Sideways Sammy

Coventry City slipped to a defeat at home to Swansea City, falling behind two goals before they were able to muster much of a response.

Swansea were ahead in the eighth minute, when Liam Cullen was the first to a deflected ball in the penalty area from set-piece. It was two around the half-hour mark, when Ollie Cooper carried the ball into the Coventry City box under little pressure and fired a deflected shot past Oliver Dovin.

The Sky Blues could have been level by half-time, with Jack Rudoni seeing a long-range effort turned in off the shoulder of Swansea’s Ronald to halve the deficit. Norman Bassette then saw a header rattle the crossbar just before the break, with Rudoni’s follow-up effort well-saved by Lawrence Vigouroux in the opposing goal.

The second-half became a stop-start affair, epitomised by the referee pausing the game for five minutes in the midst of a fairly tame thunder storm. With Coventry City unable to put the opposing goal under any kind of sustained pressure, Swansea City were able to sit on their lead with a degree of comfort.

A Passive Start

After two positive performances in recent games without the results to show for it, this was the time for Coventry City to start winning and build momentum. To concede so early was careless, to then let in a second before anyone in sky blue really got going was terminal. There may have been chances to level from two down, but it was a situation the Sky Blues should not have got themselves in.

Mark Robins will reflect that the key error he made in this game was sticking with the same outfield team that had expended so much energy in defeat to Tottenham Hotspur just a few days earlier. Several players looked leggy and unable to cover the amount of ground that had made them so effective in midweek, from Haji Wright looking sluggish, Milan van Ewijk getting caught for pace on a couple of occasions to, most notably, Jamie Allen having to be substituted with a first-half injury, it was a poor decision not to freshen things up. This was exemplified by Swansea City’s second goal, where Ollie Cooper was allowed to carry the ball a long way before anyone attempted to close him down.

The goals conceded rendered the overall plan of employing the same tactic of being compact without the ball against a possession-heavy team that had largely worked against Tottenham Hotspur less effective in this game. Coventry City knew that attempting to press Swansea City’s deep build-play would leave space for the opposition to exploit, falling behind so early left them caught between trying to up the urgency while sticking to the original plan.

The frustrating thing for Mark Robins is that, in a sense, the plan worked. Swansea City rarely dominated the ball in Coventry City’s half and it was the home side that had much of the game’s best chances. The problem was that Swansea didn’t have to dominate because of the situation they were handed by the Sky Blues’ soft defending.

Both goals reflected the lack of authority and defensive responsibility that has dogged this Coventry City side since pretty much the start of the calendar year. It’s not about having one authority figure to dominate aerially and point team-mates around, it’s finding a way to rectify the utter passiveness this Sky Blues side consistently shows defensively.

No-one should be free of responsibility for the continued defensive leakiness. From how individual players fail to take charge of defensive situations, to how the coaching staff seems to have been unable to work this squad into an effective defensive unit, to the recruitment team failing to address what was a known issue in defence heading into the summer.

While it’s not the only issue with this Coventry City side, a couple of clean sheets would have turned this slow start into a decent one. Unlike the attack, there is much less confidence currently that things will eventually click. There will have to be big questions asked from top to bottom if this streak of passive defending continues much longer.

Chances Not Taken (Again)

On the one hand, it can be taken as a positive that Coventry City continue to generate good chances despite things not looking to have clicked yet. On the other, it is utterly frustrating and there is concern that if it continues for much longer, those chance will dry up.

This was a third game in a row that Coventry City have failed to win despite having the lion’s share of the game’s best chances. Here, it was Brandon Thomas-Asante fluffing a one-on-one in the first-half, then that ridiculous crossbar hit from Norman Bassette that led into a great save from Lawrence Vigouroux in the Swansea City goal from Jack Rudoni, with some decent chances coming from set-pieces in the second-half. The Sky Blues were close to turning this game around from a tricky situation.

As much as it doesn’t help that the defence continues to leak soft goals, Coventry City rank around mid-table for goals conceded, it is goals scored that they currently look a lower-end side. Recent performances, and Expected Goals, suggest that this team isn’t far from scoring more reliably, but there is starting to be pressure for that to change soon. There is only so long a team can be unlucky before it impacts confidence.

Just what the solution is to make that luck change is hard to identify. Maybe all it will take is one game where this team takes its chances. The concern is that if this continues for much longer, the league table only adds to the pressure Coventry City are under.

A Lack Of Identity

While Coventry City had chances to level this game, they didn’t really come from the team putting Swansea City under sustained pressure. There was a sense of the Sky Blues looking to give the ball to individuals to see what they could make happen than much structure in their attacking play, with the substitutions only adding to the disparateness of the home side’s display.

The game threatened to turn in Coventry City’s favour when Victor Torp came on mid-way through the first-half. The Dane’s passing ability finally gave the team the ability to get out of their own half with accurate balls into the forwards. This was backed up by better pressing of Swansea City higher up the pitch to force errors, with Jack Rudoni and Norman Bassette leading the charge. However, energy levels faded and the game became stop-start in a manner that favoured Swansea.

It is when the game threatens to break down that the identity of a team becomes apparent. The only thing that really looked apparent as this match wore on was hitting hopeful balls into channels for the forwards to chase. That played perfectly into Swansea City’s hands, providing them with opportunities to break up the flow of the game with goal-kicks and throw-ins.

The hit-and-hope nature of the performance was added to via the substitutions. All five were like-for-like and only the aforementioned Victor Torp made any kind of impact on the game. With no change to the shape that Swansea City were comfortable defending, the Sky Blues were hoping that someone was going to find a moment of inspiration – like Jack Rudoni’s long-range effort in the first-half – to change the direction of the result. This was epitomised by swapping left-backs in the 93rd minute, with Jay Dasilva failing to touch the ball after coming on.

This is a team looking for inspiration via individuals that currently seems to be lacking the individuals with the star power in order to provide that. That can be accounted for with some kind of structure to the team’s play, but that is not apparent at the moment.