Coventry City: The Callum O'Hare factor that sets him apart from Simms and Wright | OneFootball

Highlights

Callum O'Hare has had a profound impact on Coventry City's fortunes, and there's one stat that proves exactly why he has been so crucial to their play-off push.

The attacking midfielder suffered an ACL injury in the early stages of the club's Boxing Day fixture against Sheffield United, in 2022.

This injury kept him out of action for almost exactly 10 months.

The 25-year-old made his return against Rotherham on 25th October 2023, and he didn't hit the ground running straight away, but, once he got his legs under him, there was no stopping him.

O'Hare has scored six goals and provided two assists since making his return to the Sky Blues.

Coventry were on 15 points from 13 games before the aforementioned game against the Millers. From that point onwards, they have been the fourth-best team in the league.

For an 11 v 11 sport, it is staggering how much of an impact one player can have on a team's success. Sometimes this effect isn't measurable, but with O'Hare it is.

Callum O'Hare's xG/Goal ratio is why Coventry have been so good since his return

The Sky Blues' biggest problem before the English midfielder's return was that they just could not put away chances.

Summer signings Haji Wright and Ellis Simms didn't hit the ground running, and they weren't able to convert the many chances that they were getting.

This has led to them having a high xG (expected goals) but not scoring at the same rate that they would be expected to.

The two forwards have the highest non-penalty xG per 90 of any Coventry player, according to The Analyst; Wright is at 0.61, whereas Simms is at 0.37. Despite this high xG, Wright and Simms have only scored 0.42 and 0.25 non-penalty goals per 90, respectively.

They have been underperforming their expected goals all season; O'Hare has been the counterbalance to this equation.

He is scoring 0.53 non-penalty goals per 90 - the highest of any Coventry player - from an xG of 0.23 per 90, as per The Analyst. Without the 25-year-old scoring way more goals than he would've been expected to, according to the data, the Sky Blues would be in a massive hole.

They have needed every single bit of magic that O'Hare has produced since his return, otherwise they wouldn't be in a play-off race, in large part because of their poor finishing from everyone else bar him.

Callum O'Hare could carry Coventry to the Premier League

When you are in the semi-finals and final of the play-offs, you need players with real quality to step up and produce in a single moment, because that one moment could get you over the hump.

The attacking midfielder has shown an instinctual ability to find the back of the net in the biggest games.

He's scored braces against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup, as well as Birmingham City and, most importantly, Leicester in the league.

Coventry don't have anyone else like him, and he could be the difference between staying in the Championship and achieving what they couldn't last season.