Amidst more farce with their stadium and ownership, Coventry won none of their first eight games and conceded 17 goals doing it, but have since soared to the cusp of the play-offs with 18 clean sheets, further burgeoning the reputation of manager Mark Robins according to our correspondent there Dominic Jerams.
How's Cov's season gone so far?
It’s almost easy to forget at this point — because the season has been so bloody long — that Coventry City looked close to dead and buried in the first couple of months of the campaign. It wasn’t just that we were behind the rest of the league in terms of games played, but a pretty poor summer in the transfer market left the team undercooked and looking like relegation fodder. To be in the conversation for the play-offs in the final weeks just further demonstrates the magic that Mark Robins has continually been able to conjure at this football club. While there’s a level of frustration that this team hasn’t been able to pick up the couple of wins recently that would put them in the top six, this has been an incredible season, probably better than last year when it initially felt better because we started so strongly.
Coventry league results so far…
Sunderland 1-1 Coventry Clarke 12 — Gyokeres 84
Millwall 3-2 Coventry Cooper 36, Honeyman 53, Saville 85 — McFadzean 2, Godden 28
Hull 3-2 Coventry Estupinan 11, 42, 56 — Godden pen 29, 69
Coventry 0-1 Preston Riis 73
Norwich 3-0 Coventry Pukki 14, Sargent 45, Dowell 81
Luton 2-2 Coventry Morris 4, 15, Gyokeres 11, Hamer 61
Birmingham 0-0 Coventry
Coventry 1-0 Middlesbrough Gyokeres 17
Bristol City 0-0 Coventry
Coventry 0-1 Burnley Tella 39
Cardiff 0-1 Coventry Gyokeres 34
Coventry 1-0 Sheff Utd Waghorn pen 87
Stoke 0-2 Coventry Allen 51, Hamer 65
Coventry 2-2 Rotherham Hamer 76, Gyokeres pen 90 — Bramall 43, Washington 79
Coventry 1-2 Blackpool Palmer 40 — Madine 53, Yates 80
Coventry 1-0 Blackburn Allen 41
Watford 0-1 Coventry Gyokeres 50
Coventry 2-0 Wigan Hamer 77, Gyokeres 90
Coventry 2-0 QPR Gyokeres 11, 78
Reading 1-0 Coventry Mbengue 57
Coventry 3-3 Swansea Panzo 29, Allen 47, Gyokeres 54 — Piroe 68, Fulton 76, Cullen 84
Coventry 1-0 West Brom Gyokeres pen 90
Sheff Utd 3-1 Coventry McAtee 35, Clark 52, Doyle 71 — Gyokeres 75
Coventry 0-0 Cardiff
Coventry 1-1 Bristol City Bidwell 12 — Semenyo 28
Burnley 1-0 Coventry Beyer 82
Coventry 2-4 Norwich Allen 20, Palmer 26 — Rose og 6, Hernandez 10, Sargent 18, Doweli 65
Coventry 2-0 Huddersfield Hamer 53, Palmer 71
West Brom 1-0 Coventry Diangana 15
Coventry 1-1 Luton Godden pen 45 — Lockyer 1
Coventry 1-0 Millwall Gyokeres 67
Rotherham 0-2 Coventry Allen 46, Gyokeres 90
Coventry 2-1 Sunderland Allen 25, Gyokeres 89 — Diallo 90
Preston 0-0 Coventry
Huddersfield 0-4 Coventry Gyokeres 31, 59, Hamer 55, Walker 90
Coventry 1-1 Hull Godden 71 — Estupinan 52
Wigan 1-1 Coventry McFadzean og 83 — Gyokeres 52
Blackpool 1-4 Coventry Yates pen 35 — Sheaf 20, Nelson og 45, McFadzean 50, Godden 73
Coventry 0-4 Stoke Brown 6, Campbell 40, Smallbone 71, Hoever 77
Swansea 0-0 Coventry
Coventry 2-2 Watford Godden 58, Sheaf 72 — Pedro 6, Louza 45
Pretty remarkable recovery to push the play-offs after that horrible start, what's been the key to the turnaround?
Coventry City started the season leaking goals left, right and centre due to the combination of having a very inexperienced back-line and a goalkeeper in Simon Moore who had completely forgotten how to be a goalkeeper. The key changes have been the team setting more defensively, making it easier for the defenders to focus on defending the penalty area, and Ben Wilson taking the number one spot in goal and developing some confidence in that position.
There are aspirations for this team to play dominant, possession football with midfielders like Ben Sheaf and Gustavo Hamer really good on the ball, however, Coventry are at their best on the counter-attack, defending their penalty area and unleashing Viktor Gyokeres’ combination of physicality and skill on the ball to devastate opposing defenders. When this team can nick early goals and can then lure teams onto them to hit them on the break tends to be where their best results and performances have come from.
Stand out players? Gyokeres obviously but who's up there for POTY?
Viktor Gyokeres has clearly been incredible this season and is basically the team’s main attacking plan because he can run the ball, muscle off opposing defenders, and then get shots off on goal. He has looked a little tired and a touch frustrated recently, but I guess that is natural when you have spent an entire season carrying a team on your back.
