Sport

The Coventry City transfer masterstroke is highlighted once more

Published

11 months ago

January 15, 2024

Coventry City have once again come from nowhere in the race for a Championship play-off place, with it looking further likely after every passing week that lightning will strike twice in the Sky Blues’ attempts to make the top six.

Ultimately, Mark Robins and his side are now showing why so much belief was put behind them by supporters and outsiders to maintain their standing as contenders once again, despite the pitfalls of losing the influential Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer after last season’s near miss at Wembley.

One key reason that Robins has been able to maintain City’s upward trajectory has been down to the club’s exploits in the transfer market, and such planning went under the microscope even further after the substantial combined fees received for the aforementioned departing duo.

Coventry City’s transfer exploits coming to the fore

What followed was a lengthy flow of players coming through the door at the CBS Arena, which included the well-documented signings of Ellis Simms and Haji Wright.

Coventry City – 2023/24 Summer Signings
Player Name	Signed From	Loan/Permanent
Haji Wright	Antalyaspor	Permanent
Ellis Simms	Everton	Permanent
Liam Kitching	Barnsley	Permanent
Milan van Ewijk	Heerenveen	Permanent
Bobby Thomas	Burnley	Permanent
Tatsuhiro Sakamoto	KV Oostende	Permanent
Brad Collins	Barnsley	Permanent
Jay Dasilva	Bristol City	Permanent
Joel Latibeaudiere	Swansea City	Permanent
Yasin Ayari	Brighton	Loan
Luis Binks	Bologna	Loan

Whilst both strikers have also now found their feet in this recently unstoppable run by the Sky Blues, which reached profound heights in Saturday’s 3-1 victory in the M69 Derby over leaders Leicester.

Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s run of eight goal contributions in eleven games has coincided with Wright’s run of three assists and two goals prior to an omission from the squad against the Foxes, but another signing has proved to be a similar stroke of genius in the form of Dutch full-back Milan van Ewijk.

Milan van Ewijk’s performances in Sky Blue

Compared to their transfer dealings in their previous three seasons at Championship level, which coincided with the Sky Blues occupying a space in the bottom three in terms of wage bills last term with an estimated weekly salary of just £5.9m, the fee reported by CoventryLive to acquire van Ewijk in the summer (€4m / £3.4m) is a lot of money by prior standards, but the 23-year-old’s performances are showing that such money could result in a bargain transfer down the line.

According to SofaScore, the right-back has been City’s sixth-best performer across the season with a rating of 7.12, a number that has coincidentally skyrocketed as a result of his impact on the side and their ability to find a consistent formula.

Three of his four goal contributions have come since the beginning of a run where Robins’ side have only tasted defeat on one occasion since November 25th, and if such trends were to continue, the Dutchman looks set to surpass his tally of G+A during his final season for Heerenveen, which stands at six goals and a solitary assist as per Fbref.

Whilst such baseline numbers at this stage of the season are impressive for somebody who more than knows how to operate as a modern day full-back, the underlying data also backs up his dynamic performances in City’s 4-4-1-1 system.

Milan van Ewijk’s Coventry City 23/24 stats (Championship Only)	Total
Matches Played	23
Matches Started	19
Goals	2
Assists	2
Big Chances Created	3
Key Passes per Game	0.8
Passing Accuracy per Game (%)	84
Passing Accuracy in Opposition Half per Game (%)	71
Tackles per Game	2.2
Balls Recovered per Game	4.6
Dribbled Past per Game	0.3
Average Rating	7.12
All stats as per SofaScore (Correct as of January 14th 2024)

Leicester City performance epitomised van Ewijk’s strengths

Whilst the Foxes were guilty of missing a handful of good chances and would say the game changed once Abdul Fatawu was shown a straight red card at 1-0, the second half performance by the Sky Blues and overall play from van Ewijk epitomised Coventry’s stellar run of late.

Not only did the eight-time Netherlands’ U21 international grab the decisive goal three minutes from time, but once again his underlying stats went somewhat under the radar in securing a dramatic late turnaround in the West Midlands.

The man who recorded an 8.4 rating wasn’t successfully beaten by any Leicester player in a 1v1 – including the in-form Stephy Mavididi prior to his 46th minute substitution. It didn’t stop there, with Van Ewijk winning four of his six ground duels, as well as accumulating an 89% pass accuracy with two further key passes.