Leader in Championship
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The first version of the article appeared on November 7th and was updated with Lampard’s statements (7th and 8th paragraphs)
After his last stints at Chelsea FC and Everton FC, quite a few people in England had already written off Frank Lampard as a coach. But the former world-class midfielder is working to rehabilitate himself at Coventry City. He could lead the club from near Birmingham back into the Premier League for the first time since 2000/01. In an interview with the “GuardianOn Friday evening, Lampard cited the motivation to prove all critics wrong as his driving motivation.
Last season, Lampard and Coventry made it into the playoffs for the upper house, where they only failed in extra time against AFC Sunderland in the semi-finals. The signs were different when he took office at the end of November 2024. Coventry were 17th in the Championship and only two points clear of the relegation zone. The club finished the season in fifth place and secured participation in the playoffs.
Coventry is also reaching for the stars in the new season and leads the Championship with 31 points after 14 match days (to the table). At the weekend there will be the top game against second-placed Stoke City, who have four points less. The offensive around former Schalke player Haji Wright is particularly convincing. The attack led by Wright (8 goals) and Brandon Thomas-Asante (10 goals), who is first on the scorer list, scored a total of 39 goals. In addition, the Dane Victor Torp, who scored six times, poses a goal threat from midfield. But it’s not just the offense that’s worth mentioning, because with only 13 goals conceded, Coventry has the third-best defense in the league.
“He’s very interested in the tactical details of the game and is flexible. I remember Sir Alex Ferguson once saying that he watched a game alongside Lampard and was impressed by his vision. Lampard usually sets the team up in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 when he’s trying to dominate games – positioning the full-backs high and wide and allowing the wingers or center forwards to exploit space,” explains England expert Ben Littlemore of the strengths of Lampard’s team, who have also developed a reputation for developing talent. “Coventry have some talented players like Jack Rudoni, Milan van Ewijk and Brandon Thomas-Asante, and Lampard gets the best out of them.”
After Everton and Chelsea: “Lampard’s reputation was battered”
The last two stops before Coventry ensured that Lampard was burned as a coach. He took over as interim coach at the Blues after Graham Potter left in April 2023 and only won one of the eleven games by the end of the season. At Everton he played 44 games and averaged one point. “Lampard’s reputation in England was quite tarnished prior to his arrival at Coventry. After a promising start at Derby County, he struggled during his first spell at Chelsea, albeit in difficult circumstances. He then failed miserably at Everton, leaving the club in a relegation battle, before a brief, unsuccessful return as interim coach at the Blues. It seemed unlikely that Premier League clubs would give Lampard another chance. But his work at “Coventry are amazing when he took over, the club were 17th in the Championship, and on a shoestring budget he took them to the play-offs and now to the top of the league,” says Littlemore. Before the season, four new signings came for 4 million euros – 16 teams in England’s lower house invested more.
Littlemore believes Lampard is already aiming for higher things, which is why his stay at Coventry is closely linked to one component. “If he takes Coventry into the Premier League, he will remain loyal to the club in the top flight. His reputation still needs some improvement and he needs to prove he can make the club competitive in the Premier League to get a bigger job.” So far, Lampard has played 104 Premier League games and won just 38 of them. Things are looking much better in the Championship. “If he continues on this course the future looks bright and it could be one of the greatest turnarounds of any coach, but there is still a long way to go.”
Satisfaction for Lampard: That’s what the Coventry coach says
Update November 8th: Lampard himself is inspired to prove his critics wrong: “I feel these kinds of questions – ‘Why are you doing this?’ – as a bit insulting because I assume it’s about money. I’m quite ambitious and I always want to prove everyone wrong,” he told The Guardian newspaper in an interview. “I think that’s a good driver. I try not to rely on it because if you do that, one week you’re the best manager and the next week you’re the worst. That’s basically what it looks like.”
He was inspired by his former coach Pep Guardiola, Eddie Howe and Thomas Frank. “The good ones,” he said with regard to his coaching colleagues, are the ones who are “in the middle of the action” with their team. “I think it’s the best course of action, that’s why I’m so active and enjoy being like that. That’s how I want to be coached these days. It’s good to interact with the players.”
He explains his success with Coventry by saying that the team now feels the way he imagines it: “But when I started here, you could feel that the confidence had dropped. If you looked at the team, I think it didn’t have a clear identity, and that can happen when there’s a lack of confidence. I’ve also lost my job, so I understand what can happen. My job was to ask: ‘Where can we improve?'” He found the answer in speed of play and a lot of energy: “We want to be a very positive team when it comes to winning the ball back and attacking. At the moment I see a lot of things that I like and I hope the fans like it.”