Sideways Sammy

Aidan Dausch

Appearances: 2, Minutes Played: 17, Goals: 0, Assists: 0

A youngster who had scored goals at under-18 level throughout the campaign before being promoted to the first-team bench in the final games due to an injury crisis, Aidan Dausch nearly made a name for himself with an audacious chip that went just over that could have put a dent in Ipswich Town’s eventual automatic promotion. The young forward looked energetic in the limited minutes he got and it must count for something that he got on the pitch given Mark Robins’ reticence to hand out debuts for youth-team players for the sake of it. Further involvement over the coming campaign looks unlikely for Dausch, the call will be whether to build him up in the under-21 side or find a loan that can offer him senior opportunities at a requisite level.

Matt Godden

Appearances: 41, Minutes Played: 2,521, Goals: 9, Assists: 1

The additions of big money strikers were always going to hamper Matt Godden’s prospects of playing regularly last season, but some important goals early in the campaign suggested he still had a role to play. Unfortunately for Godden, the goals dried up from the autumn onwards and it was increasingly hard to justify him getting minutes. Whether it was down to playing with one up top, a natural decline as he reaches his latter years or the sense that Godden needs a run of games to get going, he was never really afforded the opportunity to play himself into form.

It would save time and expense if Matt Godden could be kept around the team for the coming season and act as a rotation or bench option to nick some goals and ease the pressure on Ellis Simms and Haji Wright. However, Godden’s form over the second half of the campaign hasn’t been good enough to provide confidence that he is capable of playing that role. It seems likely that he will end up dropping down a level to play regular football over the next season, with his Coventry City career ending with something of a whimper, having made some great memories prior.

Ellis Simms

Appearances: 41, Minutes Played: 2,521, Goals: 19, Assists: 4

It took the majority of the campaign for Ellis Simms to get going, but since he has, he has looked almost the perfect centre-forward. A bustling physical presence in attack who can occupy centre-backs to open up space for team-mates and is becoming increasingly confident in his link play, Simms has been able to marry that with some excellent goal poaching instincts to find some lethal form that nearly carried the team into the top six. The work that Mark Robins put in to Ellis Simms of developing his all-round play has really started to pay fruition and there’s even a risk that top-flight sides might be tempted into taking a punt on his services over the summer.

In the likely event that Ellis Simms is around for the coming campaign, Coventry City fans should be excited for the opportunity for the striker to build on his second half of the season form. While Simms is still someone who needs service to score his goals, his ability to act as a physical central reference point in attack looks perfect if the team wants to dominate possession and win games more often next year, while he has developed the skill-set to lead the line for counter-attacking displays too. One of two forwards on the books for the Sky Blues who look capable of reaching the feted 20-goal mark over the next season.

Fabio Tavares

Appearances: 10, Minutes Played: 422, Goals: 3, Assists: 2

A serious injury the season before last looked to have come at a bad time for Fabio Tavares, who was just starting to get regular opportunities off the bench and then saw the club recruit an array of more expensive and senior forwards over the following summer. That Tavares was able to recover and get back on the pitch was an achievement in and of itself, but he made a couple of telling contributions – most notably, against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final – that suggested for the first time in Coventry City shirt that he might have a longer-term future as a first-team squad member.

If that first injury was unfortunate in its timing, missing the final games of this campaign was arguably even more rotten for Fabio Tavares. At 23 years old, the time has probably come for the club to make a decision either way on his future and he doesn’t have a wealth of evidence behind him to suggest he’s worth keeping a place in the squad open for. The incoming of Ephron Mason-Clark, plus any further summer signings, will only block Fabio Tavares’ pathway further. While there’s a lot to like about Tavares’ pace, enthusiasm and use of the ball, he’s probably best served getting a loan out to a lower level to gain the experience of regular first-team football that he desperately needs at this stage of his career.

Haji Wright

Appearances: 50, Minutes Played: 3,776, Goals: 19, Assists: 6

The club’s record signing, Haji Wright has just about lived up to expectations but there still a surprising amount of rough edges to his game. The biggest issue the American has faced in his first year at Coventry City has been in staying onside, which has been a key reason why he was moved out to the left wing so that he could benefit from a slightly deeper starting position. Combined with the sense that he doesn’t quite look to impose himself on opposing defences and how he can fluff big chances, Wright rather unconvincing for a club record striker, but his goal and assist return highlights that there is a method to Wright’s approach, the chief of which is simply by being relentless in his efforts throughout games.

Haji Wright is the type of forward who can take several chances before he scores, but it is the fact that he is so consistently capable of getting in scoring positions that has made him so effective. Wright can not only ghost into scoring positions from the left wing but can commit and beat defenders with his ball carrying ability. Defences simply cannot afford to let their attention slip against Wright because he will keep going for 90 minutes. Whether it’s in how that leads to his own chances or allows opportunities for others, Wright had made himself perhaps the team’s most important attacking player. Having had a year to adapt to English football, there seems no reason why he wouldn’t be able to build on that over the coming campaign.