Squad Surgery: Coventry City
Mark Robins' formation change has yielded better results but leaves gaps in the squad which need filling.
Coventry City’s 2023-24 campaign has been a slow burner. A hangover from May’s agonising playoff defeat, aided by the loss of Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer and their replacements’ slow starts, left Mark Robins’ men looking over their shoulders in early November as a 3-2 defeat to Preston left them in 20th.
Robins, the division’s longest-serving boss, has been no stranger to a tactical tweak during his six-year tenure, winning promotion from League One in 2019-20 with his innovative box midfield formation, before switching to a 3-4-1-2 halfway through their second Championship season.
He stuck with this system but without Hamer’s ball-carrying and the finishing of Gyokeres, the devastating counter-attacks that defined them last season were far less effective. To combat this inability to move the ball from back to front at such pace, the defenders adopted a higher starting position, but this left veteran centre-back Kyle McFadzean horribly exposed.
Robins went back to the drawing board and emerged with a 4-2-3-1 formation, which has so far bore fruit. Callum O’Hare has finally returned to his pre-injury self in the number ten role, club-record signing Haji Wright is starting to put his difficult start behind him playing out wide, while Liam Kitching has marshalled the defence expertly.
Before the switch, his team won just three of their opening fifteen fixtures, but it took just five games to match this total following the change and now Coventry are strong contenders in a hotly-contested race for the playoffs. .
This upturn in form and the £25m spent in the summer don’t point to the need for extra incomings in January but there is still work to be done. Having been recruited to play a back-three since 2020, the Sky Blues squad is badly lacking wide attacking options and a box-to-box midfielder to fill the Hamer-shaped hole wouldn’t go amiss either.
Here, we assess two possible targets for each position.
Central Midfielder:
The Sky Blues are a body light in midfield and Paris Maghoma, currently on loan at Bolton Wanderers from Brentford, could be of interest.
He didn’t make a senior appearance until he was 21 but has developed quickly since then, spending late 2022 with AFC Wimbledon in League Two before moving up a level to MK Dons in January 2023. After standing out for both, moving to one of the top sides in the third tier was a sign of yet more progress.
Ian Evatt’s patient in-possession gameplan hasn’t always provided the best platform for Maghoma, who loves to carry the ball with speed, to thrive but the Coventry fans would appreciate watching a player reminiscent of Gus Hamer, albeit a more raw version. He is also a magnet for fouls and the Sky Blues, who have already matched their tally of seven set piece goals from 2022-23, are better placed to take advantage of the free-kicks they win than last season.
Maghoma’s age (he turns 23 in May) makes him an ideal target for Coventry to pursue. The fact Brentford are yet to give him a first team appearance suggests his chances of making the grade in West London are slim, however he is still young enough to be a long-term addition who provides re-sale value if the Sky Blues pursue a permanent deal.
Another potential target plying his trade in League One is Callum Styles of Barnsley. The 18-cap Hungary international is comfortable driving his team up the pitch and while he is less direct than Maghoma, his agile movement and ability to protect the ball in tight spaces are standout traits. Robins has clearly shown more desire to control games this year - his side have made 413 short passes per match, compared with 327 in 2022-23 - so a more technical option like Styles may be preferable. With three Championship seasons under his belt already, he is proven in the division too.
Barnsley would probably be open to selling the player. The Tykes were reluctant to let Styles follow other key players out the door in the summer but Luca Connell and Adam Phillips have continued to impress in midfield, and a top six place is far from certain, so they could do with the funds to strengthen elsewhere.
Some Barnsley fans have questioned the 23-year-old’s application but this wasn’t an issue during his loan at Millwall and with a place in Hungary’s Euro 2024 squad to nail down, Styles would surely relish the opportunity to play a key role in Coventry’s quest to secure a second consecutive playoff campaign.
Left Winger:
Of all the clubs in the EFL, Peterborough United are perhaps the best at plucking talent from the lower leagues. Ephron Mason-Clark, formerly of Barnet, has stepped up a level at London Road, with 16 goal contributions already this term.
