After one of the most impressive results of the season on Saturday, in ending Leeds United’s unbeaten run in 2024, there is no time to bask in that glory. Coventry City head to 4th-placed Southampton for a midweek game that they may well have to win to keep up the pressure on the top six. This is the stage of the season where consistency is more valuable than any individual result.
The opposition in front of the Sky Blues are a Southampton side that have been a cut above the majority of the division this campaign. While recent results mean they have little to play for between now and the start of the play-offs, they are a very good side who can prey on Coventry City’s need for the win by picking off any gaps that open up. Off the back of probably the toughest remaining league game of the season, Coventry head straight into the next-most.
Expected Line-Up
Mark Robins has to find a way to balance keeping players in the team who are in form with maintaining fitness levels to keep something in the tank for Saturday’s trip to a Birmingham City side desperate for points in their battle against the drop. This could well be the game where the manager makes changes with fitness specifically in mind, with a draw a somewhat acceptable outcome here and to perhaps leave him with intentful changes to utilise from the bench later on.
Just who might be handed a rest in this game, remains to be seen. Milan van Ewijk and Haji Wright probably stand out as the biggest potential blows were they to get injured as it would force the manager to re-think his tactics, the issue is that there importance is the result of a lack of natural replacements for them in the team. Joel Latibeaudiere could return at right-back, although would be a concern against Southampton’s quick wide-men who tend to stay very high up the pitch. Fabio Tavares or Jay Dasilva could take Wright’s place, but that might be too significant of a drop-off to consider for such a difficult game.
Elsewhere, Victor Torp is the strongest candidate to come into the team and inject some fresh legs into the mix. With Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles playing so well at the moment in central midfield, it is hard to see the Dane claiming either player’s place, which could see him come in for either Callum O’Hare or Kasey Palmer to stiffen the midfield up. It’s a tough call between O’Hare and Palmer, with O’Hare fresher than Palmer but much less comfortable with playing out wide as he’d likely have to do to incorporate Torp coming into the team.
Last Time We Met
Southampton showed up at the CBS Arena back in December off the back of a lengthy unbeaten run and dominated much of the first-half. With the home crowd threatening to get restless with Coventry City’s lack of possession as they looked to stay disciplined in shape to keep Southampton out, an early second half goal settled the mood. It was all down to Callum O’Hare, who robbed the Saints as they were looking to build play from the back, and quickly spotted Haji Wright in space approaching the penalty area, allowing the American to finish confidently to hand the home side the lead.
Frustratingly, however, Coventry City undid all their hard work to keep Southampton quiet by switching off the back momentarily to allow Samuel Edozie to fire past Brad Collins to level the scores. It was pretty much the only chance the Saints created after falling behind, which meant that a potentially valuable three points ended up as just one apiece for both sides.
The Opposition
The Manager – Russell Martin
A manager who Mark Robins has never beaten, Russell Martin has continued his brand of very possession-heavy football at a Southampton side who were relegated from the top-flight last year. The debate around Martin remains the same as from his Milton Keynes Dons and Swansea City days, for all the style, are his teams capable of winning things? This season has provided evidence on both sides of the debate, Southampton has been comfortably one of the four best teams in the division and played some very good football for much of the campaign, however, a couple of poor runs of form have extinguished any hope of challenging for automatic promotion. An upcoming play-off campaign could swing perceptions of Martin more definitively either way.
For all the clear sense of style under Russell Martin, the season has run aground somewhat in two key areas. The first has been in being able to prevent opposition counter-attacks, having conceded nearly 20 goals more than their key promotion rivals, Leicester City and Leeds United, who look to be similarly dominant of the ball. The second has been that Martin hasn’t quite settled on his preferred set-up in attack, with Saints oscillating between being unstoppable up front to surprisingly stodgy, with only Adam Armstrong having scored consistently. Those are two issues that Martin will be keen to nail down over the remaining games as he looks to establish the formula for the play-offs.
Who To Look Out For?
The aforementioned Adam Armstrong has been a key star for Southampton this season, bouncing back from a couple of indifferent seasons in the top-flight to not only be the team’s leading scorer but also a key creative figure. Armstrong has tended to play out wide, where his explosive pace can be utilised to get in behind defences if they look to push up on Southampton, but he has also shown he can drop deep to get involved in the build-up to create chances for others, with 11 assists this season, Armstrong is one of the most creative players in the league, on top of being one of the top-scorers.
Finding the right attacking colleagues for Adam Armstrong has been the chief concern for Southampton this season. Che Adams’ bustling physicality and pace theoretically provides a useful reference point for Armstrong to buzz around but the team’s dominance of the ball has often made Adams a bit too much of a peripheral figure. Instead, Russell Martin has tended to surround Armstrong with pacey wingers, with David Brooks, Samuel Edozie, Ryan Fraser and Kamaldeen Sulemana all having had patches of form this season and are very dangerous in one-against-one situations if left too much space.
In central midfield, Flynn Downes’ availability has tended to coincide with Southampton’s best form this season. Operating at the base of the midfield, Downes’ ability to break up counter-attacks with niggly fouls while also using the ball very well when in possession has made him invaluable in protecting the Saints’ fragile back-line. Taylor Harwood-Bellis from centre-back is another key playmaker in this team with his ability to pick out that attacking pace with balls over the top. While Joe Aribo, Stuart Armstrong and Joe Rothwell all provide the ability to pop up with goals from midfield to help draw teams away from sitting deep.
Another key player for Southampton is Kyle Walker-Peters at right-back, who has found Championship football almost too easy. The full-back’s ability to bomb up the pitch and dance past defenders is a key source of penetration against the low blocks Southampton often find themselves up against, he’s often handed something of a free role from right-back such is his individual skill.
Where The Game Will Be Won Or Lost
This looks set to be a draining 90 minutes against a team that will happily pass the ball between themselves for the entirety of the contest if they cannot spot gaps to pick out further forward. Off the back of such a huge effort at the weekend, this is a major test of both fitness and concentration levels. On top of that, Mark Robins has really struggled to figure out whether the best approach with Russell Martin teams is to be proactive or sit deep and the concern here is that he might find himself caught between two stalls here as he often has in the past against Martin.
As the team showed at the weekend, they are at their best pushing up the pitch and playing the ball forward quickly. The risk with such an approach here is twofold, the first is that there hasn’t been enough time since Saturday’s game to adequately restore energy levels. The second is that in pushing up, that provides room for Southampton to pick Coventry City off.
With Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles often pushing up the pitch in tandem, that potentially leaves a lot of space in midfield for Southampton to either play their pacey attacking players in behind or get them one-on-one against the Sky Blues’ full-backs. That was apparent even in keeping Leeds United out in the first-half of the last game, where their wide-men were able to get good opportunities to create chances which they didn’t quite take because of how loose Coventry were in midfield. With less fresh legs to be able to scramble at the back, it is going to be vital that Sheaf and Eccles stay more disciplined in their defensive duties.
The key area of opportunity for Coventry City looks to be attacking the space Southampton leave behind their full-backs, with the left-back tending to tuck inside in possession and Kyle Walker-Peters bombing very high up on the right. Either or both of Haji Wright and Milan van Ewijk will be best able to take advantage of that space to attack, provided they can be quickly picked out either by the midfield or getting the ball into Ellis Simms to lay off into their path.
Sideways Sammy 