Coventry City boss Steven Pressley wants his players to get back in touch with what made them League One's form team
Coventry City manager Steven Pressley hopes his squad can rediscover what made them successful at the start of the season, and bring a halt to the current slide in form.
The Sky Blues boss believes that the side is showing signs of improvement despite consecutive defeats in the league and he is keen for them to get back the attacking instinct that proved influential in their surge up the table.
The City boss said: “What we can’t get away from is what made us successful, fast, attacking football. We have to make sure we don’t lose sight of that, ensuring that we get back to scoring those goals and playing that attacking football that is so evident in a big percentage of our season and I’ve seen signs of that in recent games.
“I actually think in the last three games we have looked more like ourselves.
“Obviously the win against Walsall, bar the opening 20 minutes against Colchester we played well, and I thought that Tuesday night’s performance was one our best in recent times in terms of our control of the game and our attacking play.”
Pressley suggests a tactical need to be defensive and a lack of fit strikers previous games caused a dry spell in front of goal, but as Callum Wilson has returned to fitness, this does not need to be the case anymore.
Sky Blues manager said: “We had a period where we had no strikers at the time, so we had to try and find different ways to win games. But our strikers have returned and in the last two or three games we looked far, far better with our attacking options and creating chances.
“We’ve tried to find the solution in tactical changes, especially in terms of our back four and keeping them together, this came at a slight cost in terms of our expansive and attacking play.
“We are actually not an open team, if you were to watch Coventry City you would see we are a very tight team, we close and press really well and we don’t allow distances between our lines.”
Back-to-back away defeats could be cause for a tactical switch, but the boss stresses that there is a key to Coventry City success and they must rediscover that.
“The one thing we must concentrate on is that we must not forget what we are good at. What we are good at is pressing teams high, playing fast, attractive football and scoring goals. Our focus has got to be on doing that.”