For me, Gustavo Hamer would be the other standout candidate for player of the year because he is not only an excellent passer of the ball but has managed to cut the silly cards out of his game while still being able to win the ball in midfield and is also able to contribute with some big moments in the final third. However, I think he will miss out because he basically didn’t feature in the first ten games due to getting sent off twice in quick succession.
The other candidates are Ben Wilson in goal and Kyle McFadzean in defence for helping lead the defensive improvement that has been essential to getting us out of a hole this season. Ben Wilson has kept a club record 18 clean sheets this season, and while he has definitely been aided by a good defence in front of him, he looks a lot less erratic than he once was. Kyle McFadzean is a classic ‘head it, kick it’ style of centre-back, but is exactly what you need when there is no-one else of experience in the back-line.
Weak links in the side?
The most notable area of weakness throughout the season has been at wing-back, where no-one has really made either position their own. It has often been a choice between players like Josh Eccles and Jake Bidwell who are decent defensively but offer little going forward, or almost the complete opposite with Brooke Norton-Cuffy and, the rapidly improving, Josh Wilson-Esbrand. It looks like Mark Robins prefers the more attack-minded duo of Norton-Cuffy and Wilson-Esbrand at the moment, which could be QPR’s biggest area of opportunity in this game in exploiting the space between them and the centre-backs.
What January business did you do? What needs to be done this summer to push on?
The key piece of January transfer business was getting Luke McNally in on loan from Burnley, who has been a revelation in defence with his physicality and pace, allowing Kyle McFadzean to be more aggressive and letting the talented Callum Doyle on the left of the back three develop some confidence and consistency.
It was a little bit surprising to see the club prioritise adding a new pair of wing-backs rather than address the Callum O’Hare-shaped hole in the team, when it was known he would be out for the rest of the season. With Jamie Allen and Kasey Palmer also picking up injuries, there is no-one at the moment who can play in the space between midfield and attack, especially with Mark Robins very quickly deciding that the other January signing, Sean Maguire, was not up to the level required to play any kind of meaningful minutes. Admittedly, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Josh Wilson-Esbrand have recently shown flashes of being quite good going forward but they probably arrived ten games or so too late.
This summer is going to be a big one for the club, there should be money available following the takeover and we have a lot of squad players that are out of contract. However, Viktor Gyokeres will inevitably leave the club and we will have to completely change the way we play to account for not having someone up front who we can just give the ball to and expect them to create and score their own chances. We are also going to need a new defence to replace all of the loan players we are set to lose.
Summer Ins >>> Kasey Palmer, 25, AM, Bristol City, Free >>> Jonathan Panzo, 21, CB, Forest, Loan >>> Callum Doyle, 18, CB, Man City, Loan >>> Tayo Adaramola, 18, LB, Palace, Loan
Summer Outs >>> Dom Hyam, 26, CB, Blackburn, £1.7m >>> Jordan Shipley, 24, LM, Shrewsbury, Undisclosed >>> Josh Pack, 24, CB, The New Saints (Wales, isn’t it), Free >>> Julian Da Costa, 26, RB, Shrewsbury, Loan >>> Jodi Jones, 24, RW, Released
Winter Ins >>> Sean Maguire, 28, AM, Preston, Free >>> Brooke Norton-Cuffy, 18, RWB, Arsenal, Loan >>> Josh Wilson-Esbrand, 20, LWB, Man City, Loan >>> Luke McNally, 23, CB, Burnley, Loan
Winter Outs >>> Marcel Hillbner, 28, RW, Bremen, Free >>> Todd Kane, 29, RB, Charlton/Sheff Utd, Loan/£13m >>> Martyn Waghorn, 32, CF, Huddersfield, Loan >>> Julian Da Costa, 26, RB, Nancy, Loan >>> Josh Reid, 20, LB, Stevenage, Loan
Do you think you'll make the top six?
Picking up two points over the last three games following the international break makes this game very important for us to keep our play-off hopes alive. The problem is that the squad is very thin and quite a few of our key players are looking a little tired after a long and hard campaign. It feels like we might just fall short, but winning this game and then a trip to Blackburn Rovers would completely change the mood around the club.
New owners, tell us more, is there post-SISU hope the club can push on now?
At the moment, there is very little evidence to assess whether Doug King can take the club to the next level. After arriving out of the blue to make a failed last-ditch bid to buy the club’s stadium before Mike Ashley could get his mitts on it, King only got approval for his takeover midway through the January transfer window. It is probably a touch harsh to judge him on the lack of permanent additions that month — especially with the club having to replace their entire player recruitment department at the same time — so all eyes will be on what happens this summer.
There have been some positive signs with some investment in the training ground and club shop, along with Doug King making himself available for supporters’ group meetings, but it easy to look good in the early days of an ownership when there’s been little opportunity for genuine actions.
Links >>> Coventry City — Official Website >>> Coventry Telegraph — Local Press >>> Sky Blues Talk — Forum >>> Sky Blues Blog — Blog >>> Sideways Sammy — Blog >>> The Lonely Season — Blog >>> Sky Blues TV - Classic Match Highlights >>> Access All Areas — Podcast
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