BREAKING NEWS: Chris Davies acknowledges his transfer following Birmingham City’s opening friendly.

Birmingham City was defeated by SC Paderborn 07 in Austria in their opening preseason friendly.

According to Chris Davies, Birmingham City needs to add “several” fresh players to strengthen their aging roster.

The preseason campaign began on Saturday with a 5-0 loss against SC Paderborn 07, despite two mix and match Blues XIs playing 45 minutes apiece. The encounter that included all four of the club’s acquisitions to date exposed Blues’ lack of depth.

The Blues need to improve everywhere on the field, but especially in defense, where they are now lacking two center backs and, should Manny Longelo complete his move out of St Andrew’s, two full backs.

“I believe we require multiple,” acknowledged Blues manager Davies. “We need a minimum of many, but I wouldn’t put a number on it. It should be noted that we only have 12 or 13 senior players on the team. You will need a few more players in a squad of twenty-five.

“We are working on that process day by day and week by week, but the good news is that the players we have brought in thus far all appear to be doing incredibly well in terms of their training and surroundings adjustment. They gave good performances today. We’ll be fine if we can bring in more people who are like that.

When the Blues speed up their preparations for the League One season next week against Solihull Moors and Shrewsbury Town, the young players will probably get more opportunities.

“The young guys will be around us for a while, probably for the majority of it by the looks of things,” Davies continued, “as we’re building our squad.” I’ve become interested in a couple of them, especially while training. They faced a stronger squad, so it was a bigger test for them, but we’ll point out areas for improvement. They have all demonstrated to me their qualities.