Claim made on Oli McBurnie transfer miss for Birmingham City - 'his goals will dry up' | OneFootball

Birmingham City's summer signings Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch are deemed as better arrivals than Oli McBurnie, despite the start to the season.

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 gained promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt last season after an impressive League One campaign in which the big spending Blues amassed 111 points and set the all-time EFL points record.

Chris Davies’ side have also started their return to the second-tier steadily, with the aim being to gain back-to-back promotions and return to the Premier League this season.

Birmingham have not been mightily impressive and the victories they have had have come by slender one-goal margins with some late strikes required to steal three points in games.

That comes after a very busy summer transfer window in which they managed to bring in Marvin Ducksck from Werder Bremen and Kyogo Furuhashi from Stade Rennais as marquee attacking additions.

Those arrivals came instead of Birmingham pushing even harder for Scotland international striker Oli McBurnie, who they had been linked with, with Hull City poaching the former Las Palmas man.

McBurnie has had an excellent start to the Championship campaign with the Tigers, whilst Furuhashi and Ducksch are yet to set the world alight, so far this season.

Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi backed to come good over Oli McBurnie

In the opening six games of the Championship campaign, Oli McBurnie has already managed six direct goal involvements, with three strikes as well as providing three assists.

In comparison, Kyogo Furuhashi has scored one goal with no assists and Marvin Ducksch has played just 111 minutes without a direct goal involvement, albeit he did make his first start in their recent 1-0 defeat of Swansea City at St Andrew’s.

Despite the underwhelming performances from the pair so far this season, FLW’s Birmingham Fan Pundit Jason Moore believes that they remain better signings than McBurnie would have been.

Jason says: “I get that he’s off to a decent start with Hull and that he’s Championship proven, but I think that if you offered Oli McBurnie vs Kyogo (Furuhashi) or Ducksch to any club within the Championship, I think that 99% of fans are going to be going with Kyogo or Ducksch.

“Oli McBurnie is an okay signing but I think his goals will dry up. I don’t really remember the last time he had a cracking season.

“I think he’s a good option. He’s Hull’s main man, I think he’s just an okay Championship signing.

“I think Kyogo and Ducksch are far better signings and it will clear for the pair of them at some point.

“Again, I think you offer any fan then they are probably going to take the pair of them over Oli McBurnie.”

Birmingham should begin to click with Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch

Despite remaining very strong and difficult to beat, there were suggestions that Birmingham could be quite ineffective for a large part of the first-half of the season.

They were dominant in possession to an extreme and yet lacked killer instincts in both boxes, albeit that was ironed out as the season went on and the side began to gel more.

Chris Davies will hope that is once again the case with fairly frustrating performances being the order of the day since the intensity and aggression on the opening day against Ipswich Town.

Kyogo Furuhashi in particular showed his work rate, endeavour and quality in that match, but he is playing for a different type of team from where he has had success in the past.

Celtic is where he shone brightest and playing up front for a team like Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, where the one job is to put the ball away, is very different to a Birmingham side who require more – and also cannot afford to miss chances like the Bhoys can.

Ducksch, who has previously been a 20-goal striker in the 2. Bundesliga and also hit double figures on a couple of occasions in the German top-flight, is someone with immense pedigree and the two-cap Germany international likely simply requires time and a lot more playing time to find his best form.

There is no way of yet knowing what the goal scoring ceiling is for Furuhashi and Ducksch – and it could yet be very high.

That said, it is known that, at a lower level, McBurnie is a very good goal scorer with previous second-tier seasons seeing him hit 22 goals in 42 games for Swansea, seven in 19 for Barnsley and 13 in 38 for Sheffield United; with a scoreless season from 28 appearances also thrown in the mix.

What you get from McBurnie is a lot more well known and it remains at a good level, but, at least for now, the potential of what Furuhashi and Ducksch could still achieve in the Championship is a bit more enticing.