Coventry (A) Preview
Brady Frost, Feature Writer
Twitter: @brady0894
Source for image above: HTAFC
With much made of the changes at Bournemouth, can a refreshed Huddersfield bounce back at Coventry? Tom Ward from fan podcast Sky Blues Extra covers Coventry for us.
Pfft. Saturday’s game was something. Six changes were made to the team and it showed. If fans were expecting defeat prior to kickoff, that was confirmed when the lineup was announced. Regardless of what you think of Saturday’s result and whether Huddersfield would have won with their strongest starting XI or not, the game against Coventry looks more winnable on paper.
Even though they were promoted from League One last season, Coventry have been in good form recently. The Sky Blues head into the match with a seven game unbeaten run and have beaten Cardiff and drawn with league leaders Norwich in that period. They are 18th in the table with 21 points, three points and four places behind Huddersfield and haven’t lost at home in five matches, so it’s going to be a tougher match than you might expect.
However, with so many changes made at the weekend, you’d assume that Carlos Corberán has marked this game as one to target, given the match against Watford at the weekend. So to find out whether Coventry expect this to be a difficult match, we caught with Tom Ward from Coventry fan podcast, Sky Blues Extra.
Former Huddersfield manager Mark Robins has done an impressive job with Coventry. Photo source: Coventry
What have you made of your season so far?
The Sky Blues had a tough start to life in the Championship having to play a number of top half teams like Bristol City, Blackburn, Swansea, Watford, Bournemouth etc. However, with Liam Kelly returning to our midfield and shoring things up we seem to have turned a corner and are settling into the Championship quite well. At the time of writing, we are unbeaten in six and conceding far fewer goals than earlier in the season.
What are your general expectations for the rest of the season now that we’re well underway?
I think we’re still being very realistic about our expectations. Although we’ve built a 6 point gap between us and the bottom three, I fully expect us to be in a relegation dogfight and in and around the bottom 6-8 for much of the season. Safety would be a huge result for us and would allow us to keep building as a club as we have been doing fairly rapidly over the past three years or so.
Our former manager Mark Robins seems to have done an impressive job. Can you tell us a little bit more about what’s he done and how fans feel towards him?
It can’t really be overstated what an unbelievable job Mark Robins has done in his near four years at the club. He came back at a time when the club was about to be relegated to League Two and has completely rebuilt the club not just on the pitch but behind the scenes as well. He is the 2nd most successful manager in CCFC history based on win ratio in the league and has won 3 trophies along the way. If he can return us to the Premier League, then he will be the greatest manager ever in my opinion but he’s not far off that already.
Coventry midfielder Gustavo Hamer is the one to watch says Tom Ward from Sky Blues Extra. Photo source: Coventry
Which player from your current squad do you think will be one to watch this season?
Our one to watch is without doubt Gustavo Hamer. Signed from Zwolle in the summer for £1.2M, he has taken to life in the Championship very comfortably and dictates a lot of the play through our midfield. He started the season in a deeper midfield role but has pushed slightly further forward and is now chipping in with goals, and some special ones at that. Also, look out for his delivery from corners and free-kicks.
The team brought in a couple of players over the transfer window, have you been impressed with the business, and have any of your new signings made a difference so far or you think will do well?
Coventry isn’t a club that is going to go out and spend millions on players and we have an ethos of building sustainably which has served us very well over the past three years as we’ve risen up the leagues. We did spend some money in the summer however with our main two signings being Gus Hamer (£1.2m) and Tyler Walker (approx. £500k).
We’ve also made some good loan signings in Ryan Giles from Wolves and Sam McCallum from Norwich. Our best piece of business in the summer was getting Callum O’Hare on a free from Villa. He was one of our key players on loan last season and we managed to beat a number of rival Championship clubs for his signature.
What are you expecting from the game against Huddersfield?
I see this as a tough game for the Sky Blues. Huddersfield are 2nd in the league for possession so will likely have a lot of the ball which I expect will frustrate us. I think Frazier Campbell is the danger man we will be looking to keep quiet on the night. I think it will be a tight game and won’t be much to pick between the sides.
Harry Toffolo has said that Town need to “take the negatives and turn them into positives.” Photo source: HTAFC
Is there anything Huddersfield need to be on the lookout for in this game?
Nothing in particular but it might be a tougher game than our league position suggests. We seem to have tightened up a lot at the back recently so we might be tricky to break down. As mentioned already Hamer is a talent who is one to lookout for and will deliver dangerous balls into the box.
What are Coventry’s weaknesses, is there anything Huddersfield can take advantage of?
We are prone to a mistake at the back and have given away quite a few penalties this season. We can lack pace at times so if you can get past one of our back three, there’s a chance of a trip or a push to win a penalty.
What are your expectations for Huddersfield Town this season?
Huddersfield are a hard team to predict in terms of how they’ll finish. I would have expected them to be strong given the fact they came down from the Premier League the season before last but it seems like there was a bit of a clear-out and rebuilding job is happening to get them back up. I can see them finishing mid-table but perhaps not quite strong enough for the playoffs.
What’s your score prediction for the game?
I think it will be a tight game without a huge amount of goals. I’ll go for a 1-1 which I think Sky Blues fans will be happy with.
How do you think Huddersfield will get on against Coventry? Let us know in the comments!
Our Predictions:
Brady: 1-0 win for Huddersfield.
Kosi: 1-1.
Matt: 1-1.
Neil: 2-2.
Pozza: 2-1 win for Huddersfield.
Si: 1-1
Scoring system: A correct score wins three points, a correct result wins a point.
