Bobby Thomas

Thomas wins the first contact in almost every aerial duel he enters, using his physical presence to end crosses before they become chances. He is not a purely defensive option either, since he steps out of the back line to overlap as a wide centre back, whipping in crosses and occasionally finishing a move himself. That willingness to attack from deep makes him unusually complete for a defender still establishing himself.

The tension with a defender who commits so readily to physical duels is what happens on the rare occasion his positioning is wrong and nobody covers behind him. Coventry's system asks a lot of a centre back who doubles as an auxiliary attacker. Watch how often he is caught upfield when the opposition break quickly, because that part of his game is still genuinely being tested.