Chris Davies urged to "think carefully" about Birmingham City calls involving Alfie May, Jay Stansfield | OneFootball

Blues have tried to accommodate both forwards into their starting XI so far this 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 have begun life under Chris Davies in extremely positive fashion.

Given the club's reputation in League One and their summer investment, the pressure has been on the club from the off this summer, in what is Davies' first job as a manager.

Blues may have suffered their only competitive defeat of the season to Charlton Athletic on Saturday, but that doesn't take away anything from the previous run of form which they enjoyed, going eight matches unbeaten and winning seven consecutive league games for the first time in 78 years.

Despite such a positive start to the campaign, many Bluenoses would argue that there is plenty of work still to be done to maintain those standards and sustain their position at the top of the table.

With that in mind, Football League World asked our Blues fan pundit, Mike Gibbs, what message he would send to the 39-year-old after his first two months in charge, which has seen the club accumulate 22 points out of a possible 27 in the league.

Gibbs referenced that his main talking point would circle around the accomodation of both Jay Stansfield and Alfie May in the starting eleven.

"I think the one message, other than keep doing what you're doing, would be to think carefully about trying to force square pegs into round holes."

"What I mean by that is trying to play Stansfield and May up top, potentially out of position just to get them both on the pitch," he elaborated.

Jay Stansfield and Alfie May give Chris Davies a key selection dilemma

Despite the fact that both have started the season in strong form, both Stansfield and May are giving Davies a real selection headache as to where they feature from the off in games.

With Davies favouring a 4-2-3-1 system, Stansfield has been utilised as the spearhead of Blues' attack since his record-breaking transfer from Fulham in late August, with May taking up a similar role against Reading, Wycombe, Leyton Orient and Wigan prior to his arrival.

The first viewing of such a 'partnership' was seen in the EFL Trophy encounter with Walsall in early September, where a lack of understanding between the duo was evident, with Davies left to address his viewpoint on proceedings afterwards.

“With Jay, he’s a player that I see more running in behind, on the shoulder, making those movements. He can drop and link a little bit. Today was a bit of an experiment in terms of playing them both together and seeing how they linked up. Jay can play as a nine, or a false nine or a 10. He can play out wide as well so he’s pretty flexible."

However, a glimpse of fine link-up play between the two was showcased as May netted his fifth goal since joining the club against Huddersfield Town on October 1st, with Stansfield unselfishly squaring the ball across to the clinical finisher in front of the Tilton End.

"Jay’s attracted the defender out of the space to play the ball wide and then attacked the space without the ball. It was exceptional attacking play," was Davies' verdict of such an impressive move from his side.

Whilst having the services of such an exciting talent in Stansfield and May, who has netted 71 goals in the third tier since the beginning of 2021/22 leaves their divisional rivals looking on with envy, there is still plenty of room for adjustments in terms of how the duo are accomodated for the remainder of the season, with mixed results playing out so far on that regard.