Coventry City warning issued after recent blip - "Lazy" Haji Wright is among Sky Blues concerns | OneFootball

After a hot start to 2025-26, Coventry can't get back over the winning line in recent weeks

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

After an opening few Championship games which saw them involved in an eight-goal thriller against Derby County before smashing Queens Park Rangers 7-1 at the CBS Arena, many would have assumed that Coventry City would carry on going from strength-to-strength.

It has not quite panned out that way for the Sky Blues though, who have stalled in the aftermath of humiliating Julien Stephan's Hoops side.

Prior to the international break, Cov could only muster up a 1-1 draw with Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium, and following it they have also been struggling to get over the line with three points.

Norwich City somewhat gifted them a draw in the closing stages of their contest recently, and then this past weekend in the M69 derby, they played out a goalless draw with rivals Leicester City.

Coventry City concerns issued after stuttering run of form - Haji Wright comes in for criticism

To go from 12 goals scored in two matches to then two goals netted from their last three, Coventry's attacking impetus has definitely dried up in recent games, despite having plenty of talent at their disposal.

The dip in form has also come at a time where manager Frank Lampard has been linked to his former club West Ham - they have not yet sacked Graham Potter, but he is under pressure after a poor start to the 2025-26 Premier League season.

With the BBC claiming that Slaven Bilic, Gary O'Neil and Nuno Espirito Santo are the managers on the Hammers shortlist though, Coventry may now be breathing a sigh of relief on that front, but their form is still a concern on the pitch.

And FLW's City fan pundit Chris Deez has expressed his concerns over the recent run of form, and has even singled out star striker Haji Wright for underperforming in-front of goal, despite currently being the joint-top scorer in the division.

"I'd like to say I'm surprised about this blip of three draws in a row, but I'm really not," Chris told FLW.

"We are not clinical in-front of goal even close to enough if we want to be pushing for automatic promotion or the play-offs.

"I just don't see it happening with Haji Wright up-front, because he's scored five goals for us so far, which on paper sounds great - he could've literally scored three times the amount of that.

"But he doesn't work hard enough, he's not clinical enough in-front of goal, he misses sitters and he's just lazy.

"But then the only backup we've got for him is Ellis Simms, and this is what drove me crazy - people were saying 'We don't need to have loads of squad depth because we bought the stadium and that's the greatest signing in our club's history'.

"Yes, I agree, but we still need depth. It doesn't matter if we own our stadium - owning the stadium isn't going to help us win games.

"A draw away at Leicester and a clean sheet is brilliant on paper, but the two draws before it weren't, and now there's pressure on us to beat Birmingham at home next week.

"Rushworth, our goalkeeper, was Man of the Match against Leicester, which says a lot, doesn't it? They've absolutely battered us, and our 'keeper has been the best player on the day.

"We had chances, and we've had chances that we should've scored, but it's not like we've drawn three games in a row and not conceded - we concede really sloppy, cheap, terrible goals basically every week.

"On paper, beating Derby 5-3 looked brilliant, but we conceded three fairly poor goals. I think these three draws in a row are going to come back to haunt us later on in the season. Leicester is the one that I'm most content with.

"Going away to a promotion favourite, a parachute payment team, drawing 0-0, you've got to be pretty happy with, with the strength of their team, but the two results beforehand are just, in my opinion, four points dropped."

The Championship is an unpredictable league - Coventry City shouldn't be too worried for now

Asides from Middlesbrough, who are clear at the top of the table with five wins from their opening six matches, no other teams have showed full consistency yet - which is no surprise when we're just a few weeks past the closure of the transfer window.

Coventry though made minimal changes to their squad over the summer though, with just four new signings arriving at the CBS Arena, and of those, only Carl Rushworth is starting regularly right now in-between the sticks after his arrival from Brighton on loan.

Therefore, you could argue that Coventry should've been ready for the league more than most, and they were certainly showing it across the first handful of games, yet their prolific nature has dropped off a bit already.

That could easily flip on its head in the coming weeks before the October international break, and with Birmingham City set to visit this coming weekend, it's a perfect time for Lampard's charges to regroup and get back to winning ways.