Coventry has signed the experienced Waghorn on a two-year deal, replacing Biamou and Bakayoko with experience.
Aside from a very brief stint in the Premier League with Sunderland, and Scottish Championship and Premier League experience with Rangers, Waghorn has played his career in the Championship. He was a part of the Championship-winning Leicester City squad in the first half of the 13-14 season, before being loaned out to Wigan.
Waghorn played in 111 games for Derby in the Championship, scoring 26 goals over 3 seasons. 1 goal every 4 games is promising, but his experience of scoring in the play-off final for Derby is something that Coventry can look to for Gyokeres, Walker, and Godden to learn from. 20-21 Season:
Waghorn played in the March game versus Coventry and was withdrawn on 69 minutes having had no shots on goal and completed 60% of passes. Notably, Coventry controlled this game in a convincing 1-0 win with Biamou scoring on 10 minutes (how ironic).
Derby played the first half in a 1-4-4-2, playing Waghorn alongside Kazim-Richards.
Coventry played a 1-3-5-1-1, which converted into a controlled back 5, as we became familiar with towards the end of the season. The game image shows how Coventry had control over the Derby attack, marking both strikers and not allowing them any space to receive the ball.
For success with Waghorn, consider his best season with Derby (18-19) and their playoff run. The team averaged 53% possession with 77% pass accuracy. The team averaged 13 shots per game and Waghorn scored 9 goals, or 1 in every 3.5 games. The team favored a back 4 and 2-3-1 or 3-3 variations going forward with Waghorn front and center. Coventry tended to play better with a second striker having favored a more defensive set up this season, so incorporating Waghorn's seemingly preferred position and shape with Coventry's preference for 'being hard to beat' will be essential.
One constant Coventry will expect from Waghorn will be workrate. Though he struggled with consistency last season, we can expect to see moments like this, which have no real stats, but demonstrate the value of experience and pressing in the right moments. Here he has forced Wilson into a mistake as Coventry play a sloppy backpass, but the chance is missed:
Big game experience.
Big enough for Coventry need, anyway. Experience scoring goals in the Playoff final, previously, and on the final day of last season to secure safety for Derby mean Waghorn knows how to score on the possible stages for this coming season. Waghorn was also captain at Derby under Lampard and will bring added experience up top for the club.
Coventry fans should be excited at the prospect of having a proven goalscorer in the squad for two years. Though he had issues at Derby under Rooney, Robins should reignite Waghorn and challenge him on new levels with Walker, Gyokeres, and Godden all fighting to get on the score sheet for Coventry. Stats from whoscored.com and @EFLStats.
Additional images from dcfc.co.uk
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