even make it off the bench in Monday's 2-1 win over Watford.

Moore believes that Blues will not take any drastic course of action given the aforementioned price-tag, and still backs the experienced striker to find form as Davies' side remain on the outskirts of the play-offs.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they shipped Kyogo off in January, but I don't think they will," he told FLW. "I think they'll ship off Lyndon Dykes before they do anything.

"Just his work rate alone when he comes on, is more than good enough to keep. I think it will come as well, I think he'll score.

"Even if he doesn't score prior to the January window, I feel like they've invested too much money and took too much of a chance. Realistically, who's going to take someone that's not scoring goals?," Moore debated.

"In essence, I think he'll stay, bide his time and he'll come good eventually, because his attitude is cracking and he has links at the club with Iwata and a few others.

"You can tell they get on, and that they want it to work for Kyogo," he added. "Whenever he comes on, the first thing they try to do is get him a goal.

"I think he's aware that, even if he was getting the odd goal, he's not displacing Jay Stansfield and Marvin Ducksch out the team for what he offers.

"I don't think we'll get rid of him. I think he'll want to stay and prove his worth," Moore added.

Kyogo Furuhashi will be desperate to end Birmingham City goal drought

There have been a handful of occasions where Kyogo has come close to opening his league account and has either been denied by a smart save, or where he has misfired from a decent shooting angle.

Unsurprisingly, all associated with the club are desperate to see the striker find the target sooner rather than later, in the hope that many more will flow afterward and that the eight-figure sum parted with is justified.

As Moore alluded to, it would take a rather drastic turn of events for Blues to immediately cut their losses, but if a goal drought extends beyond Christmas, then serious questions will be asked about the transfer, regardless of the side's collective position in the table.