The Coventry City player who looks every bit a smart investment with added strings to his bow
Coventry City news and opinion from CoventryLive as we take an in-depth look at one of the Sky Blues impressive summer signings
certainly caught the eye of many Coventry City fans.
The former Netherlands Under-21 international, who turns 23 this week, joined the Sky Blues amid much excitement in the summer, particularly given that he spent much of his youth career for his country playing on the opposite flank to Ian Maatsen – the Chelsea prospect who performed so impressively during a season-long loan at the CBS Arena the season before last.
Van Ewijk has had a productive start to the season personally, opening his account with his first goal for the club last weekend in the 3-3 thriller with Watford. And so far this term he’s started four out of City’s five Championship games to put an early stamp on the right wing-back shirt.
The player has undoubtedly been one of the plus points to the opening month of the season, showing plenty of industry but also creativity to give Mark Robins men an exciting outlet down the right wing.
Position addressed
City haven’t really had a really effective attacking force on that flank since Fankaty Dabo was in his Sky Blue pomp a few seasons ago in League One. Since then the one-time fan favourite dipped in and out but was largely held back by niggling injuries and dips in form before eventually being released in the summer. Todd Kane was drafted in to compete but his spell soon turned sour before Brooke Norton-Cuffy was added in January. And although the Arsenal loan man impressed towards the end of the campaign, it took him time to get going.
First impressions
The wing-back has shown that he’s good on the ball and gets forward well, taking on and beating opponents with his electric pace while also having the discipline to stick to his defensive duties. His most impressive display to date was arguably against Sunderland when he helped keep the hugely talented Jack Clarke reasonably quiet in the 0-0 draw.
One of his standout qualities is his speed, which he’s used to good effect to track back and make well-timed tackles.
More than one string to his bow
Van Ewijk revealed a hidden talent to the fans against the Black Cats when he was called over from the right by skipper Kyle McFadzean to take a throw-in on the left. He promptly launched the ball into the box, a tactic he repeated a couple more times during the game to confirm that City have a new weapon in their attacking armoury – something they haven’t had since Sam McCallum was at the club.
The following week the early fans’ favourite among the summer signings revealed another talent when he struck a 30-year-old free-kick which found its way inside Watford keeper Daniel Bachmann’s right-hand post to provide Coventry with one of three equalisers on the day. Robins disclosed afterwards that he and a number of his team-mates – Kasey Palmer, Josh Eccles, Yasin Ayari and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto – have been putting in the hours after training by practising scoring from free-kicks.
What Robins has said about him:
Speaking after the Sunderland game, the manager said: “Milan had his best game. It was difficult to make changes in the second half because we still had Jack Clarke going at Milan, and they were playing a full-back and a winger and if I made a change there it would have meant having to deal with Clarke. And we just about got away with that because Milan was really good.”
Conclusion:
The £3.4million signing from SC Heerenveen has certainly lived up to his billing so far, and already looks like being a valuable asset who will only get better over the course of his four year contract. It’s a decent fee to shell out for a player, particularly when you consider City only paid just over £1m for Gustavo Hamer, but it will be seen as a smart bit of business and wise investment that will hopefully see his stock rise considerably in time.
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