Sideways Sammy

After flying up the league table over the hectic Christmas period, the start of the FA Cup feels an opportunity to rest some tired legs rather than a shot at glory. Given Mark Robins’ record of naming weakened sides for cup competitions, anyone expecting a full-strength team and a big effort towards making it to the next round at the CBS Arena is going to be sorely disappointed. In fact, the manager may well appreciate the weekend off that a cup exit would bring.

Having lost pretty shambolically to Wrexham in this stage of the competition last year, the notion that even a weakened Coventry City starting XI could expect to saunter past an Oxford United side in the top six of the division below has no basis in reality. The Yellows should carry some confidence heading into this trip to the CBS Arena that they can pull off what would be considered an upset. As last season demonstrated, losing to a lower league team in a cup competition is no barrier to achievement (well, not achievement per se, but the Sky Blues did get to Wembley) back in league action.

Expected Line-Up

Having named two pretty strong teams for the final two festive fixtures, there is additional motivation for Mark Robins to change the starting XI dramatically for this game. For players like Ben Wilson, Jay Dasilva and Matt Godden, this is a chance to stake a claim for a starting spot. For others, like Kyle McFadzean and Liam Kelly, they will have to find a motivation to perform knowing that there is probably little they can do to come back in from the cold when it comes to league action.

Going through the team, the only likely member of the defence who looks set to start both this game and the previous one is Luis Binks. With Ben Wilson set to come in to the goalkeeping position and Kyle McFadzean probably set to take Bobby Thomas’ place at centre-back, the concern with this potential defensive set-up is how prone that back-line will be to balls over the top exploiting McFadzean’s lack of pace and Wilson’s tentativeness in coming off his line. That could well provide an argument for switching to a back three, with Joel Latibeaudiere on the right of the centre-backs and Josh Eccles deployed at wing-back, to help mitigate McFadzean’s shortcomings.

In midfield, it could well be a trio of Liam Kelly, Josh Eccles and Jamie Allen, depending on whether Kelly is available for selection after missing some of the recent matchday squads. While this game seems look it could be a great opportunity for Yasin Ayari to come in from the cold, with a potential recall by his parent club, Brighton & Hove Albion, on the cards, it seems unlikely that they would want him cup-tied.

In attack, Kasey Palmer could end up being deployed out wide as part of measures to hand Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Haji Wright a rest after the wide-men starting all four of Coventry City’s festive fixtures. Given the shortage of wide options, Ellis Simms could well be utilised on the right of the attack, having played there a couple of times earlier in the campaign. Alternatively, Palmer could be used behind Simms and Matt Godden up front in either a 4-4-2 diamond or 3-4-1-2 system. Fabio Tavares is another potential option in attack, but he’s probably not quite at the level in terms of fitness or ability to warrant starting ahead of other first-teamers who could do with minutes in their legs,

Last Time We Met

The last meeting between these two sides was probably in the top two in Fankaty Dabo’s career that he would want to forget. It was a clash between two teams with hopes of challenging for promotion from League One and Coventry City looked to have had the win wrapped up at around the hour-mark after Zain Westbrooke had put the Sky Blues ahead with an excellent first-half free-kick, before Dabo was the supplier of a peach of a cross that Matt Godden headed home after the away side at the Kassam Stadium had soaked up increasing home pressure.

An excellent Jamie Mackie strike pulled a goal back for Oxford United with 25 minutes left, but Coventry City looked to have held out for the win as the game reached its final minutes. That was until Fankaty Dabo turned a cross into his own net, after having failed to appreciate how little pressure he was under from Tariqe Fosu behind him. However, the Sky Blues looked to have mustered a late winner soon after, with a neat break allowing Matt Godden to tee up Callum O’Hare in the penalty area with all the time in the world to finish, which he just about did. Yet there was still time for Fosu for Oxford to tease Liam Kelly with a show of skill and put a ball into the box for Dabo to turn home for the second time in the space of ten minutes.

