Sideways Sammy

After a breakthrough season last year, the challenge for Josh Eccles is to maintain that progress and establish himself as a player that the team cannot do without. The key to Eccles’ success in a Coventry City shirt thus far has been in finding ways to make himself useful to Mark Robins. From being able to fill in at right wing-back to providing energy as a ball-winner in central midfield, Eccles has been willing to put shifts in that have helped facilitate other players and the team as a whole. That next step up for Eccles will be in becoming someone who can impact the game on their own right.

It is Josh Eccles’ energy and discipline that are currently his most impressive qualities as a footballer. Whether it’s at right wing-back or in central midfield, Eccles provides the team with useful legs on either side of the ball. Out of possession, Eccles positional discipline provides the team with someone who can spot and counter-act danger. In possession, Eccles is good at getting into areas where he can receive the ball to keep the play moving. Where Eccles needs to improve is in influencing games through moments of quality of his own. There is a sense that he has more to offer the team as both a passer and all-round attacking threat, but he seems to lack an element of belief in his own ability in order to take risks and assert himself. The more time Josh Eccles gets on the pitch, the more likely that confidence will develop, but if he doesn’t start demonstrating some additional quality of his own, the risk is that Mark Robins will turn to other players who can.

At the time of writing, Josh Eccles’ opportunities to start games at either right wing-back or central midfield this year could well be limited by the competition he faces. At right wing-back, the level of investment made in Milan van Ewijk over the summer suggests that Eccles isn’t realistically going to be first-choice there as the campaign progresses. In central midfield, Ben Sheaf and Gustavo Hamer are firmly established as the preferred pairing, and even if Hamer were to leave, Josh Eccles has yet to show why he should be backed as a replacement over a potential new signing. As impressive as last year was for Josh Eccles, the challenge he faces of establishing himself as a regular starting player hasn’t become any easier.