ROLE MODELS

MARK ROBINS ON WHY THE BOURNEMOUTH PHILOSOPHY IS ONE THE SKY BLUES WOULD DO WELL TO EMULATE

MARK Robins has revealed Coventry City’s blueprint to get the club back to where it belongs.

The Sky Blues boss is trying to model City’s style of play on a club that managed to climb the leagues to get into the Premier League and then establish itself in the division – all by playing a particular brand of football.

That club is Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth who rose from League Two to the top flight over a six year period between 2009 and 2015.

Having gained promotion to League One under their current boss, the Cherries made the play-offs the following season before an 11th place finish the season after.

However, the return of Howe as manager after a spell at Burnley saw the south coast club

gain promotion to the Championship in 2012/13.

They finished tenth in their first season back in the second tier and then spent most of the 2014–15 season near the top of the table before a 0–3 win away at Charlton Athletic on the final day of the season was enough to clinch the Championship title and a first-ever promotion to the top flight of English football.

Robins firmly believes in Howe’s brand of high pressing football and sees the likes of Conor Chaplin and Jordy Hiwula as helping to implement that process with the Sky Blues with their energy and running from the front.

“What I am talking about is

getting more from them in terms of intensity and the pressing,” said the City manager. “On Saturday they thought they were doing it but they weren’t, so we’ll have to sit down and go through that with them, show them the intensity that they need to play with. “I go back to Bournemouth when they got promoted from the Championship to the Premier League, the way they pressed and the way they were out of possession. “I talk about that all the time. If you get to that level then you have got a chance, and I mean a real chance, but it’s understanding it and knowing what they need to do because what they think is what I am after and

what I am actually after are two different things at the minute.

“They have done really well over the Christmas period and early part of the New Year but I don’t think Saturday was a disastrous performance.”

Robins admits that style has to be coupled with the club’s strategy for developing talented players to go on the “journey”.

“We have to have a philosophy,” he said. “We have to have a way of being self funding and self sustaining so that we can keep moving forward.

“So for me, this is the only way to do it and I am proud of it. I’m really proud of what we’re doing. I am proud of the supporters who are outstanding because a club like this needs to be in the Championship minimum, fighting to get back in the Premier League.

“We will get there but it might take a little bit of time. But I am pleased with what we’re doing and proud of what we’re doing.”

We have to have a philosophy. We have to have a way of being self funding and self sustaining so we can keep moving forward. Mark Robins