Coventry City news from CoventryLive as we pick the bones out of Friday’s pre-season friendly against Spanish side Getafe CF to see what it told us about the weeks and months to come
Coventry City stepped up their pre-season programme on Friday night with a decent test against Spainish top flight side Getafe CF, with the game ending goalless in Valencia.
The Sky Blues kicked off their friendly schedule with a comfortable 3-0 behind-closed-doors win over League Two Port Vale the previous weekend when summer signing Jack Rudoni opened his account, along with goals from Ellis Simms and Justin Obikwu. Back on home soil this week, City travel to face League One Stevenage on Tuesday night ahead of a flying visit to Germany to take on German side SV Darmstadt on Saturday.
So what did we learn from the team’s second pre-season run-out in Spain? Here we take a detailed look at what the game revealed for the up-coming games and season ahead.
Squad size:
There were 23 players involved, with manager Mark Robins playing two different teams in each half as he did in the opening game against Port Vale, giving them each another 45 minutes in their legs. The numbers included three development players in Kai Andrews, Justin Obikwu and Aidan Dausch. Rookie goalkeeper Luke Bell was an unused sub.
Notable absentees
Midfielder Victor Torp and winger Raphael Borges Rodrigues sat out the game, presumed injured, as did Ryan Howley with a slight muscle strain.
Injury concern
Joint star striker Haji Wright was forced off in only the second minute of the game in what was his first pre-season outing since returning from international duty with the USA in the Copa America. The leggy front man picked up what is thought to be an ankle injury when he raced down the left flank and took a whack from a tackle. It’s thought he came off more as a precaution than having done anything serious. He was replaced by Aidan Dausch.
Physical opposition
The game didn’t exactly live up to its ‘friendly’ tag as Getafe got stuck into City, seemingly unnecessarily. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto was taken out at one stage of proceedings, resulting in Milan van Ewijk squaring up to the offending player. The Japanese winger was routinely targeted last season and it looks as though that’s something he’s going to have to get used to.
Fab Tav returns
Fabio Tavares played his first 45 since limping off against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley with an ankle injury, and the lively 23-year-old striker was full of running, deployed wide on the right and getting up and down well during a more threatening second half from the Sky Blues who were unlucky not to score through Liam Kitching and Ellis Simms.
Burroughs presses claim
Jack Burroughs was once again given game time at right-back. Having returned from a season-long loan at Lincoln City in League One, the 23-year-old will be hungry to catch the manager’s eye and be part of his squad this time around. Whether he can provide competition and back-up to Van Ewijk remains to be seen.
Formation hints
Robins appears to be sticking with a back four again this season in what looks like a 4-2-1-3 formation which continues to be pretty fluid. Kasey Palmer was the more forward thinking player ahead of Kai Andrews and Ben Sheaf in the first half midfield, when Sakamoto and Wright started either side of young development striker Justin Obikwu. Jack Rudoni took up the more advanced midfield role after the break in front of Jamie Allen and Josh Eccles, while Tavares and Ephron Mason-Clark were deployed wide of Ellis Simms, who led the line.
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