The Opposition

The Manager – Des Buckingham

A former youth-team goalkeeper for the club who had to retire early and has subsequently enjoyed a long, circuitous coaching route, via New Zealand and India, back to Oxford United, Des Buckingham stepped into the manager’s seat at the Kassam Stadium in November following the departure of Liam Manning for Bristol City, with the club challenging for the League One play-offs. Buckingham, a highly-rated coach who rose up through various roles at Manchester City owned football clubs around the world, has yet to stamp his mark on the team, with results and performances fairly inconsistent but good enough to keep a relatively strong League One side in the play-offs.

During Buckingham’s time in his last posting, at Mumbai City, the manager had a reputation for deploying a Manchester City-style passing game, an impressive feat given the quality of players he was working with. With relatively little time to work with the players at Oxford United during a hectic period of fixtures, there has been little evidence yet of Buckingham-ball in action, with the team continuing to play the counter-attacking style that had been successful under Liam Manning. This is an energetic team with a lot of quick individual players but is lacking some of the physicality to impose themselves on games consistently for 90 minutes.

Who To Look Out For?

The motivation to play as strong a team as possible should be much higher for Oxford United and Des Buckingham given that the rewards both financially and from a sporting perspective are much greater relatively for them than it is for Coventry City and the more established Mark Robins in the dug-out. As mentioned above, Oxford have a lot of energy and pace about them, with nippy wingers like Stan Mills (son of former England international, Danny), Tyler Goodrham and Josh Murphy giving the team great energy on the counter, aided by the nippy front-man, Mark Harris.

Supplying the touch of class and composure is the midfield trio of Cameron Brannagan, Marcus McGuane and Ruben Rodrigues. Brannagan is a classy box-to-box midfield player who really should be playing Championship football but has proved loyal to Oxford United. McGuane, once of Barcelona, alongside Brannagan can cover a lot of ground both with and without the ball, with a nice ability to glide past opponents in possession. Rodrigues has stepped up to League One after starring in recent years in non-league with Notts County, and is a real orchestrator in attack with an eye for goal who plays in the number ten role and has even been used recently as a makeshift centre-forward. To add further quality on the ball, former Chelsea wunderkind, Josh McEachran is another highly technical operator in the middle of the back.

At the back, Oxford United utilise the big, physical pair of Elliot Moore at centre-back and the giant Ciaron Brown at either centre or left-back to provide some aggression in their own penalty area to balance out the technicians further forward. Fin Stevens and Greg Leigh at full-back offer attacking options, with Leigh the team’s second top-scorer from left-back but currently out injured. As a back-stop, Brighton & Hove Albion loanee, James Beadle, has proven an excellent shot-stopper while also being talented on the ball as the first step of the team’s build-up play and will surely be featuring in the Championship next season.

Where The Game Will Be Won Or Lost

The biggest factor in this game will be just how motivated and cohesive a likely heavily-rotated Coventry City side will be. As was seen against Wrexham last year, the supposed level a team is supposed to be at means little if the players on the pitch aren’t used to playing together, or are even in the habit of playing at all. If Oxford United name their best Xi, they will have the advantage of familiarity over the Sky Blues, which would be exacerbated if they were to take the lead and force the disjointed home side into chasing the game.

Onto specifics, the big concern is what an Oxford United side with a lot of quick attacking players might be able to do to exploit the lack of pace of Kyle McFadzean, and, to a lesser extent, Liam Kelly in midfield. While McFadzean may be able to mitigate that disadvantage by looking to impose himself physically on the relatively slight Mark Harris at centre-forward for Oxford to deny the away side an out-ball to build counter-attacks around. That battle between the two, with Harris capable of running some hard yards and making himself awkward for defenders, could well define the contest.

An area that Coventry City could look to exploit is just how lightweight Oxford United are across the pitch. If Kasey Palmer and Ellis Simms in particular play with the right intensity, they could really dominate their counterparts in yellow. Furthermore, almost half of Oxford’s league goals conceded this season have been from either set-plays or penalties, that feels like something that could help a potentially disjointed Sky Blues side to nick the win from in this game if they have done the work in training.