Sideways Sammy

A tame performance and a defeat on opening day has put a dampener on the optimism surrounding Coventry City heading into the new campaign. For all the talent in the squad, finding the best combinations and a balance between attack and defence will be key concerns for Mark Robins over the first few weeks of the season. While it looks to a case of tweaks rather than radical changes, the evidence from the sample size Saturday’s one game is that this team isn’t quite ready to live up to its billing as promotion candidates.

A trip to a divisional rival in the first round of the League Cup, a fixture that will be repeated in less than a fortnight’s time, lacks any kind of glamour or novelty, with the result either way likely to be forgotten as soon as league action resumes. As much as this match might provide a useful opportunity for Mark Robins to experiment with the team to find what works, the manager is unlikely to set too much store on the final result.

Expected Line-Up

With a bigger, deeper squad than ever, this is an early opportunity for Mark Robins to be able to see just how much of an impact making swingeing changes will have on performance levels. Given the damp squib of Saturday’s performance against Stoke City, this is a chance for pretty much any of the players coming into the team to stake a claim ahead of Friday’s league match against Oxford United.

All eyes are likely to be on the make up of the attack for this game, with players of the calibre of Haji Wright, Brandon Thomas-Asante and Kasey Palmer able to be rotated into the starting line-up. For Haji Wright, this is a chance to build up some fitness after missing a couple of weeks of pre-season through injury, while for Palmer and Thomas-Asante a strong performance here puts them in Mark Robins’ thinking for further chances soon, even if Jack Rudoni and Ellis Simms currently look nailed-on starters ahead of them in their respective positions.

The other notable rotation decision for this game look to be Ben Wilson being utilised as the cup goalkeeper this season, with Brad Collins seeming to have dropped from first to third in the pecking order in goal and a candidate for a move elsewhere before the end of the transfer window. In addition, this could be a chance for Liam Kitching to get back into Mark Robins’ good graces in defence, after serving the final game of a suspension lingering from last season.

The rest of the likely team looks set to be the obvious second-choice players in each position, with the biggest call possibly being in the midfield two, where there is a need to keep at least two out of Josh Eccles, Jamie Allen and Victor Torp fresh ahead of Friday’s league match. Presuming that Eccles didn’t start at the weekend due to some kind of knock, he seems the least likely to start. The door is also open for a youngster like Kai Andrews or Ryan Howley to start in order to keep legs in midfield fresh.

Last Time We Met

Coventry City were just about coming to the end of their excellent run over the festive period as they took on Bristol City at the CBS Arena in a midweek game back in January. The Robins were well-drilled as they frustrated the Sky Blues in the early exchanges and threatened to take the lead. That fear looked to have been quelled with a Tatsuhiro Sakamoto effort mid-way through the first-half, but Rob Dickie – for the second time against Coventry in the season – nodded in from a set-piece routine to level scores at the break.

Both teams looked exhausted during a low-quality second-half. A late Nahki Wells goal, taking advantage of lax Coventry City defending, looked enough to win it for Bristol City. However, Ellis Simms tapped home a rebound after a Liam Kitching shot was parried by Max O’Leary in the away goal. A draw was the fair result.

The Opposition

The Manager – Liam Manning

The former Oxford United boss has yet to get going at Bristol City since taking over in November of last year. A low-quality draw on the opening day, away at Hull City, means that Liam Manning has now won, drawn and lost 12 games apiece in the Robins dugout, doing little to affect the impression that he is a mid-table manager operating at a mid-table club.

Manning prefers an organised approach, focusing primarily on the defensive shape and negating opponents’ strengths. That has tended to work well against the stronger teams in both this division and the division above – beating West Ham United in the FA Cup last year being his most notable achievement at Ashton Gate – but has tended to struggle when his teams have to take the initiative. Liam Manning may well be relishing the prospect to advance in the League Cup to take on bigger teams that he will fancy his chances at, providing an opportunity of achieving buy-in from fans who remain cold to his talents.

Who To Look Out For?

It’s the first round of the League Cup – a.k.a. the final game of pre-season for most managers – so it’s really anyone’s guess what kind of team will be picked, how much preparation has been put into the game and how motivated the teams will be to win. Liam Manning has tended to play his strongest possible teams in cup competitions, so this could be a good test of what is likely to be close to a second-string Coventry City side.

The main thing about this Bristol City side are that they are a fairly young, energetic and hard-working outfit, that’s probably missing just one or two genuinely star players who can turn tight games into their favour. The likes of Jason Knight, Joe Williams, Max Bird, Mark Sykes, Ross McCrorie, George Tanner and Cameron Pring are really solid players through the spine of the team that will run through walls, making them a dream for managers to work with. On top of that, Rob Dickie and Zak Vyner is a reliable defensive duo in front of the decent Max O’Leary in goal.

The hope is that the summer additions of forward trio Sinclair Armstrong, Fally Mayulu and Yu Hirakawa, plus one or two others to come, can provide that missing star quality to the team, however, they are relatively raw talents. Strikers Armstrong and Mayulu both possess excellent physical qualities, a touch of pace and dribbling ability that can really stretch opponents but seem to be missing killer touch in front of goal. Japanese winger, Yu Hirakawa, is an exciting dribbler but will miss the opening weeks of the campaign after getting injured in the Olympics.

On top of that, the hope is that players like Anis Mehmeti and Sam Bell already within the first-team ranks can be coaxed into more consistent form, having shown flashes over the past year or so.

Where The Game Will Be Won Or Lost

Mark Robins is likely to feel that the team he names for this game will be able to play on the front foot as he looks to put Saturday’s false start at Stoke City behind him. That could well play into the favour of Bristol City, who like to make themselves solid and put teams looking to control possession into awkward positions with the way they set about pressing.

That hub in possession at the back, of Ben Wilson in goal, the likely central defensive duo of Liam Kitching and Joel Latibeaudiere, plus whoever is selected in central midfield are going to have to be very precise in possession to get Coventry City going in this game. The concern is that Ben Wilson is not the most accurate or comfortable of passers from the goalkeeping position which will either lead to disjointed build-up play or make errors that can directly lead to Bristol City chances. In addition, the habit of both Kitching and Latibeaudiere for making sloppy errors on the ball could be punished here.

Furthermore, a likely full-back pairing of Jack Burroughs on the right and Jay Dasilva on the left could well provide Bristol City ample room to break in behind if Coventry City get through that initial press but struggle to pick a final pass into the forwards. With Ben Wilson uncomfortable coming off his line to sweep up behind the defence, the counter-attack looks a big source of threat for the home side.

With the pace that Coventry City look set to have in attack for this game, finding ways to either play forward quickly into space or on the counter looks to be the team’s best chance of success. Brandon Thomas-Asante at centre-forward will struggle to get into the game if the build-up is slow, even if there is the option of moving out wide to work crosses to Haji Wright at the back post. While Bristol City may feel like Zak Vyner’s speed at centre-back can cover for that ball in behind, Thomas-Asante’s acceleration has the ability to scare anyone if he has space to run into.