Sideways Sammy

Coventry City ended a six-game winless run in convincing fashion against Millwall at The Den.

After Haji Wright missed a big early opportunity after being sent through on goal by Josh Eccles, there might have been a fear of this recent rotten run of not taking chances and being punished continuing. However, the Sky Blues were ahead at half-time, with Wright missing another gilt-edged chance, only for Matt Godden to nod home the rebound.

The pattern of the game of Millwall have the majority of the ball but Coventry City looking more dangerous when they had it continued in the second-half with the away side causing trouble with nearly every counter-attack. That eventually paid off when Jamie Allen was played into space on the edge of the area for a shot which Tatsuhiro Sakamoto turned in the rebound of. The points were secured when Haji Wright missed another big chance, leading to a corner that Ben Sheaf turned home.

Haji Wright: Agent of Chaos

After missing three gilt-edged chances, it would be easy to declare that Haji Wright failed to do the job asked of him as a forward in this game. However, the American was Coventry City’s key player in this game, providing a constant source of threat from his left-sided position, giving the team an outlet to turn defence to attack quickly in a game that they had the minority of possession in, as well as providing a target for attacks that started on the other side of the pitch.

Haji Wright has an awkward style, a big striker who doesn’t always use his physicality to full effect nor does he consistently strike the ball well in either his hold-up play or shooting, but the statistics have indicated that he is more effective than he appears to be and this game underlined that dissonance between the aesthetics of his approach and his output.

Perhaps it is that very awkwardness that made him such a threat in this game, as much as things could fall apart for Wright with a heavy touch, getting caught offside or being outmuscled, there were instances where suddenly that touch would be perfect, the timing of the run would be right or he could shake off a defender. The important thing was that Wright kept on getting into good areas and that eventually paid off for the team, even if it didn’t for his individual goal tally.

Playing Haji Wright down the left side worked in this game as it helped turn Millwall’s key source of threat, Brooke Norton-Cuffy’s runs from right-back, against them. The Lions constantly looked for the former Sky Blues loanee as an outlet in possession, which meant there was space in behind him if the away side could turn defence into attack quickly – which is what they did so well in this game. Wright was constantly an out-ball which put Millwall’s defence on the turn leading to some of the team’s best play – such as his one-on-one in the first-half that he missed, or the two big chances he had that immediately preceded the first and third goals.

In addition. playing Haji Wright out on the left meant that he could cause problems for Millwall even when Coventry City attacked down the right. The pacey, nimble Tatsuhiro Sakamoto against the Lions’ slow, giant Murray Wallace at left-back always looked to be a mismatch, with Milan van Ewijk occasionally getting involved with some rapid overlapping runs to create crossing opportunities down the other flank that Wright could look to attack by floating in to attack the back post.

With Coventry City heavily favouring attacks down the wings in this game, that meant that Millwall constantly had to deal with either the direct or indirect threat of Haji Wright. While he missed big chances, got caught offside and took some heavy touches, he was also directly involved in two of three goals by getting himself in dangerous positions. On another day, Wright would have walked off with a hat-trick but even in failing to do so, he caused enough threat for the team to win the game. If he keeps this up, the goals will come and the team will have a key attacking figurehead to look to build around.

The New Engine Room

Two games into the move to a back four, and Coventry City have kept two clean sheets and have looked pretty comfortable in the process of doing so. As much as defending is about the shape of the team as a whole, the combination of Brad Collins in goal, with Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching in central defence, has provided a platform not just for two assured defensive performances but for some confident build-up play, acting as the team’s engine room.

It is be too early to properly judge a new goalkeeper, but Brad Collins has really looked assured in the two league games he’s had in goal thus far. Collins’ command of his penalty area and willingness to sweep up off his line quickly behind the defence has gone some of the way to making up for the loss of an extra defensive body that the team had in a back three. That has allowed the team to play a little further up the pitch but also has helped repel danger from crosses into the box that Kyle McFadzean had been there to deal with.

