It’s safe to say the first couple of months of Harry Cornick’s time at Bristol City haven’t gone quite as hoped, by both the Robins’ faithful and the forward himself. But his performance in Monday’s 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough had the feeling of a player finding his feet.
Not only did Cornick find the net for the first time since his January switch from Luton Town but he was involved in almost everything positive City produced. This culminated in a standing ovation as he was substituted on 69 minutes, a far cry from the jeers that greeted his substitution only three games ago at Swansea.
Here’s what Cornick did to earn his place in the Championship Team of the Week and begin to win over the Bristol City fans ahead of Saturday's trip to Watford.
The mid-goal run
The resident holder of the right-wing position in Nigel Pearson’s side this season has tended to be Mark Sykes, a traditional wide man, who loves to hug the touchline and tends to pick up the ball in the channel and drive at defences.
Since his switch from wing-back to out-and-out winger, it’s been noticeable that we’ve seen Sykes either appear at the back post, or in the middle of the goal to tap home, with opportunistic-type finishes, and it was evident to see Cornick doing exactly that with less than five minutes on the clock against Boro.
This was also the sort of run that provided the 28-year-old with his first goal in City colours. Central striker Nahki Wells made the run outside the far post, following Sam Bell’s shot with Cornick instead taking up the area in the mid-goal region.
For Bell’s opener on the stroke of half-time, Cornick once again found himself drifting inside Wells, to exchange passes with Andi Weimann, before laying the ball on a plate for the academy graduate to find the net for his second of the season.
Finding himself on the ball much more
One of the criticisms levelled at a number of City’s forwards, prior to the international break, was how little of the ball they were seeing over sustained periods of the game, with Cornick among those mentioned.
In the defeat at Swansea City, the 29-year-old only manage 18 touches in just over an hour when deployed as the central member of the attacking trio compared to his 40 on Easter Monday when in technically a more peripheral position on the right.
It wasn’t just Cornick who spent more time on the ball however. Wells as the central striker managed to a much more influential 29 touches while Bell, on the left of the incredibly fluid three, enjoyed 23.
The greater involvement of the front three itself is something to be highlighted, but what might come as a bit of a surprise is that the Robins overall had less of the ball in the draw with Middlesbrough (40 per cent possession) than they did when they visited the Swansea.com Stadium (43 per cent).
But it seems to be glaringly obvious that the best way to ensure that Cornick gets plenty of touches is for him to play off the right, with a notable discrepancy in his time on the ball when starting on the wing compared to when the sole central striker.
It will be interesting to see whether Cornick will find himself on the ball as often when Alex Scott returns to action, having missed the last three matches, with the Liverpool-linked midfielder regularly the heart of the Robin’s attacking output.
Scott is in the top 13 per cent of midfielders across Europe's top eight leagues for successful progressive take-ons, averaging 2.27 per 90 minutes played, ahead of Weimann (1.36 per 90).
Perhaps the last few weeks having provided an opportunity for both Pearson and City fans to have a glimpse of how the Robins will adapt if Scott does depart this summer.
What’s his star quality?
Often players when they arrive at new clubs can be quite unfairly assessed by early performances and reviews of fans of previous clubs. In the case of Cornick, the consensus from the Hatters' fans was that he was "a runner".
Some City fans saw his slightly taller frame and assumed he would offer a physical presence the replace the outgoing Chris Martin, while others would have seen the rolled down socks and slicked back hair and expected a silky dribbler.
The truth has been somewhere between all of that. On Monday, Cornick managed to complete both of his two attempted dribbles, create two chances while also seeing two goal-bound efforts blocked.
Defensively he managed six ball recoveries as well as winning both of his two attempted tackles and five of his six ground duels. One area in which the 29-year-old could be deemed to have struggled was aerially where he only managed to win one of his four aerial duels.
In addition, without even looking at the statistics it was fairly obvious that there was a much-reduced number of crosses put in by not just City’s right winger, but also the rest of the team.
Between them, Cornick and George Tanner on the right-wing attempted four crosses from the right-wing, however they failed to complete any of these attempts. In Sykes’ last outing against Swansea, alone he attempted three times as many crosses than the entire side did against Michael Carrick’s side.
Who deserves to start when Sykes returns?
Selection dilemmas aren't anything new for Pearson, especially in attack with the Robins having at least six forwards all worthy of starting week-in, week-out. But Cornick’s new-found form creates an extra decision when Sykes returns from suspension against Sheffield United.
From the above graph it’s clear that Cornick provides more obvious attacking output as an individual, completing more dribbles a game since joining the Robins and taking more shots.
In addition, he provides an aerial outlet that the smaller frame of Sykes doesn’t. The graph shows that the former Luton man is winning a much greater number of aerial duels, but at the same time, City do tend to attempt a lot more lofted passes when he’s on the pitch.
With the Robins having a small squad, that extra height on the right flank might persuade Pearson to opt for Cornick between now and the end of the campaign, yet Sykes has been so impressive in his debut campaign which suggests that it won’t be that cut and dried.
The extra defensive stability offered by the Irish international may push him back into pole position, with the relationship he has begun to form with Tanner increasing both players’ defensive and attacking output.
Whoever is preferred, you’d imagine Pearson won’t be too desperate to add to his right-wing options in the summer transfer window with plenty of strength in that position.
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