Chris Cohen believes City’s senior players will have an important role in helping guide the squad through the challenges of the Sky Bet Championship this season.
The Imps have assembled a young group for their return to the second tier, with Cohen highlighting the value of experienced figures in setting standards and supporting those earlier in their careers.
That influence was evident during Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup trip to AFC Bournemouth, when Cohen witnessed Chieo Ogbene spending time offering advice to Andrei Coubis before the game.
He said: “There were some bright individual moments on Tuesday and I thought Chieo was definitely one of them. He’s obviously played at that level and knows what it takes to get to the top.
"I listened to a 20-minute conversation he had with Andrei Coubis on the bus prior to the game and I just thought he’s a proper bloke.
“We’ve got a lot of young players who need to look up to people and see what good and great looks like. Chieo definitely fits that mantra.
“Any help we can get from the players is so powerful. I’ve studied the influence older players can have on younger players, and Chieo speaking to someone like Andrei will sometimes be a lot more powerful than a coach can be.”
City return to Sky Bet Championship action at Preston North End, with Cohen believing there were valuable lessons to take from facing Premier League opposition.
He added “We hate losing, but it’s great for us to see what the best of the best look like and what we all aspire to be at some point in our careers, as staff and players. We got a real lesson, but there’s loads we can take from it.
“Preston are in a real false position at the bottom of the table for the way they’ve played so far this season.
“You look at a lot of the data and I’ve already watched a lot of them. They’ve been really unfortunate not to be in a better position in the table.
“We can probably see some similarities between ourselves and them in terms of feeling that performances have maybe deserved more points.
“But we know how relentless the league is. If you don’t quite get the big moments right, even if you’re performing well, sometimes that still isn’t quite enough to take the points you feel you deserve."
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