'People need to get off his back' - Birmingham City fans sent clear demand over £3m star | OneFootball

Luis Vazquez's late miss at Pride Park made plenty of headlines despite Blues' 2-1 win

Birmingham City fans are being urged to back summer signing, Luis Vazquez, despite the fact the forward made headlines for all the wrong reasons in Saturday's important victory over Derby County at Pride Park.

It has certainly been an intriguing start to the Championship campaign for Blues, who have only lost one of their seven encounters, responding to that defeat against Norwich City on Wednesday with a comeback victory against the Rams.

Chris Davies saw his side's resolve tested once more when they fell behind for a fourth game on the spin when Bobby Clark's near-post shot flew past James Beadle, and they certainly stood up and made themselves counted.

Hull City loanee Liam Millar was viewed as the star performer in DE24 as his two crosses - one coming from a set-piece - paved the way for goals from Carlos Vicente and Paik Seung-ho either side of the half-time interval.

However, a major talking point was that Birmingham substitute, Vazquez, somehow couldn't add further gloss to the scoreline heading into second half stoppage-time as he hit a rebound from Ethan Laird's initial strike over the crossbar from a matter of yards.

Birmingham City fans urged to back £3m signing Luis Vazquez despite Derby County flashpoint

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The 25-year-old was one of Birmingham's seven summer additions, arriving from Belgian Pro League side, Anderlecht, for a reported £3m fee, having spent the second half of last season on loan with La Liga outfit, Getafe.

During his time at Lotto Park, the Argentine scored just 18 times in 116 appearances, and whilst he has featured in all of Blues' seven Championship games so far, all of those appearances have come as a substitute.

Therefore, Football League World's Birmingham City fan pundit, Jason Moore, doesn't have any overall criticisms of the 25-year-old, even if he should have opened his account this weekend.

"First and foremost, I think people need to get off his back," he told FLW. "He's missed a very decent chance that most people put away, but it happens.

"He's barely played any football, so it's hard to make any judgement against him. He played against Brentford but the whole team was poor. Besides that, he's made bit-part appearances.

"When he came on against Derby, to be fair, he did what he was asked to do," Moore stated.

"Yes, he missed an absolute sitter, but we were never getting a striker like that in. That's not his game.

"He was never coming in as a striker to score bags of goals, he's up there to be a bit of a menace," our fan pundit claimed.

"It's always a difficult sell to tell any striker that they're going to come in and not play much, 'are you OK with being back-up all season?'

"I'm perfectly happy with him. Has he missed a sitter? Yes. But he was never coming in as the most prolific striker in the world, and he's new to the league.

Moore concluded: "You've got to give him time. If that time comes, who knows, because he's barely played any football. People need to get off his back."

Chris Davies has also defended Luis Vazquez after Derby County miss

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Unsurprisingly, Moore isn't the only person connected to Birmingham who has jumped to Vazquez's defence despite the miss, with Davies doing the same in his post-match press conference.

The Birmingham boss also insisted that the chance was perhaps nowhere near as easy as envisaged by those watching on TV.

“It took a bobble. I saw it take a bobble – no doubt about it," said Davies.

“He gave a great shift for the team, he did his work and the mark of any sportsman is you just bounce back and go again.

Luis Vazquez will hope to prove Birmingham City sceptics wrong ASAP

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As Davies alluded to, the miss will hopefully now be used as motivation for Vazquez to prove the sceptics wrong, as he is yet to open his account for Birmingham.

It is also no surprise that a call for patience has been set, as it previously took August Priske, who now leads the line regularly, up until the final day of last season to net his first competitive goal for the club against Portsmouth.

Although it seems unlikely he will force his way into the lineup ahead of Priske and Jay Stansfield, the former Boca Juniors man would no doubt love to net his first in an intriguing matchup against Middlesbrough on Saturday ahead of a three-week international break.