Sideways Sammy

A draw at home to Stoke City before the international break ended a five-game losing streak, but means it is now six games since Coventry City’s last league win, as part of an overall run of just three in sixteen to start the season with. The time for patience for this new-look team is increasingly running thin, if the Sky Blues cannot start picking up wins over the next few weeks, they will be in a relegation battle.

The hope is that the international break will have provided some valuable time for Mark Robins to work with the majority of the squad, especially in light of a recent switch to four at the back, to form the patterns of play that will become the foundation of a turnaround to come. That will be tested in this forthcoming away trip to a Millwall side that are just one game into the reign of a new manager following a lengthy spell under the management of Gary Rowett, adding an element of the unknown to a team that have typically been one of the most consistent and predictable in the division.

Expected Line-Up

It seems likely that Mark Robins will persist with four at the back against Stoke City last time out. It is possible, however, that the change was due to Kyle McFadzean not being available due to a family bereavement which he has since returned from. Given this is a tough away trip against a physical team, there is an argument for restoring both McFadzean and the back three, but the level of defensive confidence shown in the last game would suggest that sticking with four in defence is the right move.

Presuming that Coventry City persist with a back four, the emphasis is on how to make the attack function. While Haji Wright and Ellis Simms have had their moments as wide players in a 4-2-3-1, they are not players that can reliably create chances from the wing. The problem is that, save for Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, there isn’t anyone else in this squad that can do that either.

Additionally, playing two strikers out wide may be too big of a risk for Mark Robins to deploy from the start in an away game, which could see Sakamoto come into the side, possibly in place of Ellis Simms in order to allow the Japanese wide player to operate in his favoured right-sided position. Whether Simms would drop to the bench or take Matt Godden’s place as the central striker in order to, hopefully, offer a little more of a presence up top seems a close call, but Godden would probably be favoured if this was a decision the manager is looking to make.

As for the rest of the midfield, Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles look set as the team’s deepest-lying midfielders, with Jamie Allen likely to continue to get the nod ahead of Callum O’Hare and Yasin Ayari for the most advanced spot due to O’Hare’s lack of sharpness and Ayari clearly being unfavoured by Mark Robins. That doesn’t leave a lot of creativity, making an argument for starting Milan van Ewijk at right-back, but the focus now appears to be on avoiding risks in order to ease the team into form.

Last Time We Met

After a post-World Cup slump last year, Coventry City needed to beat Millwall at home to avoid the season tailing off into nothingness. Despite the Lions being in the top six heading into the midweek clash at the CBS Arena, they offered very little by way of threat for much of the game. The Sky Blues started brightly but struggled to find a way through a dogged, defensive Millwall side.

With the game threatening to peter out into a goalless draw, or worse, Coventry City turned to a familiar source of inspiration to conjure something out of nothing. In typical Viktor Gyokeres fashion, the striker received the ball well away from the Millwall penalty area, with his back to goal and m a defender keeping him well-marked, however, the Swede wriggled out of a stern physical inspection, created room for a shot and then curled in an effort from well outside the penalty area. Having a striker who can score out of nowhere sure is helpful.

The Opposition

The Manager – Joe Edwards

After a lengthy, and relatively successful, time in the care of the safe pair of hands that is Gary Rowett, Millwall eventually grew bored of the attritional, fine margins football that their previous manager has built his career on. The Lions have gone for almost the opposite approach in replacing Rowett, appointing the 37 year-old, Joe Edwards for his first managerial role.

As someone whose coaching experience prior to two weeks ago was almost exclusively at youth-level, Edwards is a bold appointment for a club that has built around experience, physicality and consistently for much of the past decade. Just what changes Joe Edwards has in mind in terms of playing style and personnel is hard to tell from the one league game he has had in charge – a 4-0 win over a terrible Sheffield Wednesday side – but the hope is that he is a fresh injection of energy and ideas that can make Millwall a more exciting team than they’ve typically been.

Who To Look Out For?

This Millwall team has been build around a dominant defensive line, with the giant Jake Cooper and Murray Wallace remaining regular starters and veteran shot-stopper, Bartosz Bialkowski, enjoying a run in the team of late. Typically, that has provided Millwall with the ability to repel pressure around their penalty area and keep games to narrow margins, Whether the plan is for Joe Edwards to move away from that remains to be seen, but in keeping the centre-back, Murray Wallace, at left-back for his first game in charge, it suggests that any revolution to the defensive set-up will be gradual.

While it may take several transfer windows to transform this Millwall side from its workmanlike image instilled by Gary Rowett, and his predecessor, Neil Harris, players like Brooke Norton-Cuffy at right-back and, especially, forward, Zian Flemming, are likely to be key figures for Joe Edwards to turn to early in his reign. Norton-Cuffy had started slowly at The Den after his spell at the CBS Arena last year but the team have increasingly turned to his pace and unpredictability as an attacking outlet in recent weeks. Flemming, meanwhile, remains the key cog in the Millwall attack with his combination of physicality and technique, particularly when it comes to shooting from range and is the kind of player who can win games out of nothing.

The rest of the set-up remains hard-working and honest, which may be at odds with a more exciting template that Joe Edwards may be looking to instil, but also provides the team with the ability to press opponents and cause turnovers in dangerous areas. Players like Casper de Norre and George Saville can really snap at the heels in the centre of the park, with George Honeyman capable of doing that further forward, along with the likes of Allan Campbell, Billy Mitchell and Ryan Leonard who can offer similar as rotation or bench options to keep energy levels up.

Where The Game Will Be Won Or Lost

The combination of Millwall’s new manager and the international break Joe Edwards has had to work with his new charges adds an element of unpredictability to what is typically a tough, yet predictable, away encounter. The Lions may have ran riot in their first outing under Edwards, but that was at the worst team in the league and deploying what was largely a pretty similar set-up to what they had been utilising under previous management. Whether Edwards is of a mind to stick with what has worked or to deploy some new ideas now that he’s had some time over the past fortnight could well be the key factor in determining the nature of this game.

Presuming Millwall stick with their typical set-up, the challenge for Coventry City here is to find a way to impose themselves on a physical and hard-working outfit. The Sky Blues are going to have to be careful in their attempt to play out from the back, knowing that players like George Honeyman, Tom Bradshaw and Zian Flemming are capable of forcing errors and pouncing on any loose play. Further forward, whoever starts up front is going to have to put in a big shift to get any change out of Jake Cooper and Wes Harding as the Millwall central defensive duo. Additionally, avoiding giving away set-pieces and defending the ones that are will also be a key element of this game.

Where Coventry City may look to target Millwall is in getting behind their full-backs, for different reasons on either side of the pitch. On the Lions’ left, while Murray Wallace has filled in that position for several years now, he is a natural centre-back and not a particularly fast one, whoever players on the Sky Blues’ right needs to be played in behind Wallace with space to make that difference in pace count. On the right, Brooke Norton-Cuffy’s attacking instincts could be exploited on the counter if Coventry can get that first ball out of defence right.