Sideways Sammy

Coventry City came back from a goal down to beat Millwall at the CBS Arena and return to the top six of the Championship.

A glaring Haji Wright miss aside, it was almost all Millwall for the opening half hour as the Lions set out energetically and with directness. They took the lead via youngster, Romain Esse, and could well have added at least one more to that in the early exchanges as they look to have caught the Sky Blues cold.

However, a gradual improvement from Coventry City in the first-half built into a dominant second-half performance as Milwall began to hold on with limited attacking ambition. The pressure eventually told, when Haji Wright was tripped in the box and scored the resulting penalty. The American grabbed a second soon after, when he was sprung through by Callum O’Hare to turn the game on its head and make amends for that big early miss.

Lack of Defensive Physicality Preyed Upon

Coventry City found themselves a goal down early on in this game and it could have been more as Millwall managed to catch the home side cold. The Lions were energetic and direct, looking to test the Sky Blues back-line with long, looping balls with multiple runners looking to either contest the initial contest or the scraps that followed. It was a direct test of Coventry’s physicality at the back, and they came off second-best.

Perhaps it didn’t help that three of Coventry City’s back four – Joel Latibeaudiere, Luis Binks and Jay Dasilva – were not regular starters and struggled to get up to the speed of the game early on. In the opening minute, a long throw in the box evaded both Binks and Latibeaudiere for what could have been a Millwall opener, while Dasilva struggled repeatedly with long balls in his direction throughout the first-half.

However, the bigger issue was that overall lack of physicality between the defensive four. For Millwall’s goal, it was the regular starter, Milan van Ewijk, who lost out in a physical battle, as he was comprehensively beaten to an aerial challenge by the Lions’ giant centre-back, Jake Cooper, with neither Joel Latibeaudiere nor Luis Binks asserting themselves enough in the resulting run of play to prevent Romain Esse firing in.

In particular, the two full-backs – Milan van Ewijk on the right and Jay Dasilva on the left – were tested repeatedly by Millwall’s directness and physicality. During that opening hour, the Lions were constantly able to stretch Coventry City at the back by playing balls on top of the two full-backs, which then left the rest of the defence stretched scrambling to cover. It was when the away side stopped looking to get their wing-backs so high and advanced up the pitch to contest those battles was when the Sky Blues were able to get on top.

It was understandable why Mark Robins stuck with the same back-line as the one that helped beat Sheffield Wednesday so comfortably in mid-week, especially in light of the team’s recent lack of clean sheets, but the second-half substitution to bring on Bobby Thomas as a physical battler at the back was an admission from the manager that he’d got the call wrong. Fortunately, the Sky Blues were able to rally in the second-half, but the lack of defensive fortitude of late is starting to become a concern.

O’Hare & Torp The Difference Makers

Haji Wright may have grabbed the goals that turned this game on its head, but Coventry City’s response from a goal behind was led by the influences of Callum O’Hare and Victor Torp. Almost all of the Sky Blues’ best attacking play came via the duo and they both played the telling passes in the second-half that opened an obdurate Millwall side up, turning a frustrating afternoon into a thrilling one.

O’Hare and Torp’s influences were stymied early on by Millwall’s energy and discipline out of possession as they got in the faces of Coventry City as they looked to build from the back and cut off passing lanes into the forward players. The one time that Callum O’Hare was able to get into space on the ball in the final third early on was what led to Haji Wright’s glaring chance that could have made it 1-0 and it was the ability to get Victor Torp further up the pitch as that link between defence and attack that eventually got the Sky Blues going from the half hour mark onwards.

Victor Torp’s ability to receive the ball in tight areas and then drive forward is quickly becoming a key asset for this Coventry City team. Earlier on in the contest, Torp was forced to play close to his own goal and that limited his ability to take opposing midfielders out of the game in order to create space for the team’s attacking players. With opponents starting to be wary of leaving space on the counter for Callum O’Hare, Haji Wright and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto to exploit, having a midfielder in Torp who teams have to close down is a way of opening the game back up for the team’s attacking players.

It was the second-half substitution that enabled both Victor Torp and Callum O’Hare to come into their own later on. The move to put Haji Wright out on the left wing provided the team with an outlet to run in behind the Millwall defence, in contrast to Kasey Palmer, who had his moments, but too often looked to come towards the ball and enabled the away side to maintain their defensive shape. The move substitution, which saw Joel Latibeaudiere moved into midfield from defence allowed Victor Torp the freedom to play further forward and demonstrate his quality closer to the Millwall penalty area.

It was the combination of those two factors that led directly to breaking Millwall’s resistance. Victor Torp was able to get to the edge of the opposing penalty area to slide a ball through to Haji Wright, who was tripped by Japhet Tanganga in the Lions defence. It was later Callum O’Hare’s opportunity to shine, as he was able to get into a pocket of space between the lines to slide Wright in for the winning goal.

While Coventry City now have multiple players in the team that can step up and make telling contributions, whether it’s Haji Wright, Tatushiro Sakamoto, Kasey Palmer or Milan van Ewijk, it is starting to look like Callum O’Hare and Victor Torp are the team’s most influential players. The more often the team can get them on the ball around the opposing penalty area, the more likely it seems things are going to happen.

The Quest For Balance Continues

For a team that has lost just once in 15 games, it is strange to say that Coventry City are still in a state of looking to find their most balanced starting XI. The recent injury to Ben Sheaf has been a key factor in the loss of that semblance of stability with the first-choice team. The changes made both prior to and during this game highlighted that Mark Robins is yet to figure out how best to fit the available pieces into a coherent side.

There are a few key concerns for Mark Robins to resolve at the moment. The most prominent is how to re-shape the midfield in light of Ben Sheaf’s injury, but there is also the issue with what to do about the lack of a goalscoring centre-forward and the team’s leakiness at the back. It feels like solving the midfield issue could go a long way to rectifying at least one of the other two.

With Victor Torp such a forward-thinking player in central midfield, the aim at the moment has to be to let him off the leash to push forward as often as possible. Bringing Joel Latibeaudiere into central midfield in the second-half provided Torp with the sitter he needed to influence the game, however, Coventry City were aided by Millwall playing with limited attacking ambition after taking the lead.

As for the centre-forward situation, the answer looks increasingly to be not to worry about it. While Haji Wright could easily have opened the scoring in this game while he was being played in the number nine role, his performance through the middle was characterised by his issue of staying onside, whereas, on the left wing he is less hampered by that and can still score goals. With Ellis Simms demonstrating he can work defenders physically to act as a foil to aid in others’ goalscoring, does it really matter if the striker isn’t scoring if players in other positions are capable of doing so?

In going a goal down and recovering to win this game, it feels as if Mark Robins has learned some important lessons here as to what his best team might currently look like. While the defensive leakiness is yet to be resolved, playing a sitter alongside Victor Torp in the middle of the park and keeping Haji Wright on the left wing looking to be the main learnings here that can be taken forward into future games.