Mark Robins provides update on Coventry City's 'massive miss'
Mark Robins says Tatsuhiro Sakamoto has been using his time out wisely, making “unbelievable” strides on a key aspect of his Coventry City development despite still not being anywhere near able to kick a football.
Providing an update on one of the fans’ favourites, the Sky Blues boss is yet to go into detail as to the exact nature of the player’s serious back injury suffered against Preston in February, but has revealed significant progress during a visit to the club’s Ryton training ground this week.
“I saw him this week and you’ll be really pleased when you see him because he can now converse in English,” said Robins. “It’s unbelievable. He’s miles better, conversationally. He is understanding a lot more and communicating better in English.
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“He’s been using his time to learn and we asked him to do that, to use his time wisely, and he’s done it. He’s really, really intelligent and for someone to pick the language up, which is really difficult to learn, as quickly as he has is brilliant to see. It puts us all to shame really, because we should be equally fluent in Japanese.”
Language, of course, is an important tool to get information to the player to ensure he understands the tactical detail, as well as communicating issues the other way during games.
“Absolutely,” agreed the manager, “but football is a universal language. It’s a truism, there’s no doubt. You stand in front of a tactics board or video with him and he will critique and ask questions about what you’re talking about.
“He’s really intelligent and that’s certainly in any player’s favour if they have that football intelligence. He’s emotionally intelligent and picks things up factually as well, tactically and technically – everything, he is just a really good lad.”
He added: “He’s been a massive miss for us and what we will do with him now is work with him to make him become more robust to get him ready for next season.”
Asked if he thinks the winger with seven goals from 20 Championship starts and nine substitute appearances in the league will be even better next season, Robins said: “I think, generally, the players improve all the time and we have seen that over a number of years now.”
