Coventry City squandered an early lead at home to Cardiff City to see their strong recent form come a cropper at a time where the margin for error in the play-off race is rapidly reducing.
On a sunny Bank Holiday afternoon at the CBS Arena, everything looked to be going Coventry City’s way early on, with Ellis Simms starting and finishing a move for the opening goal to underline his strong recent form. However, that was put paid to when Liam Kitching stabbed a clearance into the back of his own net to leave the teams level at half-time.
The Sky Blues failed to get out of the traps in the second-half, with Cardiff City eventually taking the lead when the unfortunate Liam Kitching deflected a Josh Bowler cross into the net for his second own goal of the afternoon. It took too long to muster a response, with Haji Wright heading in with a few minutes left on the clock, only to be denied by the offside flag, being the closest the home side came to salvaging a result.
Struggles With Possession Continue
Coventry City ended this game with 62% of the possession but created little of note beyond a well-worked opening goal scored by Ellis Simms. They were up against a well-drilled Cardiff City side that were largely content to sit in a defensive shape and look to cut off passing lanes, waiting for opportunities to break via their pacey forward line. The Sky Blues were asked to find quality to open their opponents up but struggled to do so.
There was a level of impatience to the team’s play, spells of possession fell apart when players looked to play risky passes that weren’t on. It wasn’t until Cardiff City sat off in the final ten minutes of the match that Coventry City managed to sustain attacking pressure, but still the Sky Blues looked a little uncertain of the best approach to break down an organised defence that gave them little room to break into.
The approach seemed to centre on keeping Milan van Ewijk and Haji Wright high and wide on either flank, the difficulty Coventry City faced was in picking them out in space. Cardiff City used their front four players to slow down the build-up play from the back by cutting passing lanes, forcing Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles to wade into pressure to offer a pass out of defence. When the wide players were picked out, Cardiff were narrow and often able to crowd Van Ewijk and Wright out to stymie attacks of promise. The in-form Ellis Simms was barely involved, despite his excellent involvement in the opening goal.
With Cardiff City keeping Coventry City’s forwards well-marked, the onus fell on both Ben Sheaf and Kasey Palmer to pick out their attacking colleagues with a level of precision they failed to find, aside from the move for the opening goal. With Palmer struggling to pull off the kind of risky balls that can be so scintillating to watch when they come off, Sheaf seemed to take it upon himself to play more ambitiously, but failed to find his range. With two key creative players off colour, the Sky Blues struggled to build attacking momentum.
This team seems to be at his best with open space to break into, with Haji Wright bursting into scoring positions on the left side, either Tatushiro Sakamoto or Milan van Ewijk running at defenders on the left, and Kasey Palmer carrying the ball and playing risky passes into space through the middle, Coventry City have shown they can be devastating when they can catch teams up the pitch. This game was an example of where this team still has to improve, against opponents looking to deny them that.
The Leaky Faucet
It may have been two pretty unfortunate own goals from Liam Kitching that allowed Cardiff City to win this game, but Coventry City again looked open defensively throughout much of the proceedings and it continues a trend of this team finding ways to fail to keep clean sheets. The key issue in this match was just how slow the team were in tracking back against an opponent with pace on the counter.
Part of Coventry City’s defensive issues in this match were driven by the struggles to make effective use of possession. Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles in midfield, along with Jake Bidwell and Joel Latibeaudiere at full-back were keen to bomb on from their positions to get involved in the attacking play, often leaving Kasey Palmer the deepest midfielder in possession to cut off counter-attacks. It left a Cardiff City side with pace up front, plenty of opportunities to threaten on the break.
Combined with the Sky Blues’ impatience in possession, their attempts to push forward were often Cardiff City’s best source of attacking threat. The left side looked a weak area of the team in particular, with Haji Wright staying up the pitch and Jake Bidwell timing his forward runs poorly, often ending up offside and unable to get involved, then getting caught up field when the team lost the ball. The corner prior to the first own goal came from a break down Coventry City’s left side, the cross for the second also came down Bidwell’s side of the pitch, with the full-back poorly positioned and too timid in closing down Josh Bowler for his cross.
Being able to control possession while limiting the threat on the break is as important for this team’s development as improving the accuracy when handed the majority of the ball. The simple fact in this game is that they would have won had they kept a clean sheet. Against a Cardiff City side that didn’t look to deviate from their game-plan of frustrating with their shape before breaking with pace, keeping a clean sheet was eminently achievable.
At 1-0 up, Coventry City didn’t approach the game like they were in the lead and that is the frustration here. They left themselves open and allowed Cardiff City a route back into the game. While it took a couple of unfortunate own goals for the Sky Blues to concede, they looked brittle at the back throughout much of the proceedings. In what is a tight battle for the final play-off spot, not being able to keep a clean sheet from a winning position is a concern.
Simms May Just Be The Real Deal
Ellis Simms’ goal in this game was perhaps the one in this recent streak that most underlines his credentials as a leading man for this team. Dropping deep to get involved in the build-up play, Simms’ was able to break Cardiff City’s defensive dead-lock with his quick use of the ball and urgency to make a forward run towards the six-yard box. Dropping into a pocket of space between the right-back and right centre-back for Milan van Ewijk’s cross, Simms’ finish was confident and instinctive.
In that one move, Ellis Simms demonstrated all the attributes required to excel in the centre-forward position. From sensing the right moment to drop deep to get involved in the build-up play, the aggression in his carrying of the ball to inject the move with urgency, sensing the right moment to lay it off to Ben Sheaf, the instinct to continue his run off the ball, and spot the pocket of space to produce a first-time finish from, Simms showed the physicality, technical ability and instincts of a great centre-forward.
While the question surrounding Ellis Simms’ current run of form is how much of this is down to confidence, the instinctive nature of his goal in this game was a positive sign that he has the fundamentals required to keep scoring at a reliable rate. Simms is now the player that others are turning to when they are looking for inspiration, whether it was in how keen Kasey Palmer was to release him behind the Cardiff City centre-backs at every opportunity in this game, or how he was often the reference point in the final stages for the team’s attacking play, this team is beginning to rely on Simms and he seems to be relishing the responsibility.
One of the key struggles in this match was that the team couldn’t get Ellis Simms involved enough. There was such intent and urgency to whenever Simms was on the ball, he was pretty much the only player who unsettled Cardiff City’s defensive shape. There is only so much a centre-forward can do when the rest of the team is off-colour, but Simms did just about everything he could to get the result for Coventry City here. He only looks to be getting better and better right now.
Sideways Sammy 