Sideways Sammy

The club record fee paid for Haji Wright cast a heavy shadow over his early performances for the club. Yes, there were signs of promise. Yes, any player requires an adaptation period. However, when such a sum of money has been paid for a player, particularly for a club of Coventry City’s recent history of pinching pennies in the lower leagues, the expectation is that they will come in and dominate, whereas Haji Wright played tentatively, doing one good thing and then one or two bad things as he tried to find his way at a new club. More recently, Wright has started to demonstrate why the club were willing to outlay such a significant sum of money for his services, with the American transformed in a left-sided forward role to become pretty much a constant source of attacking threat for the Sky Blues.

A tall, quick and skilful forward, Haji Wright possesses a major nuisance factor in attack. Where he has struggled since arriving at Coventry City has mainly been in imposing himself physically on defenders as well as staying onside. Switching to a wide forward position has allowed Wright to focus on his strengths and minimize his weaknesses, able to lurk on the peripheries of opposing defences before exploding into life in quick bursts when fed the ball in dangerous positions. Aided by the excellent combination of Tatushiro Sakamoto and Milan van Ewijk on the opposing flank, Wright is freer to focus purely on getting into scoring positions while occasionally being asked to beat defenders in one-against-one scenarios to get off shots or set teammates up. While there is still a hint of tentativeness in his finishing, Wright’s relentlessness and the aid he is getting from teammates who have now bedded in has seen his confidence rocket and turned him into one of the most dangerous attacking players in the division.

Having found a role in the side in which he can flourish, the challenge for Haji Wright is to maintain the form he is currently showing. The team’s top scorer and provider of assists, at the time of writing, Wright finding his feet for Coventry City has helped turn the campaign around. Having proved over a period of around ten games that he can cause different kinds of defences problems, there should be some confidence that Wright’s current form is sustainable, but he may soon have to deal with being someone other teams will specifically look to stop. Over his first few months with the Sky Blues, the American has shown what he is capable of at both his best and worst and there is a huge degree of difference between the two. It underlines the importance of allowing players, even club record signings, time to adapt.