Gary McSheffrey has admitted to being the worst defender in the Championship, but he also thought defensive duties adversely affected his game and was partly the cause of a poor eight goal tally for the season.
McSheffrey returned to Coventry City from Birmingham last summer, but he was bitterly disappointed not to have scored a lot more goals to emulate his feat of being the leading scorer for City in three consecutive seasons prior to his transfer to Birmingham City.
McSheffrey said to the CT:"I am not going to lie, I must be the worst defender in the Championship." This candid admission sends the message to the manager and coaches that strikers need to be in the right part of the field if they are to fulfil their role properly.
He continued: "You can be as honest as you like but you are not going to have any end product if you spend half your time in your own half defending, covering your full-back and tracking runners."
"For my last four or five games, bar Preston, I just felt I was back to my old self, playing with a freedom where the manager says work hard by all means but I don't want you back defending."
"The manager knows he has players in the side who can win him the game and if we play the way he wants us to play we will create chances and hopefully get the goals."
"I was just disappointed to miss the last five or six games with a minor injury because the lads were playing really well and I was starting to feel really good and score a few goals."
"I started 31 games and I'll be honest, considering how my season was going and how I thought my form and end product was going, it is not a bad tally looking back on a season where I did a hell of a lot of tracking back and defending early on, but the last five games gave me the self belief that I can be a threat at this level, so eight goals is a disappointing tally but after the two seasons I had before it is definitely a step in the right direction."
"My confidence is back and a couple more additions to the squad and, although we say it every year on any given day we can play anyone in this league and be comfortable."
McSheffrey missed the last few games of the season with a medial ligament injury in his left knee, but he is confident he will be fit again for pre-season training and will be back to peak condition when the new season commences.
"It's coming on. It's not 100 per cent yet but hopefully a good three or four weeks of rest and rehab should sort it out," he said.
"Medials are niggly and annoying but I have been running and doing everything bar train with the lads. We have all got individual programmes and I know I have got to be ready when we come back because the last thing I want is to come back in July and it not be right."
"I would be a fool to myself if I did that, so bar any accidents I'll come back right. It was grade one and Ben Turner had a grade three, Sammy had a two, so if you do a medial you want it to be a grade one so, touch wood, it will be fine."
"I am filled with so much more confidence having played in the midfield diamond and it's given me that boost and target to get really fit over the summer and come back ready and raring to go, knowing that there is a big part in the team there for me. The manager gives everyone that confidence."
"No one has got a given place in the team but he puts trust in players and when you do that you get the best out of them. The style we are playing at the moment means fans are going to be entertained with end to end football because we leave ourselves quite open but the manager has got the belief that we'll score the goals to win."