“Not a given that it will work” is how Carlton Palmer describes the situation at Coventry City.
Due to Ben Sheaf’s adductor issue, the Sky Blues manager has been dealt a setback.
Coventry City’s start to the 2023-24 Championship season has certainly been underwhelming, with Mark Robins’ new-look squad not quite gelling together just yet.
The loss of crucial players Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer was always going to have a significant impact on the cohesiveness of the club and their ability to win games, but even so, the season has started slowly with many draws already amassed.
After seven matches of the campaign, the Sky Blues sit in 17th position with seven points, having won just the one game which came back in August in a rampant 3-0 success over Middlesbrough at the CBS Arena.
Along with the issue of being unable to win many games with a new-look squad, Robins is also having to deal with injuries – especially in the engine room.
An adductor strain suffered by key midfield general Ben Sheaf will keep him out of action for around six weeks, leaving Liam Kelly and Josh Eccles as the more defensive options whilst Yasin Ayari, Jamie Allen and Kasey Palmer are the attack-minded players available to Robins.
Should Coventry City move into the free agents market for a new midfielder?
Former England international and ex-Sky Blues player Carlton Palmer believes that it will be no use to Coventry to utilise the free agents market – with Robins even stating that he was unlikely to dip into the available pool earlier on in the month for defensive positions.
Coventry unfortunately have been dealt with another injury blow, but Mark Robins has already made a comment about free transfers when he faced a centre-back injury crisis,” Palmer said when speaking to Football League World.
“And I’m firmly in his camp – players who are free transfers at this stage of the season haven’t got a contract for a reason.
“If players are out of contract, they’ve not played or trained, it takes four or five weeks to get up to speed and it’s not a given that it will work out anyway.
“So, I don’t think Mark will use free transfers, as he said he will have to get on with what he has.”
What midfielders are available as free agents?
Should Robins change his mind and actually look towards the out of contract players, then there are a few options available to him.
However, none are really in the defensive mould of the sidelined Sheaf, so any potential addition would be more of a player who likes to attack from the middle of the park.
Josh Onomah is still a free agent having trained with Stoke City over the summer, whilst there is experience still available in the form of both Luke Freeman and Stefan Johansen – the latter who is perhaps the most defensive of the lot.
Luke Amos is another offensive midfielder who could do a job in the Championship, but he wouldn’t exactly be a game-changer for Coventry.
If Robins does in-fact have a second thought over freebies, then someone like Onomah could offer something with his driving runs from the middle of the park, but the options on the whole don’t look overly convincing.
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