The latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive contains Cody Drameh’s perspective on Leeds United.
Cody Drameh will have benefitted more than most from two uninterrupted weeks on Birmingham City’s training ground.
The right-back was thrust into Championship action against Millwall 24 hours after Blues confirmed his arrival on loan from Leeds United. While Drameh acquitted himself well and improved as the game wore on, there were understandably signs of rustiness in his first half performance.
The misplaced passes (64 percent pass completion according to WhoScored) probably stem from a lack of football during the summer. Drameh barely featured in Leeds’ pre-season programme due to an untimely injury.
After playing the full 90 minutes in their first friendly against Manchester United on July 12, Drameh only played another 25 minutes in pre-season. He didn’t feature in Leeds’ final two warm up matches with Nottingham Forest and Hearts.
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Leeds manager Daniel Farke clearly preferred Luke Ayling to Drameh and the Whites have since signed Djed Spence on loan, which paved the way for Blues’ late swoop.
Beren Cross, who follows Leeds United for LeedsLive, explained: “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? Daniel Farke has only been publicly supportive of Drameh and has given no indication he has been let go because of deficiencies in his game.
“A pre-season injury for Drameh was ill-timed and meant he never quite got his foot in the door under Farke before a disastrous cameo at Ipswich Town. The Spence move confirmed what everyone suspected would happen.”
Leeds’ failure to get the best out of Drameh is a mystery. A player who won Cardiff City’s player of the year in 2021/22 and helped Luton Town reach the Premier League during two excellent loan spells in the Championship should have been tailor-made for a role at Elland Road this term.
Cross added: “His time with Leeds has been hugely frustrating, mainly for him. The youngster has never been given the chance at Leeds his Championship loans suggested he deserved.
“It’s fair to say before he went to Cardiff City in January 2022 there were no obvious routes into a Premier League first team at Leeds, but once he won their player of the season prize with less than half the campaign under his belt, he should have turned heads.
“Last season should have seen more opportunities come for Drameh, especially as Luke Ayling struggled at points, but it just never mapped out for him. It is even more baffling to see him now at St Andrew’s.”
Blues have already beaten Leeds and, after five unbeaten games, sit in fourth position in the Championship table. After years of miserable results and misfortune, Blues are aiming to join promotion favourites Leeds in the conversation at the right end of the Championship table.
Drameh is one of 13 summer signings that have given head coach John Eustace a squad with considerable depth. Blues now have two players for every position and the personnel to use multiple formations.
The impending battle between Drameh and Ethan Laird for the right-back berth shows Blues’ strength-in-depth. Drameh seems to have a vastly different skillset to Laird’s swashbuckling attacking approach.
“Drameh is arguably a better defender than attacker from full-back, but he is working on the latter and made huge strides with Luton Town last season,” said Cross. “Drameh is only 21 and has not had a huge amount of exposure at Elland Road, so it would be unfair to draw too many conclusions on him. However, from what we have heard on the grapevine, he is quite a quiet character, but very diligent, driven and ambitious.
“Just 454 first team minutes with the Whites over several years makes it hard to draw fair conclusions about Drameh, but what I have seen is his superb one-on-one ability. He wins a lot of duels when he’s defending.
“His positioning has impressed at points. Attacking had been something of a blind spot for him, but as a wing-back with Luton last season his numbers improved drastically.”
