Sideways Sammy

Coventry City scored the latest possible equaliser at Home Park to salvage a draw against Plymouth Argyle on a rainy night having started with a rotated side.

The Sky Blues should have been ahead at the break when Jake Bidwell put the ball on a plate for Matt Godden in the six-yard box, but the striker fluffed his lines to preserve the deadlock. That proved to be especially costly when a lapse at the back from Bobby Thomas early in the second-half allowed Adam Randell to race forward for Plymouth Argyle and tee up the division’s second top-scorer, Morgan Whittaker, for a confident finish just inside the penalty area.

Coventry City managed to find an equaliser around ten minutes later, when Victor Torp played a sumptuous pass from inside his own half to bisect the home defence and send Ellis Simms clean through to finish after seeing his initial shot saved. That leveller proved to be short-lived when Argyle’s Mickel Miller flashed a cross across the penalty area and Bobby Thomas unfortunately diverted into his own net.

From then on, Plymouth Argyle looked the likelier team to score next as the Sky Blues laboured in the tough conditions. However, a set-piece in the dead of stoppage time allowed Victor Torp to pick out Liam Kitching at the near-post, who turned the ball into the net via a myriad of deflections off Argyle defenders.

A Rotated Side Holds Its Own

It may have been inevitable that Mark Robins would have to change things up over this congested run of fixtures, it was a surprise nonetheless to see Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Haji Wright and Callum O’Hare taken out of the starting line-up for this game, with the latter removed from the squad entirely with fatigue. It left Coventry City with a front four made up of a centre-forward who hasn’t scored a league goal in his past 12 appearances, a striker, in Ellis Simms, playing on the right wing, a left-back as a left forward, with Kasey Palmer the closest thing to an in-form player being utilised in his best position.

Given that, it was an admirable first-half performance from a makeshift Sky Blues side as they controlled possession and had the best chances away at Plymouth Argyle. Ellis Simms put in a good shift on the right wing trying to make things happen, while Kasey Palmer buzzed about with intent between the lines, Jay Dasilva stretched play on the left by staying wide and constantly being available in possession, while Matt Godden got into some good positions in the penalty area.

Aside from some early decent chances for Plymouth Argyle, Coventry City were well on top and should have had a lead to take into the break when Matt Godden got on the end of a Jake Bidwell cross in the six-yard box and contrived to head wide. At a time when Mark Robins is bemoaning a lack of squad depth, some of the second-string players showed they can come into the side without too much of a drop-off.

However, without that killer touch that the likes of Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Callum O’Hare and Haji Wright provide, what was a decent showing from the Sky Blues saw them fall behind early in the second-half and left the team chasing from pretty much that point onwards. It’s not necessarily a reflection of the players who came into the team for this game, but the downside to rotation is that the players coming in aren’t as sharp as those that are first-choice and that’s where games can slip away.

We Need To Talk About The Defence

While Matt Godden is likely to come under the spotlight here for a glaring first-half miss, Coventry City’s back-line is the bigger concern. It is now 12 games in all competitions since the team has kept a clean sheet, and conceding twice here turned what could have been an opportunity to win and maintain a buffer in six place resulted in a scramble for a point that makes that position less secure.

The opening goal was endemic of Coventry City’s issues at the back of late, Bobby Thomas lunged in for a challenge needlessly, creating the opening for Plymouth Argyle to race forward and set up a pull-back for the in-form Morgan Whittaker. The Sky Blues back-line made several further lapses like this throughout the evening, with defenders being over-eager to win the ball back high up the pitch without the cover to bail them out when they got things wrong. Coventry were caught short in the first-half like this on at least two occasions and were fortunate later on that Plymouth were unable to take advantage of similar openings to kill the game off.

It wasn’t just this game, but the opening goal against Millwall at the weekend, Liam Kitching’s red card against Norwich City, and the run of play leading to Leicester City’s penalty at the CBS Arena a few weeks ago. While it is a good thing to want to be positive and on the front-foot when defending, the Coventry City back-line is currently not good enough in doing so to be deploying such a high risk approach.

The idea is that the Sky Blues are looking to play a high line and bait teams into pressing them in order to create space at the other end for the lightning attacking players who can devastate with space to run into. The concern with making an effort to tighten up at the back is that it may end up limiting the space the likes of Haji Wright, Callum O’Hare and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto have to do their best work in. As was seen later on in this game, when Coventry City are forced into playing slower and more deliberately, those attacking players are less influential.

In isolation, Bobby Thomas mistiming a lunge in an attempt to win the ball for the first goal and then scoring an own goal for the second can seem unfortunate, however, this looseness is becoming a pattern for the defence. While now there are greater benefits to the attack by looking to take risks at the back, the worry is that continuing to leak goals will gradually sap the team’s confidence as the season begins to enter a crucial phase. Now may not be the time to change things up, but it could soon be.

Victor Torp The Man For The Moment

In a game where Coventry City were short on inspiration with key players either out injured or sitting on the bench, Victor Torp demonstrated here that he has the star quality to win the team points. It seems unfair that the statistics will not show two assists for Torp for his contributions to both of the goals here, the Dane had a vital hand in producing those key interventions out of almost nowhere on a difficult night for the Sky Blues.

For the first goal, Victor Torp’s presence of mind in his own half saw him pick Ellis Simms out in behind the Plymouth Argyle defence, who then tucked away the rebound from his initial shot. For the second, Torp took advantage of Argyle neglecting to erect a wall for a set-piece close to their own goal to target the near-post area that saw the ball find the back of the net via several deflections. Both contributions highlight that Torp isn’t just an aesthetically pleasing player, he possesses that awareness to convert his skill into key moments.

It is still early days into Victor Torp’s Coventry City career and Mark Robins has yet to figure out where to fit him into the side, despite having scored an excellent debut goal, and had a direct hand in setting up four goals in the last three games. In the deeper midfield roles in the team’s 4-2-3-1 system, Torp has looked a little uncomfortable at times when close to his own goal, caught on a few occasions this game by Plymouth Argyle’s press. That responsibility to contribute to the team’s deep build-up play isn’t helped by the absence of Ben Sheaf.

Victor Torp has shown that the closer he is to the opposition goal, the more dangerous he is. Those attacking instincts could well be contributing to the team’s lack of defensive stability and the solution to both Torp’s best position and the issues at the back could well go hand-in-hand. Something closer to a 4-1-4-1 system, with a definitive holding midfielder to free Torp to play closer to goal feels like a possible solution.

It has been a strong start for Victor Torp at Coventry City and he’s quickly established himself as one of the team’s key contributor’s. There is work to do to find out where to get the best out of him, but it is incredibly impressive that Torp has managed to step up so quickly while he is still adapting to a new club.