Coventry City are itching to get back to Championship action this weekend to show just what a good side they are after a stuttering start to the new campaign.
That opportunity to get back to winning ways comes at Vicarage Road where they face an in-form Watford side, seemingly revitalised under new boss Tom Cleverley who has guided them to five straight victories in all competitions before a narrow 1-0 loss at Sheffield United last time out in the league.
The Sky Blues’ preparation has been slightly disjointed due to four players – Brandon Thomas-Asante, Oliver Dovin, Joel Latibeaudiere and Haji Wright – being away on international duty, and two regulars – Ben Sheaf and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto – recovering from ankle injuries.
“The lads who have been here have trained consistently and we have had a reasonably good week. The numbers have been down because of the lads away but they have performed to a really high level. Sometimes if they have had a few days off it takes them a day to get back into it but this time they got back in and were at it and hopefully we’ll see that reflected on Saturday in the game.”
On Haji and Joel’s long haul returns from the USA and Honduras
“We’ll see today. I have not seen them yet this morning. I’ll make a final decision on the team after training. It’s difficult when they are away but they have flown back on business class flights, so they should be OK but it depends on individuals.”
On injured duo Sheaf and Sakamoto
“Ben’s on the grass and he’s training so that’s as close as he has been for a good few weeks. Tatsu is the same, on the grass, training. So again, that’s really good news because we have missed the both of those. Tatsu has only missed half a game against Norwich but when they are out, you miss them, and in terms of the training sessions, you want them involved, so it’s a step in the right direction.”
Reflecting on the Norwich disappointment and clarifying his post match comments
“The realities were we had done everything OK in the first half, we didn’t create a massive amount and they had one shot on target in the second half and scored a deflected goal. And then they defended pretty well.
“When I spoke at the end of the game, because I also look at that, I spoke about running harder and players being a bit disjointed. To clarify what I mean by that is that we have to work smarter, harder but also in certain areas of the field.
“We have to play in a certain way to help to create the chances and also, when we speak about being disjointed and new players coming in, it was rightly pointed out that there were nine players from last season who started the game.
That’s fair enough but what I was talking about was that when we made the changes and the new players come on, and there were three out of the five substitutes, sometimes they are not making the right movements to break down a block that Norwich put in place, but also gave them a leg up in terms of enabling them to keep possession for too long.
