Sideways Sammy

Coventry City recovered from a first-half deficit to claim a first home win in nearly two months against bottom-placed Hull City and pull themselves towards the comfort of mid-table.

In a first-half the Sky Blues dominated, Hull City took the lead shortly before the break when a loose ball in the penalty area fell kindly for the Tigers’ centre-forward, Joao Pedro, to finish past Brad Collins in goal. Booed off at the half-time whistle, Coventry City patiently worked themselves into a position in the second-half from which they could win the contest.

The turning point was a whipped delivery from the right from Victor Torp that bounced in off Ephron Mason-Clark’s face to level the scores shortly after the resumption of play. From then on, Coventry City looked in control and should have taken the lead in the 66th minute, when Norman Bassette was bundled over in the box after a heavy touch, only for Victor Torp to tamely roll the spot-kick low to the opposing goalkeeper’s side.

However, the Sky Blues remained on the front foot and were able to take the lead thanks to a powerful run down the left from Ephron Mason-Clark, who beat two defenders before standing up a cross for Jack Rudoni to attack in the penalty area. Despite a late rally from Hull City, Coventry City were then able to see the win out with a degree of comfort.

Cross-entry City

Coventry City have become an increasingly cross-heavy team this season and have attempted the second-most in the Championship this season – only Hull City have attempted more. In this game, they racked up 36 as they looked to break Hull down and that pressure eventually told, with both goals coming from crosses into the penalty area.

Crosses look to be the best answer this team has to breaking teams down that sit in against them. Lacking the precision to play through opponents in the middle of the pitch, Coventry City have often been funnelled out wide and been forced into those much loathed prolonged spells of possession around the penalty area. Whereas before, the Sky Blues seemed reluctant to put crosses in for fear of seeing attacks break down, under, firstly, Rhys Carr, and continuing under Frank Lampard, the team has become more willing to take the risk of whipping the bal into the box.

For much of this game, the problem with all the crossing was that Norman Bassette, at centre-forward, just wasn’t the kind of presence to trouble the opposition in attacking those balls in. The Belgian wants to play off the last shoulder of opponents and nip in behind, rather than looking to manufacture space for himself in tight areas in the penalty area. Hull City easily defended a lot of the crosses Coventry City put in, while the one good chance Bassette had from a header, he was unable to direct with accuracy.

While Norman Bassette went on to win the penalty that should have put Coventry City ahead later in the first-half, it was curious that he stayed on the pitch so long when the team was so clearly looking to put crosses into the box as their Plan A. This really wasn’t the game for Bassette to be the team’s starting centre-forward, which was further underlined by Ellis Simms’ 18-minute spell as a substitute, where he won more aerial challenges and had as many chances as Bassette had had during the 72-minutes prior.

What Coventry City are starting to do better at is in loading the penalty area with midfielders, so that it’s not all on the centre-forward to attack those crosses. For the winning goal, there are three players waiting in the middle of the box to attack Ephron Mason-Clark’s ball in after his excellent run. Earlier in the season, that kind of ball-carry from Mason-Clark may well have fizzled out due to there being no-one there to benefit from it.

Furthermore, the ability to work the angle to generate high-quality deliveries has improved over the past month or so. For Coventry City’s first goal, Victor Torp drifted into space on the edge of the right-side of the penalty area and was afforded room to play a quick ball into the box by Tatsuhiro Sakamoto holding width to his right. Additionally, Torp was empowered to put his cross in quickly, without there being anyone obviously there to attack it, due to the change in the team’s attitude away from playing it safe towards being more willing to take risks like that.

While opponents may soon become more wary about Coventry City’s willingness to cross and their threat from it, the benefit of this approach is that it helps draw opponents out of their defensive ranks. If teams become worried about letting the Sky Blues put crosses in, they will have to come out and close down that threat out wide, which opens up space elsewhere. Being able to threaten through the middle is the next challenge, but it may become easier if opponents are forced to do something about all these crosses this team is putting in.

