Coventry weren't shy in reinvesting the money received for Gyokeres and Hamer over the summer, but so far their new look side is struggling to live up to last season's surprise play-off final appearance. We spoke to Dominic Jerams (@sidesammy) and Neil Littlewood (@littlewood88).
A whole lot of draws, and only the one win, what have you made of the start to the season?
NL: The performances on the whole have been to a standard that we have become accustomed to as Coventry fans, just without the luck we have generated over the last couple of years. We have gone from a side that had a knack of scoring late, late goals to being a side that can’t hold a lead - nine points lost from winning positions so far this season at the time of writing. With a lot of new signings coming in there is always going to be a bedding in period and that’s been a factor plus injuries to key players. The fact we are drawing games and not losing them is a positive, for years we were a side that would capitulate once we conceded but there seems to be a bit of fight about us now where when we concede we look to bounce back and heads remain up rather that the defeated look we normally see once a goal goes in. Once we have a fully fit squad I am confident those drawers turn into wins again.
SS: With a whole bunch of new players having been signed this summer, the start to the campaign has been understandably disjointed. The first month or so, performances largely looked to be fine as we waited for things to fall in place for us. The past couple of weeks have been a little worrying, our squad was already a touch thin and then we lost Ben Sheaf, Milan van Ewijk and Kasey Palmer to injuries that will keep them out for at least a month or two. Off the back of that, the past couple of performances have been poor, with Mark Robins struggling to stitch together a team from the pieces he’s been left with. We knew it was going to be a big rebuild this season, but there’s little sign yet of what this team is meant to look like once things come together.
Coventry league results so far…
Leicester 2-1 Coventry Dewsbury-Hall 77, 87 – McFadzean 47
Coventry 3-0 Middlesbrough Godden 11, Wright 70, Lenihan og 90
Swansea 1-1 Coventry Yates 41 – Godden 39
Coventry 0-0 Sunderland
Coventry 3-3 Watford Van Ewijk 41, Hoedt og 64, Godden 87 – Rajovic 35, 79, Martins 52
Hull 1-1 Coventry Connolly 87 – Latibeaudiere 27
Cardiff 3-2 Coventry Goutas 8, Grant 61, Etete 84 – Godden 35, 90
Coventry 1-1 Huddersfield Ayari 27 – Helik 90
Is this a play-off hangover? A regression to mean? An inevitable consequence of Hamer and Gyokeres leaving?
NL: We were always going to suffer from the play-off final loss. Look at Barnsley and Huddersfield over the past two seasons and you have perfect examples of what getting so close can do to the club. You couple onto that losing your top goalscorer and arguably the best midfielder in the division last year and you have more than 40 goals to find from somewhere. At the same time as having to adjust the style of play that got us to Wembley in the first place. Last season we were a stereotypical counter attacking side that exploited Gyokeres’ pace and power with Hamer’s clinical passing ability, with those two key facets of that style of play moved on, we have become a more possession based side who look to control games and infiltrate defences with intricate passing and clever movement. I do think the hangover will clear eventually but at the minute it still leaves a bit of a sick feeling in the stomach when results don’t go our way.
SS: I think the biggest factor is that this an almost entirely new look team. On top of losing Gyokeres and Hamer, none of the five loan players we had last year returned and that has meant that just three of the starting line-up at Wembley have been in the XI recently. Mark Robins has also tried to change the style of play to involve more passing and less ‘just give it to the two best players in the division’, which was inevitable given there was no way Gyokeres and Hamer could have been replaced like-for-like. The recent spate of injuries haven’t helped either, but this is a team that doesn’t really know it’s identity yet and that has been reflected in only really being able to play well in spurts and also probably the concession of several late goals.
I do notice you're actually four points better off than this time last year, so another charge up the table to come?
