Sideways Sammy

There was a a level of confidence heading into last week’s home game against Fulham that Coventry City could take advantage of an opportunity to pull clear of danger. Instead, they find themselves back in the bottom three after a defeat in a very tight game.

It sets up this meeting with Sunderland as close to a must-win (or at least, must not lose) game to avoid dropping to the bottom and falling some distance behind the required points-rate to survive. The pressure is mounting on this team and set of players, which would make this an apposite moment to produce a big performance and prove that survival is attainable.

Expected Line-Up

Frank Lampard elected against making any changes to the starting XI last time out, which has continued to raise questions over the value of several of the summer signings who continue to be excluded from first-team proceedings. With the pressure of last week’s defeat, the manager may well be tempted to bring one or two into the fold.

Yann Gboho seems to be the anointed saviour of this team, in what hopefully isn’t a classic case of a couple of defeats leading to players not playing being perceived as better than they are. The Ivorian has yet to feature in league action since signing in September, which has felt conspicuous given he was playing regularly for Toulouse beforehand. With the Sky Blues’ threat in wide areas somewhat underwhelming, it’s understandable why the hype for Gboho has built.

Gboho could come into the team in place of Brandon Thomas-Asante, however, the wrinkle could be that Ephron Mason-Clark may still be next in line in the pecking order on the left wing. As for a potential right-wing berth, Yann Gboho has only played there seven times in his career, while Tatsuhiro Sakamoto seems to be favoured. With creativity at a premium at the moment, Lampard may be tempted to throw Gboho into the mix from the start.

Bobby Thomas’s injury last week potentially leaves Coventry City very thin on defensive numbers, removing the option of playing a back three – unless the manager is willing to start Joel Latibeaudiere in a Premier League match. Stephen Mfuni should slot in for Thomas, if the latter’s injury is serious, with Ethan Pinnock seemingly favoured to play right in a central defensive pairing of two left-footers.

Just how much change there is elsewhere remains to be seen, despite the appetite for it from the fanbase. There are calls for Matt Grimes to be dropped, but that seems like it could the a decision an order of magnitude too high for what is simply a slightly underwhelming home performance last week off the back of a defeat away from home against Spurs that was always likely.

Last Time We Met

It was a painful one for Coventry City. Heading into a second-leg of a Play-Off Semi-Final two years ago off the back of a defeat at the CBS Arena shortly before, the Sky Blues headed off a couple of decent early chances for Sunderland to dominate at the Stadium of Light. With Matt Grimes setting the tempo in midfield, it was the kind of controlled display that hadn’t been seen often under Frank Lampard up to that point. Still, there was a timidity when it came to creating and taking chances.

The pressure eventually paid off when Ephron Mason-Clark poked in a Milan van Ewijk cross deep in the second-half. It really should have been Coventry’s place at Wembley in injury time when Haji Wright connected with a Tatsuhiro Sakamoto cross, only to head it in completely the wrong direction, leading to extra-time.

With both teams on their feet, neither really had the chance to avoid what looked like inevitable penalties. Only for Dan Ballard to meet a corner-kick in the dying moments of extra-time stoppage time to send the Stadium of Light into raptures and leave Coventry to dwell on a glorious opportunity they failed to take advantage of.

Key Questions

Are Sunderland Suffering From Second Season Syndrome?

Heading into the summer, Sunderland were cited as the example to follow for a newly-promoted club looking to establish themselves in the Premier League. The Black Cats showed little sentiment to their promotion-winners in splashing the cash on an almost completely new team, which ultimately helped them stay comfortably in the top-flight at the first time of asking.

After sneaking into the Europa League on the final day, Sunderland now sit bottom of the Premier League table with one win in their first eight games. A combination of tricky fixtures, a few injuries and a congested calendar as the result of Europe and League Cup progress perhaps go some way to explaining it, along with the sense that teams have started to counter what made them so successful last year.

Regis Le Bris’ side were excellent over the first months of last season, playing with physicality and pace to be able to cede possession to opponents, ride pressure and sting at the other end of the pitch. Without the buffer from pressure that came from last year’s strong start, pressure is building on the manager, given the club’s resources and ambition of establishing itself as at least a mid-table Premier League side.

However, the danger here is that Sunderland haven’t been as bad as recent results suggest and play the exact style that looks well-suited to countering Coventry’s deliberate approach in possession at home. Just like last week against Fulham, the Sky Blues and their fans can’t afford to treat any Premier League game like a foregone conclusion, even if it is at home.

Is The Matt Grimes Conundrum More Complicated Than It Seems?

Matt Grimes is becoming the lightning rod for Coventry City’s slow adaptation period to Premier League football. For many, the solution is simple, take the captain out of the team and Coventry will instantly become more purposeful in possession, tougher in the tackle, create more chances, score more goals, concede fewer, perhaps even solve climate change. However, football doesn’t work like that.

The reality is that this team has been built around Matt Grimes and taking him out of the starting XI has the potential to cause more problems than it solves. Grimes is there to sit at the base of midfield and offer that first pass out of defence and set the tempo for attacking moves. There simply isn’t a natural replacement for this specialist role Grimes plays.

There is an argument that either Gustavo Hamer or Frank Onyeka are those replacements for Grimes, but that fails to understand what any of those players are capable of. For Hamer, it’s not clear that Lampard sees him as a deep-lying central midfielder at all which makes sense given he’s rarely played as one since the first half of his last season at the club. Onyeka is billed as a defensive midfielder because he can put the occasional tackle in, but his best work has come in a box-to-box role, while his passing isn’t precise enough to keep things ticking over from deep.

That leaves Caleb Yirenkyi and Victor Torp, who have shown in League Cup games that they can dovetail between sitting and pushing forward but with Yirenkyi pretty inexperienced and Torp lacking mobility off-the-ball, it risks leaving the midfield wide open and the ball being given away in dangerous areas.

It’s not just for reasons of sentiment that Matt Grimes remains in the team, he is the only one capable of playing the specific role he does. To take him out would involve completely changing the team’s style of play, which seems a bit of an overreaction to just two underwhelming results.

Just How Linked Are The Attacking Issues And Defensive Solidity?

Coventry City have tightened up considerably since the 5-0 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, averaging around one Expected Goal against in each of the past four games. However, aside from the Newcastle United game, both creating and scoring goals has been in short supply, with the Sky Blues averaging under one Expected Goal for.

Just how linked the two are is a matter of debate. Have Coventry City struggled to create because they are focusing on defending or are they struggling to create because their plain in possession is not working. Last week’s home game against Fulham suggested the latter.

With 36% of possession, the Sky Blues played like a team that had more of the ball. The first instinct when getting on the ball wasn’t to play it forward but to circulate possession and play patiently through the thirds. It was all the stranger given how threatening the front four had looked at times in the previous games against Spurs and Newcastle United when playing forward more intently.

Perhaps it is a plan to play conservatively in possession in order to avoid exposing the defence, but there seems to be a decision paralysis creeping into this team. Against a Sunderland side who’ll be happy to let Coventry City have the ball, the Sky Blues are either going to have to discover a way to play through opponents that they’ve failed to thus far, or accept there’ll be a level of chaos in order to create space for their attackers.