It Doesn’t Have To Go Forward All The Time

Coventry City’s poor form at the CBS Arena this season has made the home fans increasingly twitchy when it comes to any extended spell in possession. It has been a theme for the Sky Blues to fall behind early and then struggle to break down an opponent sat in their defensive shape. However, this game showed why the better approach is to focus on keeping the ball, rather than giving into the desperation of the crowd to lump it forward.

The win in this game was a reward for balancing a patient approach in possession with spotting the right moments to take risks. For all the groans of derision when Coventry City looked to keep the ball at the back to build attacks, the home side forced Hull City to work to stay in their defensive shape and that eventually told later on as space opened up as the away team tired trying to hold onto a result. Both the penalty incident and Ephron Mason-Clark’s run for the winning goal came from taking advantage of a tired opposing defence.

There looks to have been an improvement already under Frank Lampard in that ability to turn spells of passing across the back-line into danger further up the pitch. The plan appears to be to set up in the in-vogue 3-2-5 structure when building play from the back, with either Ben Sheaf or one of the full-backs dropping into alongside the centre-backs to provide an extra passing option from deep to help navigate the opposition’s press.

Further forward, it is often one of the full-backs and a central midfielder who occupy the middle third of the pitch to act as a passing outlet from the back. While the full-backs operating in central areas has limited the ability for them to make overlapping runs to stretch opponents out wide, there is fluidity, so that if a midfielder or forward drops into that middle space, it allows the full-backs to push on and contribute to the attacking play. It is that movement in the middle from either the full-backs or midfielders to switch up positions and make it hard for the opposition to pick up that has helped de-stodge Coventry City’s build-up play.

Finally, looking to have five players in the final third is a key reason why the Sky Blues are a bigger threat when it comes to putting crosses into the penalty area, as elucidated in the last point. That front five are able to interchange positions, as seen by Ephron Mason-Clark and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto often coming off their respective wings to threaten in the penalty area, aided by Jack Rudoni floating out wide to take up the positions the wingers are leaving free.

Coventry City are looking to become a more deliberate and threatening team with possession under Frank Lampard and that has involved keeping the ball for long spells. While there are understandable nerves, given the team’s position in the league table and the lack of victories at the CBS Arena this season, this team is starting to show that they deserve more patience from their home crowd than they are currently getting.

If the Sky Blues had hammered the ball forward as much as they were being willed to do, it would have made it all the easier for Hull City to disrupt the flow of the game and hang onto their lead. In the end, the pressure Coventry had built told and this was a battering in all but the scoreline.

A Goalkeeper Finally Makes Big Saves

A key problem for Coventry City this season is that they haven’t been able to rely upon any of their goalkeepers to make key saves to keep opponents out. The Sky Blues have the second-highest conversion rate of shots against them in the Championship. Goals scored against Coventry tend to be cheaper than goals scored for them. Here, Brad Collins made a couple of key contributions to prevent that streak continuing.

There have been questions asked as to why Brad Collins is currently first-choice in goal and the answer to that prior to this game is that he is simply the man in possession of the shirt. Afforded the opportunity to injuries to Ben Wilson and Oliver Dovin, the reason why Collins has remained in the side is because neither of his predecessors in goal have done enough to lock down the position for their themselves. The stats suggest that there is almost no difference between who starts in goal, so it hasn’t made sense to take Collins out of the team in favour of anyone else.

Here, Brad Collins put in the first performance of any of the Coventry City goalkeepers this season that would begin to command a starting place. Helpless for the first goal, Collins made a couple of key saves in the second-half from dangerous Hull City attacks to keep the home side in the game. While it is just one performance, those saves could well be a step towards imbuing the defence with the confidence that their goalkeeper can bail them out if mistakes are made, which can help prevent those mistakes being made in the first place.

In a season where heroics in goal have been in short supply, seeing a goalkeeper make crucial saves stands out as a rarity. As much as a team shouldn’t have to rely on their goalie to bail them out, it is nice to know that it’s a possibility if needed. Whether Brad Collins can build on this performance to make the number one position in goal his own remains to be seen, but he stepped up in this game when the team needed him to.