NL: A charge, no. An improvement, definitely. Last season we went on a run after the World Cup break that nobody could have predicted. The number of clean sheets, games undefeated etc coupled with players finding form at the right moment and insane pieces of luck (Ben Wilson scoring an injury time equaliser at Blackburn being Exhibit A in this case) was a recipe for us being that side that finished the season with the momentum needed to make that showcase day at Wembley. The positive to take is we are four points better off than last season, with more injuries to key players and a side still getting used to each other, Milan Van Ewijk had to ask a reporter a teammates name after the win against Middlesborough.
SS: Last year, we spent no money and couldn’t play at home until the end of August because our home pitch had been ploughed by a rugby tournament. This year, upwards of £20m has been spent on this team and we are the only tenants at our home stadium. They are entirely different circumstances and to only be slightly better than what was a disastrous start to last year is pretty poor, in my book.
It’s hard to see a similar charge up the coming, then again, I thought we were going down around this time last year, so I guess you never know. The key difference is that the team had the quality of Gyokeres and Hamer in attack last year, meaning they could adopt a defence-first approach, knowing that they had players who could win games with almost no service behind them. I don’t see the same kind of individual match-winners in this team this year, meaning that a similar approach to try and eke out results is unlikely to be anywhere near as successful.
Any criticism of Mark Robins, I've seen a bit on twitter but that is Twitter, or is he still basically a saint in waiting?
NL: Robins will always have his "haters” but let’s not get away from that man has done for our football club. He came back to us in a season where Tony Mowbray and Russel Slade had destroyed any feelgood feeling around our football club. We went from L1 promotion nearly boys with a team that had John Fleck, James Maddison, Joe Cole, Jacob Murphy and many more to a side that were as good as relegated by Christmas the next season. The club had scraped themselves through to a Wembley final in the Checkatrade Trophy Final which was pretty much the only thing to celebrate in a catastrophic season. We went with no expectations but a desire to show what the club meant to us as a message to the owners that neglected us for so long. That was the catalyst for Robins to take the team back up the division and lead us back to within one kick of the Premier League whilst playing some beautiful football. He has his faults; he is stubborn as a mule and never seems to make a sub before the 60th minute. This has bitten us in the backside a few times, one game that stands out is the 2-0 defeat at Loftus Road two seasons ago, Warburton brought on Dykes and went more direct and we didn’t react to it for a good 15mins and were two goals down by that point. He also seems to have his favourites which leaves a lot of head scratching when team sheets are released but on the whole the man is a messiah in this city and he just needs to let us know where to build the statue.
SS: A manager who has been in charge of a club for as long as Mark Robins has will inevitably draw some level of frustration from the fans, but it’s hard not to remember just how dire things looked when he returned in 2017, so to have started a campaign slowly following a summer where over £20 million was spent on the team is small fry. Robins’ biggest strength and weakness as a manger is he’s not allied to any one style of play, the benefit of that is he’s able to change things up when things aren’t working the drawback is what is being seen now where performances can be pretty nothingy during the poorer runs of form. While he’s never had to deal with the pressure that comes with big spending, the feeling remains that the manager will once again find a way to stitch a team together with the parts that have been assembled.
Obviously we know about the big outs over the summer, what did you make of the business you did on the ins?
NL: I think the main thing that happened in the summer was adding quality in depth. Our first 11 last season could compete with anyone in the division but we lacked serious depth which didn’t give us a plan B or allow us to adjust tactically in games. Losing 2 of the best players in the division was always going to be a struggle but the financial shot in the arm that has given us was welcome. We have paid multi million pound fees for the first time since the PL days but also been savvy with a couple of free transfers that tried and tested in this division in Dasilva and Lautibeaudire, who have slotted in seamlessly. Extra cover has been added in defence with 3 CB’s coming in, all young and showing lots of potential Bobby Thomas looks to me a natural born builder and Liam Kitching shown at Barnsley he enjoys playing out from the back. The loan signing of Yasir Ayari from Brighton could be a masterstroke if he turns his glimpses of class we have seen into sustained performances, Sakamoto is a tricky customer but not sure he knows his best position let alone the coaching staff. The three marquee signings were Dutch RWB Milan Van Ewijk, who we beat a lot of clubs to signing. Unfortunately injured already but firmly a fans favourite. To replace Gyokeres, it took two big name signings to try and fill those boots in the form of Ellis Simms and Haji Wright. Both are big, pacy, powerful strikers with an eye for goal but yet to hit the ground running as we would have liked.
