Chris Davies Backs Luis Vazquez Amidst Viral Miss

Chris Davies is not interested in the memes.

While Luis Vazquez’s late miss at Derby County ricocheted around social media, clipped and replayed alongside some of football’s most infamous howlers, the Birmingham City head coach has doubled down on his belief in the Argentine striker rather than joined the pile-on.

To Davies, it was simple.

“A freak,” he called it.

“He could do that 100 times and score 100 goals,” he told BBC Radio WM. “It can only make him stronger.”

The miss, in stoppage time of a 2-1 win at Pride Park, should have been the moment Vazquez finally opened his league account for Blues. Instead, it became viral fodder, spliced into montages next to Roger Davies and Ronny Rosenthal, another entry in football’s long catalogue of sitters gone wrong.

Inside the Birmingham camp, the reaction has been very different.

“He’s a tough cookie. He’s shown no signs of fragility,” Davies said. “I made a point to talk to him straight after the game last Saturday. And, when he scored a good goal in training this week, he got a big cheer from the lads.”

The dressing room, not the timeline, is where this story matters. Vazquez has yet to start a league match, used only from the bench so far, and that Derby chance would have been the clean break – the first goal, the weight off his shoulders, the noise turned down.

Instead, the wait goes on.

“He’s so desperate to score,” Davies admitted. “And we so want him to score. As soon as that first one goes in, it will all be forgotten about.”

Away steel, home question

While Vazquez wrestles with his own mini-narrative, Birmingham’s broader storyline is unfolding with a different kind of tension.

Seven points from four away games – at Sheffield United, Wrexham, Norwich City and Derby County – represent a solid haul, blemished only by defeat at Carrow Road. On the road, Davies’ side look organised, competitive, and increasingly dangerous.

At St Andrew’s, the picture is more frustrating. Three home games, three draws: 2-2 against Bristol City, 1-1 with Southampton, 2-2 versus Wolves. Goals are coming, but wins are not.

That changes the mood. It always does.

Davies, though, sees progress beneath the surface and has been reminded often enough that Birmingham’s opening run of fixtures ranks among the toughest in the Championship.

“We’ve got the same amount of points as we did this time last season, but we’re a better team,” he said. “We’re more of an attacking threat, but we also look a bit more solid and more of a team.”

It is a subtle but important distinction: not just results, but identity. Davies talks about “room for improvement in a few areas”, yet there is no sense of alarm. The performances, in his mind, justify the platform Birmingham have built over the first seven games.

Built on commitment

Underpinning it all is something he returns to again and again: defending, not as a chore, but as a shared obsession.

“Our love of defending is clear to see. It’s as good as scoring a goal,” he said. “That takes you a long way. So much gets talked about systems but you can’t get away from commitment.”

That line tells you where Davies is placing his chips. Shapes and schemes matter, but only if they’re powered by players who are willing to run, tackle, and suffer for the result. Birmingham’s early-season resilience away from home suggests that message has landed.

Now comes the next test.

Middlesbrough visit St Andrew’s on Saturday, another stern examination of Birmingham’s promotion credentials and their ability to turn tight home games into victories. The away form has bought them breathing space; the home form will decide how far they can go.

For Vazquez, it offers something more personal: another chance, perhaps from the bench again, to change the conversation with one clean strike.

One goal, and the memes disappear. One win at home, and the questions about St Andrew’s start to fade as well.

The margins are thin. The stakes, already, feel anything but.