Coventry City went down to a 2-1 defeat away at Southampton to put a dent in their bid to make the top six.
The Sky Blues had a golden opportunity early on to take the lead, when Joel Latibeaudiere tumbled in the penalty area and the referee blew for a pretty soft spot-kick. However, Haji Wright slipped in his run-up and hit the bar, setting the tone for a lacklustre first-half performance. Southampton were soon 1-0 up, when Kyle Walker-Peters’ strike from the edge of the area took a deflection off his teammate, Che Adams, and past Brad Collins in the Coventry goal.
The goal did little to stir Coventry City to life, with Southampton looking likeliest to score next. When the second game, it was in rather tame circumstances, with the Sky Blues failing to deal with a corner-kick delivery, Brad Collins making a soft attempt to palm the ball away from danger and Che Adams the first to react despite being surrounding by Coventry shirts.
It took until well after the break for Coventry City to get going, forcing panic among the home ranks as they lost the ability to control possession in the manner they had been before. A Fabio Tavares cross picked out Jake Bidwell at the far post to pull a goal back, but it was ultimately too little, too late as the Sky Blues failed to trouble Gavin Bazunu in the Saints goal much in the remaining minutes.
A Docile First-Half
Coventry City were two goals down at half-time, having registered just three shots on goal – including Haji Wright’s skied penalty attempt – which gave them too much work to do to salvage the game despite an improved second-half performance. The Sky Blues just couldn’t get close to Southampton for the opening 45 minutes, the effort that went in to Saturday’s win over Leeds United apparent in how little was left in the tank for this game. They were somewhat fortunate only to go in at half-time two goals down.
That lack of energy was the key issue for Coventry City in that first-half, unable to put pressure on Southampton as they knocked it around and leaving too much space around their defence for the Saints to pick out through balls into their front three. If the Sky Blues tried to press, they were picked off with balls over the top, if they tried to sit in, Southampton were content to knock it around to wait for gaps to open up. They needed legs that they didn’t have to make up the ground that was being left open all over the pitch.
Southampton played with their wide forwards very high and very wide, which meant Coventry City were constantly stretched at the back. Adam Armstrong on the left was consistently able to isolate Joel Latibeaudiere in favourable one-against-one situations, while David Brooks got in behind Jake Bidwell dangerously on several occasions, including in the build-up to the corner-kick ahead of Southampton’s second goal. The options to combat were to either sit in to try and double up on those dangerous wide-man or push up to cut off the ball into them, the Sky Blues did neither and were caught awkwardly between those two stalls in the first-half.
When Coventry City were able to get on the ball, they simply weren’t intentful enough with it to make Southampton sweat. Ellis Simms cut an isolated figure up front, while Haji Wright and Milan van Ewijk threatened to cause problems but couldn’t quite get the service. Callum O’Hare was unable to get the ball into the wide players right often enough, while the passing from deeper was sloppy.
What turned a sub-par first-half performance into a poor one was undoubtedly the manner in which the second goal was defended. Brad Collins’ limp attempt to fist the ball away from Che Adams embodied a wan attempt to deal with what should have been a defendable delivery into the box. That it was Adams making the greatest effort to get the ball and not the sea of Sky Blue shirts around him underlines this team’s lack of assertiveness defensively. It has cost the team a number of goals in recent weeks, which have seen that gap to sixth-place widen.
The Fine Margins
As sub-par as Coventry City were in the first-half, things could have been different had Haji Wright scored that early penalty and Kyle Walker-Peters’ shot for the first goal not taken a huge goalward deflection. Football is a tight game and these details can have a huge impact on the final result.
Just what caused Haji Wright to slip as he was taking the spot-kick, only he will know. Whether it was misfortune or bad execution, it was a key moment that didn’t go Coventry City’s way. The deflection for that opening goal also sits on that razor-thin edge between unlucky and hapless. Perhaps Kyle Walker-Peters should have been closed down before he was able to get the shot off, perhaps Brad Collins could have anticipated the deflection better, but that’s probably overanalysing a slice of misfortune.
Taken in isolation, those two events are unlucky but that they went the way they did reflected the nature of the performance from Coventry City. They created so little in the first-half that a pretty ropey penalty decision was pretty much their only good attack. They invited so many Southampton chances that one was likely to go in. Good teams are able to brute-force their way to good fortune, less good teams leave themselves in the hands of luck.
The second goal was very much not unlucky, and left Coventry City with a mountain to climb in the second-half. While they made a decent fist of it, they only had six more shots over the remainder of the game, which wasn’t really enough to trouble Southampton’s lead. The Sky Blues can’t really afford to be left in a similar position in any of the remaining games of this season, they need to do more to ensure they can be the ones on the right side of tight margins.
Tavares Catches The Eye
The biggest positive to come from this game was Fabio Tavares’ impact from the bench. While the forward has had flashes in a Coventry City shirt over the past couple of years, this was the first time that he looked confident in making an impact in a Championship game. Tavares was forward-thinking, made good runs, used the ball well, and produced the assist for Jake Bidwell to give something for the team to chase in the final minutes.
Fabio Tavares has often looked like someone who only really has pace in their favour. A stick-thin figure who looks like a stiff breeze could blow him over and with a gangly gait that makes it appear that the ball is never quite under his control, Tavares’ looked far more convincing and decisive here than he typically has done in these late cameos. Staying high and wide, the forward not only got himself into space to be picked out but drove with the ball, committed defenders and released it at the right time to keep attacks going.
It wasn’t just the assist he produced for Jake Bidwell, but the ball he put in later that nearly drew a foul on Haji Wright for a late penalty, as well as his testing deflected shot from the edge of the area that caught the eye here. This was a game in which Coventry City created just nine shots, Tavares was involved in a third of those attempts.
At a time when the Sky Blues are short on wide options and need to rotate the team to keep things fresh, this was a timely moment for Fabio Tavares to make an impact. This was a big step forward from the Tavares, who at 23 years old, is probably past due time to force his way into the fold at Coventry City. Based on this evidence, he may have a further role to play this season.
Sideways Sammy 