Sideways Sammy

Back-to-back wins have quickly changed the mood around Coventry City. From fearing being sucked towards the wrong end of the table a week ago to eyeing up a position on the fringes of the play-offs, it doesn’t take a lot to change the impression of the season at this early stage. Just how much there is to buy in from recent performances remains to be seen, but the Sky Blues have at least bought themselves some breathing space to work on improving as a team.

This final game before the international break, against Norwich City, is an opportunity to close out this run of fixtures on a positive note. The Canaries might be on an indifferent run of form of late, but they started the campaign strongly and would represent one of this Coventry City’s most impressive results of these nascent stages of the season if they can come out on the right side of this fixture.

Expected Line-Up

Losing Liam Kelly to injury early on in the Blackburn Rovers game potentially leaves Mark Robins short of yet another midfield option in the absences of both Ben Sheaf and Kasey Palmer. While there are suggestions that Kelly’s injury isn’t as serious as it first seemed, it seems likely that the manager will have to change a starting XI that has won back-to-back games.

Rogue suggestions that Joel Latibeaudiere will be played in a midfield position that he’s never played a league game in before aside, all the manager is left with in midfield are Jamie Allen, Josh Eccles and Yasin Ayari. That will mean that Allen and Eccles will have to find a way to impose themselves physically on Norwich City, while Ayari could do with showing more quality and presence on the ball than he did last time out against Blackburn Rovers – aside from his shot leading to Haji Wright’s goal.

With little sign of key absentees returning from injury this side of the international break, that will almost certainly be it in terms of changes to the side. The only potential call might be to bring Haji Wright in for Ellis Simms just to inject some fresh legs into the attack after a three-game week.

Last Time We Met

Coventry City were shambolic at home to Norwich City back in January, conceding a Michael Rose own goal from a horrendously defended corner-kick early on and only getting worse defensively from there on. The Canaries were quickly two up after Onel Hernandez was left completely free to tap-in at the end of a counter-attack. It was three before the 20th minute, when Teemu Pukki ran off the back of the Sky Blues’ back-line and rolled the ball back for Josh Sargent to finish in acres of space.

That meant that a pretty spirited response soon after was all for naught. Kasey Palmer crossed for Jake Bidwell to nod down and tee Jamie Allen up for a finish, followed up by Palmer having the temerity to snatch the ball off Viktor Gyokeres’ feet to reduce the deficit to one. However, the win for the away side was locked down by a second-half goal from Kieran Dowell, with the Norwich midfielder evading the attention of four Coventry City defenders pretty easily to get a shot away.

The Opposition

The Manager – David Wagner

The German-born manager’s time at Norwich City since joining in January has been every bit as topsy-turvy as his managerial career as a whole, which started brightly at Huddersfield Town but faded dramatically during difficult spells in charge of Schalke and Young Boys. That victory at the CBS Arena ten months ago was part of an impressive run after taking charge of the club, however David Wagner then oversaw a pretty insipid end to the campaign, failing to motivate a team that was, on paper, superior to most of the four sides that went on to make the play-offs.

This campaign is threatening to fall in a similar pattern, with Norwich City starting impressively, with forwards, Gabriel Sara and Jon Rowe, in sensational form, but having seen the momentum shudder to a halt in recent weeks, with just one win in their last five games. A couple of key injuries haven’t helped David Wagner’s cause, but the manager could do with his team getting back on track quickly to avoid the accusation that he is unable to motivate beyond short initial spells – which is where his time at Schalke, in particular, ran aground.

Who To Look Out For?

Gabriel Sara and Jon Rowe are the clear star names in a Norwich City side that has seen several of its heroes of recent Premier League spells either leave or age beyond their prime years. The Brazilian creative midfielder, Gabriel Sara, was the last big money signing made with parachute payments, recruited directly from South American football and taking some time to adapt. After getting up to full speed, Gabriel Sara has been the spark that has threatened to drag a waning Norwich side into the play-offs. Rowe is an electric, academy-produced wide player with an eye for goal who has had a break-out few months after struggling with injury last year.

A key part of the game-plan for Norwich City this season has been in getting Gabriel Sara and Jon Rowe into dangerous areas as much as possible. The pressing and physicality of Ashley Barnes and Josh Sargent up front had been essential to that strategy, but both are currently injured, leaving the Korean striker, Hwang Ui-Jo to attempt to replicate that to mixed success. There are other potential livewires in attack for Norwich, in Onel Hernandez, Christian Fassnacht and, if fit, Borja Sainz, but none are quite at the level of Sara or Rowe.

Another key element of Norwich City’s impressive early start was the experience and physical presence they had at the back via the pairing of Shane Duffy and Ben Gibson. Despite David Wagner’s preference for a high-intensity pressing style, recruiting experienced players like Duffy and Ashley Barnes, along with Danny Batth as a back-up in defence and Adam Forshaw in midfield has added steel to a Norwich side that flaked out massively at the end of last season.

Finally, at full-back, Norwich City have two of the better overlapping players in the position at this level, in Jack Stacey on the right and Dimitris Giannoulis on the left. If the Canaries are allowed spells of dominance of possession, those two could really stretch the Sky Blues out wide and create danger into the attack as a result.

Where The Game Will Be Won Or Lost

Norwich City are a team that is equally capable of brilliance as it is devolving into a state of nothingness. At the heart of their potential brilliance are the livewire presences of Gabriel Sara and Jon Rowe in attack, if Coventry City can limit their time on the ball, that will shift the odds in their favour. The concern is how effective they can be in doing so without the physical presence of Liam Kelly to help slow down that line of connection between Norwich’s defensive unit and attacking players.

It sets up an important game for the trio of Josh Eccles, Jamie Allen and Yasin Ayari in midfield to try and shut out a much more experienced, and, arguably, talented, Norwich midfield out from the game. First of all, the positional discipline of the trio is going to be vital in preventing balls being slid in to Gabriel Sara, who has the ability to pick out his fellow forwards or get shots off away with a limited amount of time on the ball. Secondly, the trio are going to have to show some quality in possession to buy Coventry City some time in the game and to orchestrate attacking moves.

With Norwich a team that ideally wants to press and choke the life out of its opposition, but possesses an incredibly slow back-line, finding some quality in that ball out of midfield into the attack will be important in defining the Sky Blues’ attacking threat. Norwich’s physicality at the back means that Matt Godden, and either Ellis Simms or Haji Wright will struggle to make much of low quality punts in their direction, but if they can be played in with space to beat the opposing defence in a foot race, that could be a major source of danger for Coventry City.