Southampton travel to the CBS Arena on Wednesday night, as they prepare to take on a Coventry City side who have lost just once in their last five games.
After a slow start to the season, last season’s beaten play-off finalists Coventry have seemingly turned the corner under manager Mark Robins after only winning one of their opening six Championship games of the season.
Coventry are currently 15th in the table but are only five points off the play-offs and, given the form they are in, they will have ambitions of finishing in the top eight come the end of the season. Southampton have cemented their place in the play-offs and are fourth after a late Watford equaliser on Saturday saw Russell Martin‘s side lose ground on the automatic promotion spots.
With Coventry’s recent revival and the Saints’ run of 12 games, this should be an intriguing fixture. Andy Turner of Coventry Live gave us the lowdown on what to expect from Robins’ side.
What should Southampton expect from Coventry?
When asked what Southampton should prepare for when they travel to face Coventry on Wednesday night, Turner explained that they are “an improving side full of confidence, particularly on home soil after Friday night’s big local derby win over Birmingham City”.
Turner predicts a great atmosphere under the lights at the CBS Arena where “the fans get right behind Robins’ team who are more than capable of mixing it with the likes of Southampton and other fallen Premier League clubs.”
It is perhaps not a surprise that Coventry started the season slowly when you consider that there were 14 departures in the summer, including both Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer, who Turner says were the club’s two best players. Turner also highlighted that the club brought in 11 new arrivals this summer so it has been a massive player turnover for Robins’ side.
In terms of style, Turner says: “Coventry knock the ball about nicely and build from the back, playing attractive and attacking football”. This should make for an exciting game with two teams who look to play a positive style and it has a feeling of a game that could go either way.
Who are Coventry’s key men?
When asked which players Southampton should look out for, Turner highlighted Callum O’Hare, explaining that he “was the star of the show on Friday night with his best game and first two goals since returning from ten months out with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury”.
O’Hare is a midfielder who loves to get forward and Southampton will hope that Flynn Downes recovers from the illness that kept him out of the Watford draw in order to provide a more solid look to the Saints midfield.
Turner also named Milan van Ewijk and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto as threats on the right-hand side, as well as Haji Wright who likes to cut in from the left-hand side. Wright has five goals and one assist in the league this season so Southampton will need Kyle Walker-Peters to be alert to the threat of the American.
With everything taken into consideration, and the form Coventry are in, Turner predicts that Robins will name an unchanged side from the 2-0 win over Birmingham last time out. So, here is Turner’s predicted line-up:
(4-3-3) Bradley Collins; Milan van Ewijk, Bobby Thomas, Liam Kitching, Jake Bidwell; Ben Sheaf, Callum O’Hare, Jamie Allen; TatsuhiroSakamoto, Ellis Simms, Haji Wright.