Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray has said that he will give Chris Stokes a platform to perform and see how he gets on.
“He’s a work in progress, I think, as are most of our players,” said the City boss to the Coventry Telegraph.
“There are things he needs to get better at but he’s also got huge assets that he brings to our team.
“At this level I would say just about every player has things they need to improve on and they know that.
“I am not going to bull him up and say he’s great because he frustrates me at times, and yet he gets in our team every week because of his endeavour and his resilience and desire.
Would I like him to pick better passes, would I like him to drive down the line a bit more forcefully and get a few more balls in the box? Yes, all of those things and he knows that.
“Can he win some headers at the back stick, is he resilient against attackers and give everything he has got every week? Yes, he does.
“He was competing with Ryan and if Ryan had some of Chris Stokes’s attributes it wouldn’t be a question because Ryan’s speed, technique and ability to deliver the ball are all assets Chris needs to improve on,” he said.
“But Ryan also lacks what Chris has got in terms of desire, commitment and physicality – that ‘shall not be beaten’ type of attitude.
“Put them together and we’d have a pretty decent left-back. Ryan has to find that physical and mental toughness and then he probably won’t be here because he’s such a talented football player, and Stokesy has to practise his passing, bending balls down the line and dropping balls into strikers’ feet.
“His first touch has to be better regarding facing the direction he’s going and we work with them every day to show them good practice.
“And Stokes’s attitude to wanting to learn is excellent; to come in the office and watch some videos of other players or his opponents, or clips of his games with the good, the bad and the ugly and try to improve himself. We have given him a platform to do that and see where it ends.”
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