Sideways Sammy

Coventry City were comprehensively defeated by Sheffield United in a chastening display at Bramall Lane.

The Sky Blues had started the game well, as they controlled possession and caused one or two problems for the home defence. However, the Blades never really looked back after an excellent Gustavo Hamer free-kick handed them the lead.

Sheffield United were two up just over ten minutes later, when Tyrese Campbell was picked out in the penalty area for a confident finish. Campbell then lunged in on Oliver Dovin not long after, causing an injury to the Swede that ended his night (maybe his season) early. It was then a case of how many more the home side felt like scoring as they spurned several good breaks to stretch their lead.

Coventry City at least came out in the second-half with some intent, but never really troubled Michael Cooper in the home goal, before Rhian Brewster was left in acres of space to score a third goal to truly end the game as a contest.

Jack Rudoni may have pulled a goal back, but it was too little too late for a Sky Blues side that were well-beaten and are now forced to sweat over the weekend’s results and then a home game against another top team, in Burnley, next weekend in order to hold onto their top six place.

An Unlucky Start

Coventry City started this game brightly, dominating possession and looking to have settled into the atmosphere at Bramall Lane rather well. To be able to go to one of the best teams in the division and have the confidence to both look to impose their style of play and actually do so was impressive. The problem was that, Sheffield United scored two of their first three attempts on goal, which effectively ended the game as a contest within the first thirty minutes.

Goals from direct free-kicks are rare, especially from the range at which Sheffield United scored their opening goal from. The Blades’ second also had a touch of fortune to it, with their right-back, Femi Seriki, stumbling over to get past Ephron Mason-Clark to set up Tyrese Campbell to finish. In a low-scoring game, moments like this can make all a huge impact on how games play out. Any team is going to find it hard to come back from two goals down away from home.

Being behind for the remainder of the contest didn’t suit Coventry City at all. They were forced to stretch themselves on the front foot against an opponent that were very happy to play on the counter-attack. The rest of the match became a question of just how much Sheffield United would take advantage of the position they found themselves in, the Sky Blues were lucky they only registered one more after racing to that 2-0 lead.

It is another limp defeat against a strong team and, while there can be questions asked as to how Frank Lampard sets the team up for these games, there isn’t much that could have been done here about starting so unluckily. From the opposition hammering in a free-kick with their first meaningful chance of the game, deflections falling in their favour or an awkward collision that could well render the team’s first-choice goalkeeper out for the remainder of the campaign, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong for Coventry City in the first-half did.

The remainder of the game was a test of the team’s mentality in the face of what was an almost certain defeat. There has to be some encouragement taken from how the Sky Blues continued to look to impose their game on Sheffield United, and created some decent chances at 2-0 down that could have made the home side sweat. While they didn’t turn things around here, the challenge now is to wipe this game out of the memory and look to do similar things against Burnley, and look to benefit from some luck next time out.

The Best And Worst Of Matt Grimes

Matt Grimes was absolutely central to the manner in which Coventry City bossed possession in this game. Managing 97 touches – over 30 more than any Sheffield United player – he kept the ball moving nicely at the base of the midfield, which threatened to put the home side on the back foot. However, it can’t be ignored just how easy it was for the Blades to run directly run though the space in midfield that Grimes was meant to be covering, which led to at least two of their three goals.

Sheffield United’s first came from Gustavo Hamer finding space in front of the Coventry City back-line to drive towards goal and draw a panicked challenge from Bobby Thomas leading to the free-kick Hamer scored from. The third goal is completely dereliction of duty from Grimes, who not only vacated the space in front of the defence in the build-up but was sucked towards his own penalty area attempting to recover from it, which left Rhian Brewster completely free in space to produce the finish from.

To be the deepest-lying midfielder and come out of a game with zero tackles and zero interceptions should be pretty embarrassing for Matt Grimes. It may not primarily be his job to do the defensive work in midfield, but to not step up in a game where the circumstances asked for at least some level of intervention from him in that area was poor. It made it further apparent that Grimes is not the gritty midfield leader expected of someone of his age and experience.

For Matt Grimes to do what he is so good at with the ball, he needs his midfield colleagues to step up with the work without it. Jamie Allen, after an excellent showing against Sunderland, was a peripheral figure, rarely in a position to get close to Sheffield United players making runs beyond and around him. Whereas he had constantly been in the right position at the right time last time out, here, Allen looked too far forward and nowhere near being able to affect the game.

This game highlighted that while Matt Grimes could be integral to Coventry City going to the better teams at this level and imposing their style of play in possession on them, he cannot be left in a position to do most of the defensive work in midfield. Frank Lampard is clearly still seeking the right midfield set-up around Grimes to provide him that platform to excel. This performance showed just how much work there is still to do on finding that.

Finding A Way To Be More Robust

As unlucky as Coventry City were to fall behind to a team scoring from two of their first three attempts on goal, what happened after that exposed that this kind of defeat may have happened even without Sheffield United benefiting from a couple of slices of fortune to get into a dominant early position. The Sky Blues were largely powderpuff in their response to getting back into the game, ponderous in possession, short of ideas going forward and all too easy to counter-attack against. In the end, Coventry were lucky they only lost by two goals.

For Frank Lampard, it is becoming a trend that the games against stronger teams play out in this manner, where the opposition quickly spot the frailty from balls in behind and continually target it until the contest is quickly over. While there is some encouragement to take from being able to control large spells of this game, particularly at 0-0, there have to be questions raised about whether the manager could be doing more with this team to keep themselves in matches against better teams and give themselves a chance of taking results.

The big issue remains just how easily opponents are getting in behind the defence. As mentioned in the previous point, the lack of defensive protection the midfield offered was a big reason behind Sheffield United repeatedly manufacturing chances on the break. There is probably a question to be asked as to whether playing with a back three for matches like this might mitigate that opposition threat – although, those big defeats to Leeds United and Ipswich Town both came while playing three at the back.

Moreover, the question is whether this team could play with more nous and robustness to be able to compete in games like this. The decision by Bobby Thomas for the first goal to wipe out Gustavo Hamer to take a yellow card for the team was pretty rash considering that it wasn’t even 20 minutes into the game. That weakness of teams getting in behind the defence is leading to some poor decision-making.

The manner in which the contest between Ephron Mason-Clark and Femi Seriki on Coventry City’s left played out summed up the game. Seriki looked very nervous early on and a key area for the Sky Blues to target, however, Mason-Clark’s half-hearted attempts to track back boosted the confidence of Sheffield United’s full-back. Seriki went on to create further chances after assisting the Blades’ second goal and looked considerably more comfortable in his defensive duties. It could have played out very differently had Mason-Clark got on top of that battle and underlined Coventry’s lack of ruthlessness.

There’s almost a sense with this team under Frank Lampard that there is such a focus on the process of building up with possession that some of the competitiveness is being ironed out. While Coventry City never stopped looking to build spells of possession from the back, they never really changed things up in response to the state of the game and didn’t look like scoring until the opposing goalkeeper flapped at a corner-kick in injury time. That inability to respond to set-backs in any other way than continuing to execute their initial plan is another reason Coventry are falling short in these games against the better teams.

Whether it’s in changing up the approach entirely or simply taking on games with more nous and being able to respond in the big moments, Coventry City need to do something different in these kind of games than they are currently. As defining as that could be during the run-in, to be able to actually do something in the play-offs requires a big game mentality this team currently looks to be short of.