Sideways Sammy

After some ups and downs in his first few months with the club, Bobby Thomas has started to settle down of late and produce some consistent and confident performances at the heart of the Coventry City defence. Ever since the switch to four at the back, Thomas has occupied the enforcer role in the team’s back-line, which has his more aggressive, physical approach to defending, in contrast to the more composed Liam Kitching alongside him. Thomas’ relative lack of experience has still been apparent at times, especially when it’s come to managing games, but he is a young defender who has shown he can learn from mistakes and that has to be seen as a huge positive for someone signed as a long-term investment by the club.

Having initially impressed in his early appearance for Coventry City with his desire to thunder into tackles and look to dominate opponents, Bobby Thomas quickly lost his aura of authority when faced with quick-footed forwards who could exploit that aggression to evade challenges and open up space behind the centre-back. That was a particular issue when playing on the right of a back three, where Thomas was effectively having to play the role of both centre-back and right-back in terms of the space he had to cover. Moving to a back four has simplified Thomas’ game, with the pace of Milan van Ewijk at right-back and the cool head of Liam Kitching to his left, he is freer to focus on attacking the ball in the air or competing physically with opposing centre-forwards. While Thomas has also shown that he can carry the ball out of defence to contribute to the team’s build-up play, it has been his ability to act as the team’s enforcer at the back that has been most impressive in his recent performances.

Bobby Thomas’ authority at centre-back has been a key reason why Coventry City has been able to take Kyle McFadzean out of the side without losing aggression in defence, which had been why McFadzean was effectively undroppable for the past few seasons. For a 22-year-old centre-back in their first year at the Championship level to step up to such a level of prominence over an established senior player is an impressive achievement – albeit, that transition has been aided thanks to the aforementioned Milan van Ewijk and Liam Kitching. The challenge for Bobby Thomas now is to prove that his performances in recent months speak to his quality, rather than form, along with refining his aggression levels somewhat and improving his game management skills.