Sideways Sammy

One of the biggest summer additions to the squad, Milan van Ewijk has largely made a positive impression but looks to be playing slightly within himself as he adapts to life at Coventry City. The Dutch right-back offers excellent pace and technical ability down his side of the pitch, but he has appeared a little reluctant to fully utilise his skill-set to become the destructive presence he looks capable of being. Whether that’s down to tactical instruction or Van Ewijk being a little short of confidence in a new environment, unlocking his natural ability surely has to be one of Mark Robins’ priorities over the coming weeks and months.

A quick and technically adept presence down the right flank, Milan van Ewijk looks to have the ability to be a real attacking force in his position. Able to control the ball with ease, drive forward past defenders and then pick team-mates out with quality, Van Ewijk is the skilful, attack-minded wing-back that Mark Robins has quested for over much of the past few years. The frustration with Van Ewijk currently is that he can be cautious at times when in good positions, such as pausing on the ball instead of beating a defender or checking inside when a cross is on. That could well be down to the team’s tactical set-up, where the attacking and defensive players are separated by long distances, meaning Van Ewijk has a lot of ground to cover and doesn’t always have an abundance of options to pick out, however, the player’s pace and skill should be able to eat up the space in front of him easily.

It seems like both Milan van Ewijk and Mark Robins will have to tailor their respective approaches to fully harness the player’s talents over the coming months. Van Ewijk may have to trust his ability to beat players and bomb towards dangerous positions a little more than he currently appears to, Robins may have to instruct the team to make runs to support Van Ewijk getting into good areas. Milan van Ewijk is clearly of a talent to elevate this Coventry City team and be a big threat in the Championship, the task is to ensure that talent is fully utilised.