On top of that, Brad Collins’ distribution with both his feet and hands has added a new option to the team’s build-up play. Haji Wright’s early clear-cut chance came from Collins bowling the ball out quickly to start an attack after a set-piece was defended, with the opening goal later on coming from the goalkeeper helping the team play around the Millwall press to create space for Jake Bidwell to get in behind the opposing defence. There were a few moments later on where Collins’ attempts to play out were nearly seized on by Millwall, but the keeper’s impact as a distributor was a clear net positive.

In front of Brad Collins, Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching are further aiding the team’s build-up play. Both centre-backs are confident on the ball and while Kitching in particular is capable of playing bigger cross-field passes that could potentially open up the play, their biggest impact as a duo has been in the shorter passes to help play around the line of the opposition’s press which creates space further forward to turn defence into attack quickly. Furthermore, there were periods in the second-half where the team’s ability to confidently move the ball between Collins, Thomas and Kitching helped take the sting out of an attempted Millwall rally, easing momentum back in Coventry City’s favour.

As much as Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching probably want to be cultured ball-playing defenders, they also deserve credit for simply doing the basics of defending well over these past two games. Whether it’s been in the physical battle with opposing forwards, timing challenges well or throwing their bodies in the way of shots when they really have to, Thomas and Kitching have been as effective as out-and-out defenders as they have been in the fancier stuff.

Between the ability to play out from the back that Brad Collins, Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching have provided the team, and some key individual defensive contributions when the opposition have put Coventry City under pressure, the trio have quickly formed the engine room of this retooled side. They will be tougher tests to come, but they have provided the team with an assurance at the back that had been missing over the opening months of the campaign.

This Has Been Coming

Breaking a six-game winless run with a 3-0 win could look like the bounce of a dead cat but this is the kind of result that has been coming for Coventry City. From the number of chances this team has had, to all those set-pieces that come to nothing and the opposition getting the rub of the green at the other end, luck had been more of a factor in this poor recent run than performances. This game was an instance where variance finally swung in the Sky Blues’ favour.

The worry when a team goes on such an unfortunate streak is that heads begin to dip and that impedes the process that led to good chances and pressure on the opposition being created. The most impressive aspect of this win for Coventry City was the level of confidence they appeared to have, even when it looked like things weren’t coming off for them. It would have been easy to have felt after Haji Wright’s big early miss that this was going to be another one of those days, instead, the Sky Blues stuck to their game-plan of playing out from the back in order to draw Millwall onto them and create space for quick balls into the wide forwards to open the game up and generate chances, which eventually paid off.

The difference between this performance and others in this run was the level of confidence the team showed in defence. Being able to confidently deal with opposition pressure – whether in terms of what they could do in possession or in their attempts to press the back-line – meant that things could eventually drop into place further forward. As unlucky as Coventry City have been since the last international break, gifting easy goals to opponents has turned decent performances into defeat.

There may be a tendency to wonder whether this result was as much down to Millwall’s deficiencies as Coventry City’s positives, but this is a result that backs up what this team has been doing for much of the past month or so rather than being pure randomness. That addition of defensive confidence has been that final piece of the jigsaw to turn performances into results and there is no reason why this cannot become the foundation of a positive run of form.

There is even the promise of better to come if the team can maintain recent performance levels. The goals should soon come from Haji Wright given the positions he is constantly able to get into, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto getting on the scoresheet should hopefully give him some confidence for all the promising build-up play he provides. In addition, players like Milan van Ewijk and Ellis Simms clearly have more to offer than they’ve shown thus far, which could get the team into January in a position where an addition or two could help make this switch in system look more comfortable than it does currently.

Of course, this is just one win, the team’s first since early October and they still sit in an uncomfortably low position in the table. Coventry City cannot afford to get too ahead of themselves but this win hasn’t come from out of the blue.