Sideways Sammy

Coventry City squandered the lead against Burnley in frustrating fashion at the CBS Arena to drop out of the top six.

The Sky Blues took an early lead, when an excellent run from Milan van Ewijk opened up space for Jack Rudoni and Ephron Mason-Clark to have chances, before Haji Wright tapped the ball in from an offside position. It was just the start Coventry needed against an opponent who so rarely concede goals, forcing them to play the kind of game they are unused to.

However, the home side shot themselves in the foot ten minutes after taking that lead. Matt Grimes gave the ball away cheaply in midfield, with Burnley sweeping out a loose pass in the direction of Marcus Edwards, who found Josh Cullen and his pull-back found Jaidon Anthony with an open goal to fire into.

Coventry could have regained the lead heading into half-time, had Haji Wright found Jay Dasilva’s cross after an excellent break. Instead, they were behind shortly after the start of the second-half, when Brad Collins and Liam Kitching contrived to present Anthony with a second open goal.

From then on, Burnley sat on their lead as Coventry City struggled to create much of note. With the officials allowing the Clarets every opportunity to kill the clock, the Sky Blues failed to build much of a rhythm against one of the best ever Championship defences. Aside from the occasional threat from set-pieces, the game had ended as a contest once Jaidon Anthony’s effort hit the back of the net.

The Right Plan, Wrong Execution

To go ahead against a Burnley team that almost never concedes goals and fail to take anything from the game is a bitter blow for a Coventry City side who, in so many ways, got their game-plan right. It’s not just that the two that Burnley scored came almost directly from individual errors but the manner in which they put a strong opposing defence under pressure and stayed in the game despite the draining effect the mistakes would surely have had.

This was pretty much the first game under Frank Lampard against a stronger side where the defence didn’t look constantly vulnerable to balls in behind. There was a clear game-plan to try and limit Burnley’s ability to do so, which largely involved playing it longer out of defence, and attacking more directly in order to prevent the opposition turning the ball over in areas where they could catch Coventry City in transition.

Coventry City’s goal demonstrated part of this approach, with Milan van Ewijk creating an attacking opportunity by riding a couple of opposition challenges to set up Jack Rudoni for a chance that was eventually turned in by Haij Wright from an offside position. Van Ewijk was excellent on the day, able to get the team up the pitch by his ball-carrying, control in tight areas and directness in possession. It would have felt a long game without that ability to turn defence into attack quickly and Van Ewijk was a key source of that.

Frustratingly, the first time that Coventry City looked to switch things up and play out from the back – perhaps a ploy to keep Burnley guessing and draw them up the pitch to create space at the other end – Matt Grimes got the pass into midfield wrong. That left the defence scrambling and, despite Burnley providing several opportunities to recover, the scores were levelled.

Burnley’s winner is pure calamity, turning what had been a strong, competitive performance that had put one of the best teams in the division in a difficult position into exactly the game the Clarets wanted. Scoring once against this Burnley defence was an achievement to savour, scoring a second was a nigh-on impossible task. Coventry gave it a decent go, mainly resorting to set-pieces to threaten the opposing goal, but, in reality, the opportunity had already passed them by.

Nonetheless, there is encouragement to be taken from this performance in that this team can execute a game-plan to be competitive against a stronger team. That it didn’t came down to two avoidable defensive gaffes that, on another day, probably don’t happen. The Sky Blues may have dropped out of the top six following this game, but there should be some belief gained from the performance that they could compete were they to make the play-offs.

Was Collins The Problem?

With Oliver Dovin out for the season – and likely a large chunk of the next one – all eyes were on Brad Collins to generate some level of belief in his abilities. With most of the Coventry City fan-base having written Collins off as a hopeless cause, this was a chance to win back some belief in his abilities that he glaringly failed to take.

It was always going to be a tough ask for Brad Collins to step into this Coventry City defence against one of the best teams in the division. There was some relief early on when he made a comfortable save from a Jaidon Anthony shot, but that was as good as it good for Collins, who began to wobble as the game wore on.

