Off-field antics will always grab the headlines where Coventry City are concerned. Unfortunately, ongoing issues at the club continue to rumble on and the latest news is that they aren’t even welcome in the stadium most fans call home. On the pitch, things are starting to look-up, a 1-0 defeat away at Reading prevented a five game win streak. The Sky Blues are currently 15th place in the Championship, the main goal being survival after a poor start to the season.
Coventry usually line-up in a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 system, although within that midfield you have players who are more advanced and some who are more reserved. In this post, we will be covering one of the more reserved players who happens to have a huge impact – Ben Sheaf.
Sheaf is a 24 year old, defensive midfielder who was previously on the books at Arsenal. His only appearance for the Gunners of any note was a 89th minute entry into a Europa League tie in 2017 versus Red Star Belgrade, replacing Francis Coquelin. During his time at Arsenal he was sent out on loan to Stevenage, Doncaster and Coventry. Once his deal was up in North London, he made the switch permanent to Coventry, signing a three year deal in 2021. Almost half that deal is gone now and with little over 18 months left on his contract other clubs will start having a look at the young midfielder after some impressive performances this season to date.
It should be noted that Coventry City are a team that play well on the counter and also like to mix up their passing styles, often reverting to a longer ball game. The 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 systems can often get quite compact though, meaning a lot of shorter passing comes into play too.
Above you can see a screenshot taken from FBRef, which compares Sheaf to other players in similar divisions. Players are always compared to players who play the same position. In this comparison, Sheaf is being compared to other central midfielders who play in divisions such as the Championship, Brazilian Serie A, Dutch Eredivisie and Portuguese Primeira League, among others.
What is immediately obvious when looking at Sheaf’s scouting report from FBRef, is that there’s an awful lot of green in a lot of different areas, making him seem very versatile. As previously mentioned, he is a more defensive-minded midfielder and therefore as you would expect his defensive stats look very good. However, there are other elements of his game, such as his passing which also stick out.
Let’s start with the defensive stuff. Sheaf is an aggressive tackler and makes things very difficult for attackers. This must also be caveated with the fact his yellow card tally is currently at seven, which is probably a bit too many. He averages 3.10 tackles per 90 mins, which puts him in the 92nd percentile of central midfielders. Other defensive work is also carried out in the form of interceptions. Something noted when watching clips of Sheaf was that his positional play was very good and he was also good at decision making, this came with a great level of calmness and composure too. For interceptions, he scores within the 85th percentile, averaging 1.63 per 90.
When defending their box, Coventry have been noted by WhoScored to be poor at defending from wide areas, this is largely due to the fact they do not play with full-backs or wing-backs and instead play with three central defenders. This means that the midfield units often have to get back and help out, which is something that Sheaf does well judging by his numbers. Starting with aerials won, Sheaf completes 1.61 per 90 mins, landing him within the 86th percentile. He also scores within the 77th percentile for blocks, 1.36 per 90. Sheaf is by no means the tallest player, so his aerial duels count is genuinely impressive. On reading, his mother was a professional volleyball player, so this is perhaps where he gets his aerial ability from.
Finally, we are going to mention his progressive passes. Progressive passes as measured by FBRef are either passes completed into the opposition’s box or passes completed that advance 10 yards further than the prior six passes (note: this excludes passes made from the defensive 40% of the pitch). Sheaf averages 5.43 of these, meaning that he scores within the 89th percentile. As a more reserved player, this is impressive and you may have thought the more advanced midfielders in the Coventry lineup would be tasked with being more progressive and attacking. This proves that Sheaf plays an important role at both ends of the field.
With half of his contract already eaten up and a few off-field issues at Coventry, do not be surprised if the 24 year old is snapped up in the summer when he will have just one year left on his deal. There will be clubs with play-off ambitions who could do a lot worse than Sheaf. Below I have linked a clip to a pre-season friendly versus Wolves that highlights a lot of the aspects of Sheaf’s game that we have mentioned.
Statswise FC 