Sideways Sammy

After a complete rebuild of the defence over the summer, being able to keep a leadership figure in Kyle McFadzean to steer the team through that process in the side was essential. The 36 year-old centre-back has been a mainstay of the Coventry City defence for much of the past five seasons, providing an important physical and organising presence in the heart of the back three that has so often made this team a hard nut to crack. While no man can defy age, McFadzean is doing a pretty good job at it, looking as comfortable as ever in his role as the defence’s leader in this new campaign.

The big question surrounding Kyle McFadzean this season is how he effective he can be in a team that is looking to move to a more proactive passing game, involving a higher defensive line more likely to expose the veteran to pace. One of the key reasons why he’s been able to retain his importance to the team in recent years had been due to its counter-attacking style which allowed McFadzean to defend from a deep position and impose his physicality on opposing forwards. The move to add mobile centre-backs to play either side of McFadzean this season has allowed him to remain focused on the specialised, enforcer role he excels in. McFadzean has also shown moments of quality on the ball in attempting to open up the play with longer passes out wide, although that hasn’t been a reliable part of his arsenal and he has tended to shift the ball onto team-mates more capable of those bigger passes.

There may be a little sign of a decline in Kyle McFadzean yet but there may come a time soon when Mark Robins will want to try out having more pace and technical ability in that central centre-back role than McFadzean can offer. However, that is something that has been said before and McFadzean has been able to counter-act by both raising his game and demonstrating that the presence he provides in defence cannot be matched by anyone else in the squad. That is why unless something drastic happens to McFadzean in terms of his performances or his injury status, there isn’t a reason to expedite the process of moving beyond one of the club’s best servants over the past decade. There are not many players that can lead like McFadzean does and it would be foolish to wish him away before it’s necessary.