The Spurs winger made 16 appearances and scored three goals for the Blues until his January recall
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Minhyeok Yang has been ‘a victim of unfortunate circumstance’ at Coventry.
That’s the verdict of the Coventry Telegraph’s Andy Turner, with the Spurs loanee expected to again be absent for the visit of former club Pompey tonight (7.45pm).
The Sky Blues require a win to clinch the Championship title, having already been promoted to the Premier League last Friday at Blackburn after a 25-year absence.
Meanwhile, a win would secure Pompey’s survival, although they could still stay up with a draw or defeat, depending on how relegation rivals Oxford United fare against Wrexham.
Coventry are tonight set to exclude Minhyeok once more, having been left out of their last 12 squads and totalled just 29 minutes since joining from Spurs.
And that would deprive the South Korean international of the opportunity to face a Blues side he represented 16 times and scored on three occasions, before surprisingly being recalled by Spurs in January.
‘The needed a bit of spark from the wings - then all of a sudden they didn’t’
The Telegraph’s Coventry reporter Turner told The News: ‘I would say Yang has been a victim of Coventry’s squad. At the time, they needed a bit of spark on the flanks and back up - then all of sudden they didn’t.
‘When he came in, they were lacking strength in depth on the left and the right wings, that was blatantly obvious for everybody to see and had been all season.
‘The Sky Blues had Tatsuhiro Sakamoto on the right and Ephron Mason-Clark on the left, two outstanding players, so they needed to address that - and went out and got three wingers.
‘Yang and Romain Esse came on loan to cater for the right and left wings. Then they spent money on Jahnoah Markelo, more of one for the future, although he has crept into the squad after a period of getting used to the physicality of the training.
‘Unfortunately for Yang, his arrival conceded with everybody getting fit and, all of a sudden, Frank Lampard is having to leave players out of the match-day squad who are fit, which has been a source of frustration for the manager.
‘He thinks it should be like the Champions League and everyone should be on the bench for matches, believing it’s unfair that lads train all week and are not involved with only nine subs.
‘However, Yang has been a victim of that, everybody has got back. For instance, Brandon Thomas-Asante was playing on the left flank for a period of time really successfully when Mason-Clark was out for a few games, now everybody has returned at the wrong time for him.
‘By all accounts, he’s been working hard behind the scenes and just not included. It's been a really unfortunate loan for him. He’s a victim of unfortunate circumstance.’
Minhyeok hasn’t featured since February 7, when he was an 89th-minute substitute in a goalless draw with 10-man Oxford United.
An FA Cup outing against Stoke represents his sole start, with his remaining three appearances coming off the bench in the Championship.
And having moved to Coventry for more first-team action - the Spurs talent has accrued considerably fewer minutes than during his time at Fratton Park.
Turner added: ‘He started against Stoke in the FA Cup, he’s exciting going forward but just looks a bit lightweight and gets knocked off the ball too easily,
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‘Yang’s been a bit hot and cold, he caught the eye a couple of times, but it’s difficult to judge a player with such a short period of time on the pitch.
‘His one trademark move was cutting inside onto his right foot and having a shot, he did that a couple of times.
‘Perhaps had he imposed himself more, he would have got more minutes, I don’t know. Lampard always says the team picks itself on the training pitch, so maybe that’s the answer.
‘There certainly looks like there’s a player there, I just think it’s one of those moves which has come at the wrong time for him.’