There were already one or two moments of indecision from Collins, before he made the terrible decision of charging off his line to close down Josh Cullen for Burnley’s opening goal, presenting Jaidon Anthony with an open goal when he got nowhere near a ball he had little chance of getting to. Arguably, this was a worse error from Collins than the more glaring one later on as it was objectively the wrong decision to make to close down Cullen so far from his goal with a sea of his own defenders around him.

The second clearly looks terrible for Brad Collins, who, under little threat, wanders into no-man’s land and to tee up a tap-in for Burnley to win the game. It could be argued, however, that he probably made the correct decision to attempt to sweep up the ball behind the defence. The mistake here was not being decisive in his intent, which allowed the calamity to unfold.

Nonetheless, it would be letting off his defensive colleagues to blame those two goals solely on Brad Collins. For the first, the chance presents itself thanks to a sloppy pass from Matt Grimes and the complete failure of the rest of the team to organise themselves against an opposition attack that executed at far from breakneck speed. From Jay Dasilva being completely out of position to allow Marcus Edwards the time to receive a loose pass, to Liam Kitching standing still instead of covering the space Dasilva left open, to the sea of Sky Blue shirts that decide to retreat towards the goal line instead of marking the clearly open Jaidon Anthony. As much as Collins’ intervention was probably the fatal one, multiple players had the chance to prevent that goal happening.

The second is as much Liam Kitching’s fault as it is Brad Collins’. Not only is he caught out of position from a simple ball over the top but he fluffs an attempt to head the ball back to Collins, who had charged out of his penalty area, which clearly led to the moment of indecision from the goalkeeper to clear the ball. Kitching might argue that it was Collins who put him off in attempting to deal with the situation but if Collins had stayed on his line, that would have been an easy chance and probable goal for Burnley regardless.

Communication was clearly an issue for both goals, likely the result of Brad Collins not having played with this defence for over three months. Just how much responsibility Collins should take for that, only the players and coaching staff will have the insight to assess. As poor as those mistakes were from Collins, a more settled, organised back-line prevents him being in a position to make them.

Whether it’s in making another change in goal or making some adjustments at the back, being able to rectify the inherent sloppiness of this Coventry City back-line is the key concern over the remainder of the campaign. Losing Oliver Dovin’s ability to make stand-out interventions behind this defence has to serve to sharpen that focus.

Responding From Losing Positions

This final point comes with the key caveat that Coventry City were playing against a Burnley side that had only conceded two goals in the calendar year, however, the response to falling behind in this game highlighted an increasing concern of this team under Frank Lampard. They’ve only thrice taken anything from a game they’ve behind in, and come out on the winning side once – the most recent occasion being on New Year’s Day.

in this game, the issue was that this team had been set up to play on the counter-attack, a plan that fell apart as soon as Burnley took the lead early in the second-half. If it hadn’t been for Milan van Ewijk’s long throws and the occasional set-piece, Coventry City would have created almost nothing after falling behind. While the Sky Blues had a lot of possession, they rarely looked like threatening with it.

Haji Wright’s performance summed up where it all went wrong for Coventry City. The forward had chances in the first-half due to his ability to drift into threatening positions with the team threatening on the counter. He became increasingly peripheral later on, when Burnley dropped deeper and were able to mark him more tightly. Once again, he showed why he isn’t the centre-forward to use against teams that defend close to their own goal.

There looked to be a real fear in this game of getting the final ball wrong, which allowed some decent attacking positions to fall apart as Burnley settled into their defensive phalanx. There was a collective dithering that set in, with no-one seeming to want to step up and shoulder the burden of creating or taking on a shot. As was mentioned in The Wrap after last week’s defeat to Sheffield United, the focus on keeping possession can make this team very robotic and predictable.

At least Frank Lampard rolled the dice, as he so rarely does, in changing the shape later on to go to two up top. However, it was too little too late against a set Burnley defence who had already killed a chunk of the clock, while Ellis Simms’ touch was loose – the typical sign that he is not in the mood to make an impact.

If tightening defence isn’t realistic to achieve before the end of the season, this team is going to have to become a lot better at turning games around from losing positions than they currently are. From being more willing to lose possession in order to create chances, to changing the shape and asking different questions of the opposition, the players and coaching staff need to adapt their approach. Currently, this Coventry City side is rather predictable to defend against, which is exacerbated when opponents have the lead and force the Sky Blues to break them down.