Sideways Sammy

A frustrating defeat in midweek at West Bromwich Albion has put Coventry City back on the backfoot and looking over their shoulders ahead of what is now a crucial run of fixtures against teams near the bottom of the division. Any positivity from last week’s win over Millwall has already fizzled out and there is pressure on Frank Lampard and the Sky Blues to pick up results that would back up the notion that this is a good team underperforming and not simply just a bad team.

Bottom-placed Hull City travel to the CBS Arena looking for some early positivity under a new manager of their own, after last week’s appointment of Ruben Selles. Another team that is performing below expectations, the danger here is that Coventry City come up against an opposition’s ‘new manager bounce’ rather than benefitting from their own. This looks set to be a tense fixture between two teams desperate for the points.

Expected Line-Up

With this game coming so shortly after Wednesday night, the temptation for Frank Lampard to change things up will be strong here. The largely underwhelming display will only make the decision to see what those who’ve yet to be given a chance under the new boss handed one even easier.

Defence appears to be the key area in which Lampard may look to mix things up as he seeks his strongest starting XI. As unfortunate as Coventry City were to be behind against West Bromwich Albion in midweek, the team are on a poor streak of letting just about every shot on target in, which may tempt the head coach into giving Oliver Dovin a goal to see if he can do any better than the somewhat unlucky Brad Collins has been doing recently. In addition, Joel Latibeaudiere getting skinned for the Baggies’ crucial second goal may see him lose his place, with Liam Kitching the likeliest to come in as the only centre-back Lampard hasn’t got involved yet.

In midfield, Victor Torp may come in for Josh Eccles purely to add some freshness in the centre of the park after a midweek fixture. A remote possibility may even to pair Torp and Eccles together in the middle to hand a somewhat out-of-sorts Ben Sheaf what could be a valuable rest.

Up top, Norman Bassette’s toothless display last time out may well see Ellis Simms return to the starting line-up. Either Ephron Mason-Clark or Tatsuhiro Sakamoto may be candidates to be handed a rest here after being heavily involved recently, however, Brandon Thomas-Asante didn’t exactly make his strongest case to start in either’s stead during his substitute appearance against West Bromwich Albion.

Last Time We Met

It was just days after that heart-breaking FA Cup Semi Final defeat to Manchester United back in April, so it wasn’t surprising that Coventry City were so leggy against Hull City at the CBS Arena. The Tigers were ahead just after the half-hour mark, when Brad Collins inexplicably let a routine save slip past him into the back of the net. Kasey Palmer levelled with a brilliant free-kick shortly afterwards, but Hull were level at half-time when Fabio Carvalho converted from a softly-win penalty-kick.

A tired Coventry City side rallied in the second-half and were level again thanks to some good work down the left by Jay Dasilva and Haji Wright to tease in a cross that Bobby Thomas headed powerfully into the back of the net. However, Thomas undid all that good work with to gift Hull City a winning goal late on with a bafflingly soft back-pass that set up Noah Ohio for an easy finish. It was a defeat that all but ended any hope of making the top six, continuing a streak of self-inflicted defensive errors that has lingered on into this season.

The Opposition

The Manager – Ruben Selles

The decision to sack Liam Rosenior after Hull City narrowly missed out on the play-offs last season was an unpopular call, with Rosenior’s successor, Tim Walter, doing little to prove the wisdom of such a call with a disastrous start to the campaign where the Tigers were both toothless up front and error-prone in defence. The impressive Ruben Selles – someone Coventry City really should have been considering for the recent vacancy – has been brought in from crisis club, Reading, hoping to get the fan-base back behind the team and the team up the table.

Selles, who has an impressive reputation as a coach from his time at Southampton, cut his managerial teeth in the most difficult of circumstances at a Reading side in financial meltdown. The Spaniard likes to play attacking, high-intensity, pressing football that allowed Reading to overcome a points deduction and transfer embargo by empowering young players to take risks and flourish as footballers. His task at Hull City is to do the same but with higher-calibre players and financial backing.

Who To Look Out For?

Having relied heavily on loan players in their play-off push last season, Hull City have had to start from square one this year, with much of their squad having been recruited fairly late in the summer. Owner, Acun Ilicali, has been willing to spend money on this team but the recruitment strategy has looked a little scattergun, contributing to what is a large, but unbalanced. squad with individuals capable of making an impact but not quite in the environment to do so.

Injuries to key wingers, Mohamed Belloumi and Liam Millar, have robbed Hull City of star talent to break teams down this season, along with struggles to find and settle on a recognised centre-forward. Still, Kasey Palmer and Abdus Omur are creative players who can unlock teams on their day, while summer signing, Abu Kamara, is an electric attacking threat who may shine when he settles into Championship football.

Finding the balance in central midfield looks a key early task for Ruben Selles, where he’s blessed with options, between the aforementioned Omur and Palmer who provide creativity, along with the energy of Regan Slater and Gustavo Puerta. The manager opted for a 4-2-3-1 in midweek in order to play Palmer through the middle, but may revert to the 4-3-3 that he used for most of his time at Reading here to make the team tighter away from home.

At the back, Charlie Hughes is one of the big hopes for this Hull City side, signed in the summer from Wigan Athletic as the replacement for Jacob Greaves, who left for Premier League Ipswich Town. The ball-playing centre-back has had good moments for Hull but has been part of a back-line that continually cough up big errors. With steady players like Sean McLoughlin and Lewie Coyle alongside him, if Ruben Selles can find a settled back-line, Hughes may flourish.

Where The Game Will Be Won Or Lost

Hull City may well relish the opportunity to take their newly-acquired pressing game to a team, in Coventry City, that like to play out slowly from the back and can be pretty loose in their attempts to do so. The Sky Blues will have to be prepared for what is likely to at least be an early blast from Hull as they look to squeeze the home side and force mistakes. Perhaps, going a little more direct early on may be helpful int settling into the match.

Hull City being early into playing a high-intensity pressing style may prove helpful to Coventry City if they can navigate that initial pressure the Tigers will put on the ball. There could well be gaps that open up for the Sky Blues to exploit, provided that the likes of Bobby Thomas and whoever his centre-back partner is, plus the central midfield, can avoid sloppy errors on the ball.