Sideways Sammy

Coventry City grabbed a late draw at home to Norwich City in a game they largely dominated but struggled to find a cutting edge in.

After an evening opening period where Norwich were probably even the more dangerous team with their pace on the counter, the Sky Blues looked to have settled into an attacking rhythm and had their opponents penned back. However, some sloppy defending, with Josh Eccles eschewing a chance to clear the danger, eventually saw the in-form, Jon Rowe, fire the Canaries in front.

That looked to be enough to win the game against a toothless Coventry City side that struggled to find the extra gear to break through a Norwich City team that had retreated into a low-block. That was until Ben Gibson in the Norwich defence turned a Milan van Ewijk cross into his own net in the 88th minute. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto then had the chance to win it in the dying embers of stoppage time, but saw his header blocked.

Intent Over Quality Rewarded

Coventry City’s winning streak might have come to an end but this performance should be seen as a step forward for a team that is still learning how to play together. For much of this season, this Sky Blues team has only been able to sustain pressure for brief periods in games, they were much more in control and dominant here, albeit against a team that was attempting to sit on a lead for much 50 minutes of the contest.

Mark Robins named an attacking line-up and got an attack-minded performance as a result. The headline decisions were to pair Ellis Simms and Haji Wright in attack and play Tatsuhiro Sakamoto at wing-back, but it was the call to bring in Liam Kitching at left centre-back that arguably contributed the most to Coventry City’s attacking intent. On his first start for the club, Kitching delivered on his reputation for being a forward-thinking defender, making several overlapping runs from his defensive position, adding an extra gear to the team’s build-up play.

For all the intent that Coventry City showed in this game, it was in trying to break through the lines of Norwich City when they dropped into a low-block 4-4-2 where they struggled. Josh Eccles and Jamie Allen showed great energy and made themselves available for passes but couldn’t execute the incisive balls the team needed to open up their opponents, with Yasin Ayari showing a little more quality but often receiving the ball in areas too tight to make an impact from. Liam Kitching’s willingness to pass and move with the ball quickly, along with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s ability to beat players out wide, stretched Norwich, but it didn’t appear to be enough to break the deadlock.

Nonetheless, Coventry City stuck at the game-plan they were trying to execute of playing their way through a determined defence. It may have been fortunate that it came from an own goal, but they had tired Norwich out, forced them into bringing an extra centre-back on and put them under pressure. The longer the opposition is put on the back foot, the more likely the attacking team is going to benefit from fortune like that.

This game demonstrated that this Coventry City team is working towards a positive, attack-minded style. Getting players like Ben Sheaf, Kasey Palmer and Callum O’Hare back who can produce incisive moments from midfield will help, but equally important will be continuing to attempt to play in this manner. Recent results have bought some breathing room, if the Sky Blues can utilise that in order to practice playing front-foot football, they should see the rewards of that later down the line.

Simms & Wright Struggle As A Duo

After spending so much money on them this summer, a key question in the early stages of this season has been just why Mark Robins hasn’t entertained the possibility of playing Haji Wright and Ellis Simms together. Until this game, the duo had only about ten minutes together in a Coventry City shirt, and only Wright had been on the pitch without Matt Godden at the same time – again, only very briefly.

Perhaps that lack of familiarity goes some way to explaining how ineffectual the strike duo were in this game, but the nature of their performances here went some way to explaining Mark Robins’ reticence to unleash this particular strike pairing. The key issue was that neither Ellis Simms or Haji Wright seemed to take up the mantle of dropping off to provide some linkage with the rest of the team, which meant that neither could shake off the attention of an experienced and physical Norwich City centre-back pairing.

Furthermore, when the two had the opportunity to link up, the failed to do so particularly effectively. This is where the lack of understanding was the bigger issue than a lack of quality. There was one promising break in the first-half when Haji Wright had the ball passed to him by a Norwich City player, but he dithered and ended up running down a blind avenue instead of getting the ball quickly to his strike partner.

For two tall and well-built centre-forwards, neither Haji Wright nor Ellis Simms look to be particularly dominant in physical battles and they have yet to show much quality in their link play. The duo look like strikers who require service, rather than being able to create for either themselves or each other. When the game went flat for Coventry City before the second-half substitutions, it was because the front two were struggling to make the ball stick. If the plan is for Wright and Simms to become a duo in attack, it may take some development of their individual skills in competing with defenders and linking play on top of simply giving them time on the pitch together.

Wing-Backs Lead The Charge

While Coventry City’s recruitment of strikers this summer has yet to look an area of improvement – which was probably impossible given the quality that was lost – the wing-backs look to be where this team has become stronger. It was Tatsuhiro Sakamoto that was a key source of danger for this team throughout the game, while Jay Dasilva also made his side of the pitch a threat, on top of that, the returning Milan van Ewijk produced the key, match-saving contribution for the Sky Blues.

It was not an easy task for any of the Coventry City wing-backs in a game where Norwich City defended deeply nor was there the quality in midfield to pick them out quickly in space. A key theme of the match was Tatsuhiro Sakamoto receiving the ball with two or three Norwich defenders to beat, little support to back him up and still somehow wriggling free towards the byline. Jay Dasilva had more help thanks to the positive Liam Kitching at left centre-back, but Milan van Ewijk also faced the issue of having to create openings down his side almost single-handedly yet endeavouring to do so for the equalising goal.

Given that the wing-backs have shown how dangerous they can be without much support either in terms of the balls out to them or in runners around them, there may be a temptation to continue to let them attempt to create something out of nothing. The idea really should be to attempt to release them in areas where they can devastate. Having Ben Sheaf, Kasey Palmer and Callum O’Hare back over the next month should help, but it would also be nice to see others in the team attempt to back up the efforts of the wide-men, even if they can’t pick them out with pin-point, play-switching passes.