Covcraig@bury
Well-Known Member
Thanks STP.. Been under the knife and soaking up all that`s Sky Blue .
Thanks STP.. Been under the knife and soaking up all that`s Sky Blue .Welcome back Craig
I tend to think that will be the plan, eventually it will be Palmer and O’Hare but the way they’re talking Palmer is a bit away. So Allen for me starts SundayStill not convinced Godden and Gyokeres works as a partnership, especially away games. I’d go with Gyokeres infront of Allen and O’Hare to start with then bring Godden on if we need a goal.
I think it’s only 7 subs
i'll give you a fiver if you can keep this account going for more than a week xBaffled at Tavares making people’s squads
Baffled at Tavares making people’s squads
That write up seems very fair, which is surprising, coming from a Sunderland fan
Yeah, the ‘rivalry’ is very much perpetuated by our side these days.Is it? Most of them couldn’t care less about us, their rivals are Newcastle
Getting nervous now, keep getting tempted to kick the cat and run away celebrating. Come on City!
Really impressive. Nothing there i wouldn't agree with.Just had a quick browse on their forum, this is a brilliant write up on us…
I enjoyed making these last season and they seemed to get a good reception so I'm going to try and put as many of these together for each opponent during this season. Midweek fixtures are probably out due to work commitments, but I should be able to get one up for the vast majority of weekend fixtures. Please bear in mind that I am a bit out of practise with Championship sides at the moment due to our longer than wished for League One run and we also obviously don't have any data from this upcoming season yet, so any contributions from fellow or opposition supporters are most welcome.
General
- Coventry will play some variation of a 3 at the back formation which will be either 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-2-1. Robins has favoured the 2 strikers at home and tends to be a bit more cautious at times away from home, but my guess is that he will go with the 2 striker formation which will be:
Moore
Hyam McFadzean Panzo
Dabo----------------------------------------Bidwell
Hamer Sheaf
O'Hare
Gyokeres Godden
- If they do go with the extra midfielder, Matt Godden will drop out for Jamie Allen.
- There are some questions over who will start in goal. Ex-SAFC Gk Ben Wilson is their back-up, with Simon Moore generally first choice. However, there has been reported interest in Moore from Bournemouth which has caused a bit of disruption and Wilson started their pre-season game against Portsmouth which had a largely "opening day starting 11" feel to it. Wilson starting would be better news for us, but it seems likely Moore will play.
- Coventry finished 12th last season, but they should have finished much higher than they actually did (more on that later).
- At home they recorded 1.52 PPG with 10W, 5D and 8L, which was 16th best in the division. It's worth noting that they did actually win all 6 of their first 6 home games last season, so home form wasn't great for much of the remainder of the season. Away from home they recorded 1.26 PPG with 7W, 8D and 8L, which was 8th best in the division.
- If we thought our late goal streak under Neil was impressive, Coventry took it to another level last season. They actually scored a staggering 18 goals after the 80th minute last season which includes 11 goals in injury time. This is almost double what the next best managed. Something we will need to be careful of this weekend!
- They conceded first in 27 games although they did manage to go unbeaten in 12 of those games. They tend to start games slower and finish strongly.
Play Style
- Coventry are a really well rounded team. As an example, whilst they were 9th in the Championship for amount of passes per sequence, they were 2nd behind only Birmingham for "Direct Speed", which is a measure of how quickly a team progresses the ball upfield. This indicates that whilst they do enjoy and are comfortable in keeping possession, they are not going to be stroking the ball around the back, back and forth between their CB's waiting for something to happen. Their intention is to progress the ball into those dangerous areas as efficiently as possible.
- A lot of teams in the Championship now play with wing-backs since we were last there and Coventry are no different. However, whilst most teams playing that formation use their wing-backs as a key source of attacking contribution, Coventry are different as they use them as their only source of real width, mainly looking for them to create dummy runs with the intention of freeing up space in the central areas for O'Hare. They like to switch the ball from side to side where possible, mainly using Hamer's passing range to try and move defensive lines around and ultimately to create more space in the centre.
- In addition to this, the two wide CB's in their 3 CB formation will also spread out very wide. Their CB's are excellent on the ball and comfortable attempting to play passes through the lines. It's high reward but also comes with some risk. This point may offer us some opportunities and again more on that a bit later.
- Coventry were 10th for pressing rate but 5th in the amount of high turnovers, suggesting that they have an effective press and look to press at the right times/when the best opportunities arise.
xG Stats
Attacking
- I mentioned earlier that Coventry should have finished much higher than 12th and this is as a result of their xG numbers.
