Sideways Sammy

There’s nothing that can be done about Sunday’s heavy defeat at home to Brighton & Hove Albion other than react to it. It is still early enough in the season that the defeat doesn’t have to define Coventry City’s campaign, but it will if this team continues to struggle in front of goal and fail to pick up points.

A League Cup tie against Aston Villa is either the perfect outlet or a needless distraction as Frank Lampard and co look to manage the response to the Brighton result. It is a chance to test out new ideas away from the pressure of the league, with the opportunity of a galvanising local derby victory to put some credit back in the bank. The risk is that another defeat could mount further pressure on the team and coaching staff, while any positive result may have little tangible impact on Coventry’s chief aim of staying in the Premier League this season.

Expected Line-Up

The League Cup provides perfect cover for Frank Lampard to make swingeing changes to the team in order to test out ideas for the Premier League, without having to say directly to key players that they have been dropped. Anyone coming into the team for this match has to view this as a massive opportunity to play themselves into the regular starting line-up.

Starting from the back, a night off for Carl Rushworth in goal could be just the tonic, with the goalkeeper having looking shell-shocked by the end of the Brighton & Hove Albion game. Whether Daniel Bentley can genuinely provide competition for Rushworth with a positive display here, remains to be seen.

The big call for this game is whether to stick with a back three or revert to a back four. The lack of numbers in defence – particularly, in terms of potential alternate wing-back options with Kaine Kesler-Hayden injured and Jake Bidwell de-registered from league action – makes a back four more likely, with Stephen Mfuni and Joel Latibeaudiere almost certainties to come into the team either as centre-back or full-back options.

In midfield, Caleb Yirenkyi and Victor Torp look certain to be paired together, looking to dovetail responsibilities as that first pass out of defence as they look to stake a claim for the starting XI. Out wide, Loum Tchaouna and Yann Gboho look set for starts and also have a good chance of playing their way into the team for Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest.

Up front, now seems a good time to test out Sidiki Cherif from the start, given that he’s first in line to start at centre-forward in Taiwo Awoniyi’s absence. Behind him, it’s a call between Gustavo Hamer and Brandon Thomas-Asante, with Lampard still trying to figure out how to get the best out of either player in the current configuration.

Last Time We Met

It is a game that will go down in infamy for Coventry City as the day they got relegated from the top-flight, at the home of the team that had been their closest local rivals for much of that stay in England’s top division. Racing to a two-goal lead in a game that ultimately could not have changed the Sky Blues’ Premiership status, the capitulation would begin a long spell in ignominy for Coventry.

It started so well, with Mustapha Hadji heading in from a Paul Telfer cross, with the Moroccan then outstripping Gareth Southgate soon after to make it two with an excellent finish. However, Paul Merson’s brilliance turned the game on its head in the second-half as the fight left Coventry City and, after so many great escapes along the way, relegation to the First Division was confirmed with a whimper.

Key Questions

Will Villa Go Strong To Find A Winning Formula?

Like Coventry City, Aston Villa are winless in the league thus far this season. The bad news for Coventry is that Unai Emery tends to take the cup competitions seriously and is blessed with plenty of strength in depth which he has yet to fully make use of.

It’s been a big rebuild for Aston Villa over the summer, with Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans, and Ollie Watkins all key players who formed the nucleus of the Europa League-winning team of last year leaving and replaced by 11 new signings. Only three of those additions started against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, with this game likely to be targeted as a chance to integrate those players.

Notably, the attacking trio of Johan Manzambi, Alejandro Garnacho, and Ibrahim Mbaye are likely to be unleashed here, having been among the big-name additions that Aston Villa made over the summer.

The team-sheet for Aston Villa is likely to be strong, the question really is how motivated, fit and integrated into the style of play those additions are. However, they’ll certainly be able to introduce players who can produce individual match-winning moments here.

Is This A No-Win Situation For Coventry City?

There’s a combination of factors heading into this cup tie that make it rather unique. With Coventry doing so poorly in the league, the call is whether to use this match as a way to start figuring out how to fix the league form or to play a weakened team, keep players fresh and effectively remove the distraction of an extended League Cup run. That’s without factoring in that this is a game against one of Coventry City’s most heated local rivals.

A win may show that the team can bounce back from the Brighton & Hove Albion result, but it ultimately doesn’t really matter unless it’s followed up by a positive result at Nottingham Forest. Meanwhile, a defeat would add to the increasing gloom around the Sky Blues.

At the very least, this game needs to provide fans and players something to latch onto as a reason that this team will start scoring goals and move off the bottom of the Premier League table. Any chance to beat Aston Villa is better than losing to them, particularly as they are the kind of established top-flight side that Coventry have to start getting used to being competitive with.

Can Another Defensive Rejig Be Effective?

Frank Lampard played the big gambit of switching to a back three, only to see it dismantled in the second game he utilised it in. The manager is now in a situation of either making another change to render all the preparation for the last two matches moot, or to stick with a system that possibly isn’t suited to the available set of players.

The likelihood of big changes to the starting XI for a cup game underlines how ill-prepared Coventry City are to have a back three be their regular formation. Notably, there isn’t really the option to hand both Jay Dasilva and Milan van Ewijk the night off, unless Jake Bidwell, who’s been de-registered from the league squad, starts and someone like Tatsuhiro Sakamoto is played out of position.

With Luke Woolfenden out injured too, this is a chance to play what could be close to the starting defence for the Nottingham Forest game in a somewhat de-pressurised scenario. Aside from Joel Beaudiere, at least three of the four/five starters at the back could play on Saturday, with this being a big chance for Stephen Mfuni to jump into the starting line-up.

The downside being that the number of changes and quality of opposition could see another attempt at a defensive rejig aborted after the first test.