Sideways Sammy

Coventry City ended a run of four straight defeats with a 0-0 draw at home to Stoke City in a game that they had the better chances to win.

In a new 4-2-3-1 system, the Sky Blues were energetic but blunt in attack, yet were dominant defensively as the restricted Stoke to just a couple of half-chances. Ellis Simms probably had the best chance of the game, in the first-half, when he met a Jake Bidwell cross at the back post and nodded narrowly wide. Josh Eccles and Haji Wright also had opportunities to break the deadlock either side of half-time but were unable to convert.

The game ultimately petered out into a goalless draw, with Coventry City unable to move through the gears later on in the contest and Stoke City threatening to nick something in the closing stages via a series of set-pieces won on counter-attacks. The home side could at least reflect on an end to a losing streak that will hopefully lay the groundwork for an up-turn in form after the international break.

An Important Deserved Clean Sheet

After a run of four straight defeats, keeping a clean sheet guaranteed an end to that streak. Coventry City were good value for the nil they kept Stoke City to, restricting their opponent to just six shots on goal and ensuring that Brad Collins could come through his league debut for the club in goal without much to worry himself about and justifying the switch to a new defensive set-up.

On paper, taking a defender out of the team seems a perverse way to go about ensuring extra solidity at the back but Mark Robins’ gambit was justified with a comfortable defensive showing from his team. Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching looked comfortable as a central defensive partnership, with Jake Bidwell and Joel Latibeaudiere at full-back ensuring there were few gaps in the channels for a Stoke City side with dangerous wide players to exploit. In addition, Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles were disciplined in their roles in midfield in front of the back-line, while also being aggressive to support the press when they needed to. For a team that hasn’t played with a back four for nearly three seasons, Coventry City looked surprisingly comfortable defensively.

The other big call at the back was to bring Brad Collins into the goalkeeping position, in truth, this was the perfect game to bring a new goalkeeper into the side with the new man put under little pressure by the opposition. Where Collins appeared to make a difference was in his distribution, where he moved the ball around confidently with his feet and threw it well on a few occasions to start attacks. The wisdom of the decision for a change in goal, though, will take weeks and months to come to light.

The major positive from this game was how convincing Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching looked as a central defensive partnership. For two players who have looked keen to charge out from the wide centre-back positions in a back three, they showed important defensive fundamentals as a duo. With Thomas tended to take the lead in competing for challenges and imposing himself physically, Kitching looked to sweep up any loose ends his commanding partner left behind, providing a nice balance at the back.

Perhaps it helped Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching that they didn’t have to worry about covering for Kyle McFadzean’s shortage of pace as they would have in the usual defensive set-up. Whereas in past iterations of Coventry City, not having McFadzean in the back-line made the defence look frail both physically and psychologically, Thomas and Kitching took charge of affairs without the oft-captain’s steering presence alongside them, which could signal the beginning of a McFadzean-less future.

Where Coventry City’s defence looked weak in this game was in wide areas. This was largely the result of having two strikers in the advanced wide positions, which inevitably meant there was less tracking back to prevent the full-backs being overloaded. The Sky Blues looked stronger on the left side than the right, with Haji Wright doing a better job in his defensive duties than Ellis Simms, while Joel Latibeaudiere looked somewhat uncomfortable at right-back, albeit, having been left up against Stoke City’s two most dangerous players, Andre Vidigal and then Bae Jun-ho.

That Stoke were unable to take advantage of that mismatch out wide highlights how well Coventry City were able to protect the centre of the pitch via both Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching, and Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles ahead of them in midfield. For a team struggling for confidence, the manner in which the Sky Blues looked so commanding at the back was especially impressive.

Get It Quick Into The Big Men

Coventry City started with all three of their senior strikers on the pitch at the same time, which came with its positives and negatives in a 4-2-3-1 set-up that saw Ellis Simms deployed on the right wing, Haji Wright on the left and Matt Godden through the middle. There were moments where having the pace and physicality out wide in wide areas that Simms and Wright offer proved effective, but it was in the slower moments in possession where having such blunt objects in key creative positions became apparent.

Coventry City were at their most dangerous in this game when they were able to get the ball quickly into attacking areas. The threat that both Ellis Simms and Haji Wright pose is that they are much quicker than players of their physical stature tend to be. That meant that they could be sprung in behind to good effect, with only the covering pace of Michael Rose in the Stoke City back-line preventing balls over the top leading to a direct goal threat. Even if Stoke could defend that first ball into Simms or Wright, the physicality of the Sky Blues’ wide forwards meant that the ball stayed in contest and the home side could cause some danger on second and third balls in attacking areas.

Starting two such expensive strikers I’m wide areas will only ever be a short-term fix and that became apparent over the course of this game. When Coventry City had longer spells of possession, having two wide players unable to either beat defenders or pick key passes or crosses limited the home team’s attacking threat. This was exacerbated by not having anyone through the middle who could play the attackers through with precision and meant that the Sky Blues ran into a brick wall whenever they were asked to play their way through Stoke City.

With the emphasis right now on ending this dreadful run Coventry City are on, the bludgeoning approach in attack is far from the team’s biggest issue. They were the likeliest team to score in this game and there is reason to believe that on another day, either Haji Wright or Ellis Simms take one of their chances and the Sky Blues end up with three points here. Keeping clean sheets means things don’t have to go perfectly in attack, with Wright and Simms in wide areas, there is a semblance of a threat that may prove effective on another day.

Missing That Creative Spark

If the blunt force approach didn’t quite work in this game, a concern for Coventry City was that the subtler one provided by late substitutes Callum O’Hare and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto was much less effective. Over the long-term, the plan will surely be to integrate these players into the attacking system and if the time isn’t now for O’Hare and Sakamoto to begin to deliver an end product it will surely be soon.

In mitigation for both Callum O’Hare and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, this was a difficult game for each of them to come into, for differing reasons. For O’Hare, he is clearly short of the match practice required to make an impact on the pitch, while he has never been someone famed for his precise passing in the final third, his accuracy since returning from injury has been especially low. For Sakamoto, the team barely ever looked to attack down the right side after he had come into the game.

That Ben Sheaf ultimately ended up as the team’s creative outlet in this game highlights how important it is that players like Callum O’Hare and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, along with Kasey Palmer once he’s fit again, can start to make an impact. While Sheaf is a good passer, this season has highlighted that he isn’t someone who can carry the onus of running games and creative chances all on his own. Too often, he has been asked to pick passes or shots on the edge of the penalty area, which has often led to either indecisive build-up play or wayward attempts on goal.

If Ben Sheaf isn’t the answer, and with Callum O’Hare and Kasey Palmer unlikely to be fully match sharp soon, it puts the onus on Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, as well as Yasin Ayari – who seems to have already been written-off by many of a Sky Blue persuasion – and perhaps Milan van Ewijk too, to provide the quality in the final third to open teams up. For all the money that has been spent on this team, to have search a dearth of impactful, creative players to call upon seems a failing of recruitment.