- Based on an "xG Table", Coventry would have actually finished 4th and gained more than 20 points above their actual total.
- They scored 40 goals from open play but had an open play xG of 55, meaning they scored 15 less goals from open play than they should have. Only Fulham, Bournemouth and Sheffield United posted stronger numbers. If one feels that their run of late goals is unsustainable, it is balanced out by the fact that their xG numbers make such positive reading.
- They also underperformed slightly on attacking set pieces, scoring 13 from an xG of just under 17.
Defensive
- Coventry had one of the best open play xG defensive numbers in the league at 35 and this is another reason why I say they are well-rounded. Only Fulham, Bournemouth and WBA had better rates and two of those went up automatically. They actually conceded 39 from open play so over the course of a 46 game season this is very accurate and suggests a legitimately strong defensive performance.
- Nothing out of the ordinary with goals conceded from set pieces. 12 conceded from an xG of 14.8 which was perfectly mid-table.
Players
- No surprises here but Callum O'Hare is their biggest danger. The main part of their game plan is based around making as much space as possible for him in central areas and allowing him to do what he does best. Of players who played regular minutes, O'Hare was the most creative player in the division in terms of chance creation, ahead of Fulham's Harry Wilson.
- Striker Viktor Gyokores is a danger up top. He scored 18 last season despite having a very rough barren spell from October to January. He loves to get on the ball a bit deeper and carry it forward. He's powerful and difficult to stop when he picks up speed. For example, he scored 7 goals from carries (defined as when a player carries the ball forward a distance of 5 metres or greater). He also had a whopping 83 chances created from carries, which was 17 more than the next best in the Championship!
- The third of their big 3 (in no particular order) is Gus Hamer. He's their orchestrator in CM and really pulls the strings for them. He's not only a good ball-winner but has a solid passing range and ticks things over. He's an excellently well-rounded CM, probably the exact type of player we are sorely missing to be honest. This comparison is not mine but I have seen him compared to a Championship version of Thiago at Liverpool and before anyone jumps down my throat I did say Championship version. I do feel Hamer is on another planet to 99% of the L1 CM's we have faced in our time down there and PL interest from Fulham this summer suggests he will make the step up one way or another soon.
Overall/Summary/TL;DR
- Coventry posted the 4th best attacking and also the 4th best defensive xG numbers in the Championship last season. A very well-rounded side who should have finished much higher than 12th.
- They play a 3 at the back formation but look to use their wing-backs mainly as decoys to open up space in central areas, specifically for O'Hare to work in.
- Success by teams against Coventry last season has largely come from the opposition winning the ball from their wing-backs and then exploiting the space left in behind on the counter. Their play style can leave their 2 wide CB's exposed against pace and although their CB's are excellent on the ball, they do take risks in terms of trying to break through the lines rather than holding possession for the sake of it. It's high risk/high reward and they are good at it, but it does present opportunities if it goes wrong.
- I feel our best route to success will be to get the ball out wide to Roberts and Clarke quickly on the break and for them to hopefully have opportunities to run one-on-one against Coventry's wide CB's.
- We will need to be very careful not to get overrun in central areas which is a danger with our expected setup.
- They tend to start slow and finish strong, having conceded first in 27 games but scoring 18 goals after the 80th minute!
- Coventry are going to be a massive step up in terms of what we faced on a weekly basis in L1. In O'Hare and Hamer they boast 2 of the best players in the entire division. Robins has been with them 4 seasons now and they've progressed each season. They have a style of play and tactical setup that suits their players to a tee and every player clearly knows exactly what their role is. Certainly a good shout for the playoffs at least IMO presuming they keep the 3 players I mentioned above, but especially O'Hare and Hamer.
What's that? A sunderland fan not talking out of his arse?Really impressive. Nothing there i wouldn't agree with.
Only about Robins being here 4 years. Everything else is spot on.Really impressive. Nothing there i wouldn't agree with.
This is the worst thing about Sky games. Not just that you can’t watch on iFollow, but you have to sit through analysis/commentary on us that’s patronising at best and non existent at worst.
Yep. Fully expect an all Sunderland panel too.
Don Goodman is a shoo in, probably joined by Kevin Phillips/Niall Quinn or similar.
Yep. Fully expect an all Sunderland panel too.
Don Goodman is a shoo in, probably joined by Kevin Phillips/Niall Quinn or similar.
Yep. Fully expect an all Sunderland panel too.
Don Goodman is a shoo in, probably joined by Kevin Phillips/Niall Quinn or similar.
The bench is getting stronger by the day
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