"Bizarre" - Pundit makes Mark Robins claim amid worrying Coventry City form | OneFootball

Coventry City have won just two of their opening nine league games so far this season

George Elek has claimed that focusing on Mark Robins’ role in Coventry City’s slow start to the season is not right.

The Sky Blues were expected to be in promotion contention this season after a promising end to the last campaign, as well as a strong summer transfer window.

However, two wins from their opening nine games has left the club sitting 20th in the Championship table going into the October international break.

Coventry finished ninth in the previous campaign, having reached the play-off final just 12 months prior to that.

Robins has been with the club since 2017, and guided the team to promotion from both League Two and League One during that time, as well as an FA Cup semi-final earlier this year.

George Elek issues Mark Robins defence

Elek has claimed that Robins is not the issue with Coventry’s slow start to the new Championship season.

While he understands the desire to want to find someone to blame, he believes that the focus should be on the process of the team’s performances, rather than just the results.

“I think the key point for Coventry now is you have to look at the process, rather than just the results,” said Elek, via the Not The Top 20 podcast.

“And obviously, when results aren’t good, and you’re losing games, regardless of the performances, people will look for answers as to why.

“And that’s going to mean blaming players, blaming managers or blaming other things.

“With Robins himself, when you’ve got a guy that’s achieved so much at Coventry, it seems bizarre to me, as soon as things turn, ‘well, he’s the problem,’ like he’s the issue.”

As of writing, Robins has overseen 382 games with the club during this second stint in charge as manager, winning 152 times.

Elek raises Coventry loan concern

Elek has also highlighted one process that has changed quite a lot at Coventry, suggesting that their lack of high-end Premier League loans this year could be impacting performances.

“You look back to the play-off final, where Luke McNally played as a centre-back who was on loan at the time from Burnley, and was such an important part of that team,” he added.

“Callum Doyle is another one recently who came in on loan from Manchester City and had a big impact, so the one process that seems to have maybe changed is the approach to loans, and not looking to get players that maybe in terms of pure quality wouldn’t be accessible to Coventry City.

“And maybe if they did have two or three elite level Premier League loans then maybe things would be different this time around.

“So that, from a recruitment point of view, is something that I think might be worth addressing.

“But my take is, in terms of the numbers themselves, players who are underperforming will turn it around fairly soon, and certainly if things don’t really change from a chance-creation point of view I think Coventry City will improve.”

Coventry shouldn’t be too worried by slow start

Coventry have had slow starts in both of their last two campaigns, so this is a concerning trend that’s emerged.

However, they finished fifth and ninth in the end, so shouldn’t be too worried about their current position.

The gap to Watford in sixth is eight points, which can still be overcome at this early stage of the season.

And their performances have been encouraging, even if results so far have been hard to come by, with the Sky Blues ranking eighth in the division for their expected goals difference (xGD) after nine games, according to figures from Fbref.