Ellis Simms will develop into a “absolutely awesome” striker for Coventry City, according to Mark Robins. The Everton summer signing has taken some time to get going for the Sky Blues this season, but in his last six games, he has scored eight goals, including back-to-back hat-tricks at home at the CBS Arena, to bring his season total to twelve and tie Haji Wright for the team lead in all competitions.
The manager was ecstatic to see the 23-year-old score what he called the “perfect” hat-trick as City destroyed Rotherham United, who are currently bottom of the league, 5-0. He hopes that this latest treble, along with the FA Cup victory against Maidstone last week, will give him the confidence to score a few more goals in the remaining games.
But his merciless performance against the Millers on Tuesday night was a far cry from his performance against West Brom on Friday night, when he was defeated 2-1 at The Hawthorns and missed three opportunities to score.
“He ought to have confidence,” Robins remarked. He handed the ball away once or twice, and when he realizes this, he’s going to be amazing—really amazing!
And when he isn’t thinking about anything, you can see that he can finish with both his right and left foot. One of the most important things is that he recently finished. He had an opportunity to score last week against West Brom when Kasey Palmer slid him in, but he took it early and missed the mark.
But he could have finished if he had taken his time and perhaps even pushed it a little bit farther, closer to the objective. It forces the keeper to work even if he places it in the same spot and strikes the target—you never know.
“When he realizes that he’s going to be some player, he has incredible strength and pace.”