The latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive features Leeds United’s perspective on Cody Drameh.
Cody Drameh will have benefited the most from two weeks on the Birmingham City training ground.
The right-back was thrown into the Championship against Millwall just 24 hours after the Blues announced his loan from Leeds United. While Drameh played well and improved during the game, there were understandably traces of rustiness in his first half performance.
The misdirected passes (64 percent pass completion according to WhoScored) are most likely the result of a lack of football over the summer. Drameh missed most of Leeds’ pre-season owing to an unfortunate injury.
Drameh only played 25 minutes in pre-season after playing the full 90 minutes in their first friendly against Manchester United on July 12. He did not play in Leeds’ final two warm-up games against Nottingham Forest and Hearts.
Leeds boss Daniel Farke plainly preferred Luke Ayling to Drameh, and the Whites have now loaned out Djed Spence, allowing the Blues to swoop late.
“He wouldn’t have had enough game time with Leeds after the arrival of Spence, and if they can get his wages off the books in the meantime, why wouldn’t they?” explained Beren Cross, who covers Leeds United for LeedsLive. Daniel Farke has only publicly supported Drameh and has provided no indication that he was let go due to flaws in his game.
“An untimely pre-season injury for Drameh meant he never got his foot in the door under Farke before a disastrous cameo at Ipswich Town.” The Spence move proved what everyone had predicted.”
Leeds’ inability to get the most out of Drameh is perplexing. A man who was named Cardiff City’s player of the year in 2021/22 and helped Luton Town reach the Premier League during two brilliant loan periods in the Championship should have been a natural fit for a role at Elland Road this season.
“His time with Leeds has been hugely frustrating, primarily for him,” Cross added. Leeds have never given the teenager the chance that his Championship loans showed he deserved.
“It’s fair to say that there were no obvious routes into a Premier League first team at Leeds before he went to Cardiff City in January 2022, but when he won their player of the season award with less than half the season under his belt, he should have turned heads.”
“Last season, Drameh should have had more opportunities, especially since Luke Ayling struggled at times, but it just didn’t work out for him.” It’s much more perplexing to see him at St Andrew’s.”
Blues have already defeated Leeds and are currently fourth in the Championship table after five unbeaten games. After years of poor performances and misfortune, Blues want to join promotion rivals Leeds in the conversation at the bottom of the Championship table.
Drameh is one of 13 summer additions that have given head coach John Eustace a deep team. The Blues now have two players at each position and the personnel to run different formations.
The impending competition for the right-back spot between Drameh and Ethan Laird demonstrates the Blues’ depth. Drameh appears to have a very distinct skill set from Laird’s swashbuckling assault style.
“Drameh is arguably a better defender than an attacker from full-back, but he is working on the latter and made huge strides with Luton Town last season,” Cross explained. “Drameh is only 21 and hasn’t had a lot of time at Elland Road, so drawing too many conclusions about him would be unfair.” However, based on what we’ve heard through the grapevine, he’s a quiet individual who is also incredibly diligent, motivated, and ambitious.
“It’s difficult to draw fair conclusions about Drameh after only 454 first-team minutes with the Whites over several years, but what I’ve seen is his superb one-on-one ability.” When defending, he wins a lot of duels.
“At times, his positioning has amazed me. Attacking had been a weakness for him, but as a wing-back with Luton Town last season, his numbers improved dramatically.”
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