SS: None of the new signings yet have particularly stood out. Bobby Thomas and Joel Latibeaudiere at centre-back started well but have been less impressive recently. Milan van Ewijk looked to be finding his feet at right wing-back, before picking up a pretty serious injury last week. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto has had some bright moments but looks to be suffering from the issue of being the only winger in a team that doesn’t play with wingers.
A lot of the attention right now is on the big money strikers that were signed and have yet to get going. Haji Wright was the club’s record signing this summer and looked decent early on but hasn’t kicked on from that and only seems capable at the moment of being an impact substitute. Ellis Simms hadn’t really shown much as to what type of striker he even is, until a good performance on Monday night against Huddersfield Town, where he smacked a shot so hard onto the crossbar that Yasin Ayari was nearly neutered when the rebound came off him and into the back of the net.
Ins >>> Haji Wright, 25, CF, Antalyaspor, £8m >>> Ellis Simms, 22, CF, Everton, £6m >>> Liam Kitching, 23, CB, Barnsley, £4m >>> Milan van Ewijk 22, RB, Heerenveen, £4m >>> Bobby Thomas, 22, CB, Burnley, £2m >>> Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, 26, LM, Oostende, £2m >>> Brad Collins, 26, GK, Barnsley, £500k >>> Jay Dasilva, 25, LB, Bristol City, Free >>> Joel Latibeaudiere, 26, CB, Swansea, Free >>> Luis Binks, 21, CB, Bologna, Loan >>> Yasin Ayari, 19, CM, Brighton, Loan
Outs >>> Viktor Gyokeres, 25, ST, Sporting, £20m >>> Gus Hamer, 26, DM, Sheff Utd, £16m >>> Josh Reid, 21, LB, Ross County, £50k >>> Sean Maguire, 29, AM, Carlisle, Free >>> Michael Rose, 27, CB, Stoke, Free >>> Tyler Walker, 26, CF, Lincoln, Free >>> Fankaty Dabo, 27, RB, Forest Green, Free >>> Julian Da Costa, 27, RB, Sochaux, Free >>> Martyn Waghorn, 33, CF, Derby, Free >>> Todd Kane, 29, RB, Sheff Utd, £13m >>> Jack Burroughs, 22, RM, Lincoln, Loan >>> Ryan Howley, 19, CM, Dundee, Loan
Stand out players and weak links?
SS: It is hard to say at the moment who the stand-out players in this team are because no-one has really performed well for more than 30 minute spells in games this season. Matt Godden has been scoring goals, but remains someone who is completely anonymous when he is not sticking the ball in the net. Yasin Ayari and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto are the main source of hope for sparking some creativity into the team, with Ayari looking a smart and full of intent in a central position and Sakamoto excellent at changing directions quickly in wide areas.
As for weak links, the biggest issue at the moment is in central midfield, where the loss of Gustavo Hamer has been compounded by Ben Sheaf’s recent injury, leaving the team with little quality on the ball to be able to either control games or get around teams looking to press us. While Liam Kelly and Josh Eccles are likeable, hard-working players, they look really uncomfortable with being asked to play the quick, passing football that this team has been looking to build towards this year and it’s likely that there will be a change either in style or personnel for this game to address that.
Revised expectations for the season?
NL: I think the word being banded around by Robins and co is "transition” and its fair to say that’s the plan for this season. As a club, we are in a much stronger place off the field and on the field things are starting to fall into place. Anything above 12th is a successful season in my eyes.
SS: I thought mid-table was on the cards for us this season due to the level of turnover to the squad and I still expect that to be the case. I am starting to get concerned with the combination of injuries and recent performances, which could put us in a sticky situation soon unless we can find a way to dig out results.
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