The winger would be expensive; Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony drives a hard bargain and with Posh firmly in the promotion hunt, they will be reluctant to let him leave. He would be worth the investment though. Haji Wright has adapted well to his unfamiliar wide-left role but doesn’t have the same trickery in one-on-one situations as the Peterborough man, who also possesses enough pace to simply knock the ball past defenders and chase it when the space opens up.
It is easy to see the appeal of the move for the player as well. As difficult as it may be for him to give up the chance of promotion, Posh’s return to the Championship is far from guaranteed and Mason-Clark, who was playing in non-league until the age of 23, should jump at the chance to test himself in the second tier as early as possible.
Versatility is another of the Lambeth-born forward’s qualities. He has operated as a number ten in Peterborough’s fluid attacking system so he could provide extra cover there for Robins, and with Callum O’Hare yet to sign a new deal, even potentially a long-solution in that area too.
If the recruitment team want to look higher up the pyramid than League One, Anass Zaroury could be the answer instead. The tricky Moroccan, who made 27 starts as Burnley romped to the Championship title in 2023, has found gametime hard to come by in the top flight. The Belgian would be a smart pickup and his experience playing in a dominant, possession-based side at Turf Moor would help Robins’ side to exert more control in tight matches when needed.
Perhaps Zaroury’s greatest strength is how comfortable he is with both feet; equally capable of cutting in from the left flank to shoot as he is driving towards the touchline and beating his man. This unpredictability makes him a nightmare for opposition full-backs to defend against and with right-winger Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s tendency to drift inside, having somebody on the other side who can maintain width is especially important.
Getting Burnley to agree to a permanent deal would be difficult but a loan isn’t out of the question. This is a market the Sky Blues hardly touched in the summer - with £35m burning a hole in their pockets from Gyokeres and Hamer’s departures, they focussed their resources on permanent replacements instead. Temporary deals for Luke McNally and Callum Doyle contributed massively to last season’s progress and Zaroury has enough quality to make a similar impact at the other end of the pitch.
Right Winger:
Summer signing Sakamoto has been one of the division’s in-form players since Robins’ tactical switch so any new right-sided attacker will have to be happy biding their time before being given regular starts. This points to a loanee coming in and Liverpool’s Kaide Gordon could be that man.
Gordon is left-footed and has similar instincts to Sakamoto. He likes to drift inside, take players on and offer support to the midfielders. This movement is useful as it provides opportunities for attack-minded right-back Milan Van Ewijk to overlap. Currently, there is no like-for-like replacement for Sakamoto on the Coventry bench and having Gordon in the squad would allow Robins to rest the Japanese winger occasionally without altering the team’s shape or attacking patterns.
Reports have linked Middlesbrough and Ipswich to the Liverpool youngster so Coventry will need to fight hard to get him through the door. Their lack of depth on the flanks could work in their favour though because they are in a position to promise Gordon, who can also play on the left, minutes on both sides. Given Haji Wright’s poor start, there is a high chance he will experience another dip in form, but extra competition for his place may drive him on to maintain his current performance levels.
In tough away games, Robins sets up with two banks of four out of possession. Operating out wide in this system requires a high level of positional awareness and discipline, attributes which players tend to develop later in their careers, so this may deter the Sky Blues boss from taking a chance on a first-time loanee.
Kasey McAteer is a player more used to these demands. Leicester boss Enzo Maresca prefers to invert his right-back into central midfield, leaving the wideman in front with a lot of defensive responsibility. Former AFC Wimbledon loanee McAteer played this role excellently in the opening months of the campaign and grabbed five goals at the other end, despite playing just 770 minutes.
Leicester have been strongly linked with a move for Manchester United’s Amad Diallo, which suggests that McAteer could be sent out on loan. Even though some Coventry fans may be put off by the idea of borrowing a player from their Midlands rivals, the clubs have done business in the past and there aren’t many other fringe players at top Championship clubs who would be both available and affordable to teams without lucrative parachute payments.
The only possible hitch in this move is that Leicester are set to lose three key attacking players to the African Cup of Nations. If the Foxes plan to keep McAteer around until later in the month, Coventry may look elsewhere to make early additions.
What do you think of these options? Are there any alternatives you’d look at instead? Will Coventry reach the playoffs this season?
Not only didnt you predict 9th correctly but also the signing of Ethon Clarke. Do you this weeks lottery numbers lol