It's been a tough start for the Sky Blues. 2 games played, 2 defeats and no goals scored. Is it all as bad as it seems though?
Looking at the performances I have to say it's too close to call. It could easily be said that Coventry deserved at least a point out of both games, but a frail strike-force is currently the teams stumbling block. In Jutkiewicz we have a player with great natural ability at holding the ball up, but as a finisher he seems to be struggling. Alongside him we can choose from Freddy Eastwood, a good finisher but a player as lazy as a cow in a field, youngsters Callum Wilson and Shaun Jeffers, neither of whom have experience at this level, or Clive Platt, a man the size of a tree who, like Juke is known more for setting up goals than scoring them.
With this comes the problem. We have a good defence that conceded just 1 goal against both Leicester and Birmingham (2 teams tipped for promotion), a midfield boasting captain Sammy Clingan, local hero Gary McSheffrey and up and coming youngsters Gael Bigirimana and Conor Thomas, but a strike-force with no natural finisher. It makes the Sky Blues a team very close to being competitive, but with Sisu reluctant to do anything bar sitting in their comfy chairs in hiding, could we be stuck like this for the entire season?
Do we dare to mention Le Fondre? That's all gone very quiet. Pacheco nearly joined on loan but apparently we're too far away from Liverpool. Other options came and went too, most notably Kevin Phillips to Blackpool. With what seems to be no money and no goalscorer you feel that even if we kept 44 clean sheets in the games that remain, we'd be stuck with 44 draws and 2 defeats to our name.
Will McSheffrey be the hero again? Can Juke find his touch infront of goal? Are we one more injury away from bringing back Carsley? Can somebody, anybody get Freddy motivated once fit? It's a lot of questions to ask, and you can't help but feel sorry for Andy Thorn, the rookie manager with all of this to deal with.
At least he'll be getting a good reception tonight, going back to Crystal Palace where he did so well as a player. Let's hope he can find someone in this thin, frail Coventry team that can deliver the goods, a goal of any kind. Best of luck to him and the lads tonight, but come the end of the season, will we be thinking of the year we were 1 player short? Thorn has 44 games to make sure we're not.
