With so many personnel changes at Coventry City over the summer, the 2022/24 season was always going to be one of transition and adjustment for Mark Robins’ players.
Expectations are high, boosted by last season’s play-off final trip to Wembley Stadium and bolstered by a record-breaking 19,000 season ticket sales. But the Sky Blues manager has already asked for patience from supporters as his new-look squad continues to gel and adjust to Championship football and the way the manager wants them to play, transitioning from a counter-attacking side led by Viktor Gyokeres to a more possession-based outfit.
The biggest adjustment, however, has been to the loss of the hugely influential Gustavo Hamer in midfield – a void that the club failed to fill in the latter stages of the summer transfer window and which has come back to bite City on the backside with so many early season injuries to the likes of Ben Sheaf and Liam Kelly as the squad clearly lacks strength in depth in that particular department. Nevertheless, Coventry are joint second along with Hull City and Leeds United in terms of having only lost two games so far this term, behind the top two sides of Leicester City and Ipswich Town who have each lost just once to date. The Sky Blues have gone into the latest international break on the back of taking seven points from their last three games to leave them in 13th place in the table, having taken 15 points from their opening 11 games.
The team remains a work in progress, but Robins says that progress is being made and that he is convinced his club will reach the levels required to be a force in the league. With that in mind, we’ve taken a closer look at his squad in this player-by-player evaluation to provide our verdict.
