Birmingham City manager Chris Davies expressed his hope that striker Kyogo Furuhashi will gain confidence from his quickfire double in the club's 3-1 pre-season friendly victory over Huddersfield Town in Portugal.
Kyogo's Struggles and Pre-Season Revival
The Japanese forward endured a difficult first season at St Andrew's, scoring just three goals in 31 appearances across all competitions. He had to wait until January to net his first Championship goal and fell to the bottom of the pecking order following August Priske's arrival as manager in January.
However, Kyogo started pre-season brightly by scoring twice in the win against the League One side. He first nodded home Kanya Fujimoto's cross from close range, then added a second shortly after the restart with a composed finish into the corner.
Davies Praises Kyogo's Performance
“We all know the fine margins just went against Kyogo last season in terms of the conversion of chances, then he was injured for a while,” Davies said. “He’s been working hard to try and improve his game, physically and everything else. I thought it was typical Kyogo today, he ran and pressed, but the good thing was he capped it off with his goals.”
The manager highlighted the variety in Kyogo's finishes: “One was a poacher’s goal from in the six-yard box and the other was one that he executed technically quite well to get it away from the keeper. I’m pleased for Kyogo, it will definitely make him feel good.”
Team Performance and Fitness Goals
Demarai Gray had opened the scoring for Blues in a match where Davies fielded a completely different XI in each half. “I was really pleased with it. The first objective is to make sure you get no injuries and get a little bit fitter, we did that and got 45 minutes in the bank for a lot of the players,” Davies said.
“Both halves you could see at the end they were pretty fatigued and then it’s about what we can get out of it from a football sense and there was some good stuff in there. The headline will be Kyogo’s brace but there was a lot of other stuff in there that I kind of liked because it’s stuff we’ve been working on.”
