Coventry City club crest on the side of the Ricoh Arena
Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray insists his former loan star will be a success with the Sky Blues
Mark Robins hailed his “warrior” centre-half Kyle McFadzean for his part in Coventry City’s clean sheet against Sunderland.
Although the Sky Blues created the best chance of the goalless draw at the CBS Arena when substitute Haji Wright couldn’t quite put the finishing touch on a fine three-man move, the City boss singled out his elder statesman of the team for his part in maintaining the clean sheet against Tony Mowbray’s Black Cats.
Assessing the goalless draw in his post-match press conference, Robins said: “Two really good teams trying to play football, and it was like chess at times with people moving into positions and dragging out with really good technicians in both teams.
“And then you are looking to try to create good opportunities while trying to limit the opponent, which is difficult to do. I thought across the back line we were outstanding, throwing bodies in front of it.
“Milan (van Ewijk) has had his best game and Jay Dasilva was really good but McFadzean was a joke, throwing himself in. He’s carrying injuries and got an injury during the game and yet he was making block tackles and throwing himself in front of things; getting his big nose in front of things. So he’s been every inch the warrior that he is and the other two around him (Bobby Thomas and Joel Latibeaudiere) have worked really hard to try to maintain the clean sheet with Ben Wilson behind them who dealt with most things.”
He added: “On the flip side of it we played some really good football, got into wide areas but they tried to pay on the counter attack against us – they leave Jack Clarke up, Jobe Bellingham was up and there are three players ready to break out at any given moment really and that’s where the danger is.
“We were trying to open them up but if we don’t get it right because they kill the space then it means that they can turn it over and get on the counter. And the first time they did it we stepped out and they skipped past us, albeit we managed to snuff that out. And that put us on the back foot a little bit in terms of coming out and being aggressive, although we regained that and started to do it pretty well.
“Then we started to tire a little bit in the second half and it became a little bit stretched and open because both teams were trying to win. It was difficult to make changes at that time 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.”
