Sideways Sammy

Coventry City fell to defeat at Rotherham United in a frustrating performance where chances were not taken, another set-piece goal was conceded and the team struggled to muster much of a response to falling behind.

In a scrappy first-half, the Sky Blues produced moments of decent football in creating a handful of openings to take the lead. The best chance came on the stroke of half-time, when a heavy touch from Ellis Simms almost allowed the ball to roll perfectly for Matt Godden, only for the latter to be beaten to the ball by a more determined Rotherham United defender.

The game came down to the difference in threat from set-pieces, with Coventry City making nothing of a flurry of corner-kicks shortly after the break, before Rotherham scored with just their second of the game to take the lead. Ellis Simms had an excellent couple of chances to equalise after connecting well with a Jay Dasilva header to force the Millers’ Viktor Johansson into a great reaction save, before prodding the follow-up narrowly wide.

The Sky Blues had chances to equalise, with Yasin Ayari teasing a cross into Matt Godden, who couldn’t quite connect with what would have been a certain goal, representing the best opportunity. However, the away side were frantic and open in their efforts to chase the game, allowing Rotherham plenty of openings on the break to secure the three points. That eventually came in stoppage time, when Coventry City failed to defend a cross after a throw-in, providing space for Georgie Kelly to set Ollie Rathbone up for an emphatic finish.

What Is The Plan?

With so many new players through the door and so many injuries over the first months of the season, it has been difficult for Mark Robins to name a settled team and that is probably why it has been difficult to identify a clear style of play. Amid that instability, there have been flickers of what this Coventry City is trying to be and this game was no different.

For periods of the first-half, the Sky Blues produced some slick moments of football. Ben Sheaf acted as a pivot in front of the defence to move the ball into the midfield swiftly, with Yasin Ayari playing some nice passes to the wing-backs in order to open up the pitch and stretch the Rotherham United defence. In a campaign where Coventry City have struggled to both get the ball out of their defence and make full use of their wing-backs in attacking areas, this represented progress.

However, what happened next underlined just how much of a work in progress this team currently is. The decision-making when the ball got into the final third primarily revolved around how quickly anyone could get a shot away, which meant that Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles were often on the end of the team’s best attacking moves, rather than the strikers.

Even worse, once Rotherham United took the lead, all of that neat build-up play broke down – barring a couple of excellent chances worked for Ellis Simms, Matt Godden and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto. The true test of a team looking to become a fluent, creative unit is how they play when they are behind and the onus is on them to create, and the Sky Blues became frantic and sloppy as they looked to force things as individuals rather than as a team unit. It was notable that those bigger passes to out wide stopped happening as players ended up focusing on what was in front of them, rather than taking stock of the wider picture.

That ultimately played into the hands of Rotherham United, who looked at their most vulnerable when having to defend long spells of Coventry City possession and had wanted to make the game a scrappy, frantic contest. The second goal epitomised the loss of composure from the away side, with multiple throw-ins given away in stoppage time as a result of rash clearances out of defence, made worse by a loss of cool with the referee that ate up precious minutes. With the focus elsewhere, that left Rotherham’s Georgie Kelly in space in the box to tee up an even freer Ollie Rathbone for a killer blow that could easily have come earlier on.

Set-Pieces Have Become A Recurring Punch-Line

To lose one game to a set-piece goal after having the lion’s share of dead-ball opportunities may be unfortunate, but to lose a second in a row in the same manner is careless. It is all the more bewildering given that Coventry City had been the most dangerous team in the Championship from set-pieces prior to last Saturday’s defeat to Bristol City, but there suddenly looks to be serious issues from dead-balls, particularly in attacking them.

Josh Eccles has come under the spotlight for being the team’s designated set-piece taker, with some pretty wayward deliveries in this game only adding to the pressure on his shoulders right now. Whether it’s truly his fault that his set-pieces aren’t hitting the mark or is down to the players looking to attack them, only Mark Robins and the team can answer honestly, but after starting with three corner-kick deliveries in this game that completely eluded anyone in Sky Blue, it felt telling that Eccles went short for the majority of the remainder of the game.

With Milan van Ewijk, Jay Dasilva, and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto all perfectly capable of taking set-pieces it makes it especially bewildering that the decision to put Josh Eccles on dead-ball duties appears to be so rigid at this moment in time. It is putting someone who is still pretty inexperienced in an increasingly pressurised position when the issue may not be entirely down to what Eccles is doing. While the manager may want to stick by his preferred set-piece taker, it might help in the short-term to allow others to have a go in order to take the focus away from Josh Eccles.

Conceding two opening goals from set-pieces over the past two games has only made the spotlight on Coventry City’s own set-pieces all the brighter. Rotherham United’s opener here came from a good delivery and a near-post run that took advantage of the Sky Blues’ combination of zonal and man marking from dead balls that has generally served them well in recent years – although, Mark Robins commented post-game that the players had deviated from the planned defensive set-up for the corner-kick.

When a team is lacking in fluency, set-pieces can be so important in generating momentum. In both this game and the Bristol City one, taking the lead – or, at least, not falling behind – would have changed the manner of the contest and allowed Coventry City to focus on some promising moments of build-up play. Instead, they have lost back-to-back games, sit 20th in the division and are pondering making some big changes to personnel and playing style in order to stop the rot.

The Bench Provides Hope

Being able to bring Callum O’Hare and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto on from the bench in the second-half of this game provided a hint of what Mark Robins might be able to do with a fully-fit squad. In a month or so’s time, the manager could have the luxury of being able to rotate between O’Hare, Sakamoto, Yasin Ayari, Kasey Palmer and Jamie Allen as the team’s key creative options, change shape between one or two up top, or three or four at the back and being able to deploy some really exciting combinations of attacking players who’ve had some decent individual moments but have yet to play together as a unit this season.

For much of the campaign it has been a choice between Yasin Ayari or Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, two players who are yet to get up to speed with Championship football, and Ellis Simms or Haji Wright, two players who are yet to get up to speed with the team to either start or try to make something happen for the bench. Around a few weeks ago, the situation was even more dire, with Liam Kelly and Josh Eccles having to be called upon as the team’s creative supply-line in midfield.

A key issue for Coventry City of late has been finding that link player in the final third to bounce who can provide an option for the midfield behind them and bring the strikers into the game. There were some promising moments later on in this game with Callum O’Hare speeding up that transition between midfield and attack, aided by having Tatsuhiro Sakamoto floating into similar areas to overload the opposition and create space for the strikers to get into scoring positions.

Of course, there was an element of desperation in throwing Callum O’Hare back into the fold after a year out and hoping for him to make the difference. The worst thing for O’Hare over the coming weeks and months would be to place him in a position where he has to produce meaningful contributions, at a time where the priority for him is to build strength and confidence to avoid another injury relapse. Having O’Hare available again doesn’t really change the need for the rest of the midfield to take up the mantle of creative responsibility.

Additionally, there is the worry that the return of so many creative players could only serve to make the process of figuring out the team’s best line-up and way of playing all the more drawn out. Trying to find a way to get a fully-fit Callum O’Hare and Kasey Palmer into a midfield that also contains Ben Sheaf, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Jamie Allen and Yasin Ayari while also figuring out how to get the best out of Ellis Simms and Haji Wright is going to be as tough of a process as it has already been for Mark Robins to figure out his best team. The hope is that having more talented players available will make things easier rather than harder.