Frank Lampard had a tough gig on his hands when he was appointed Coventry City manager on November 28, 2024. He walked into a toxic atmosphere fuelled by anger at the sacking of club legend Mark Robins and a pervasive negativity around the future of the club.
Lampard had been out of work since leaving his interim position at Chelsea at the end of the 2022/23 season. To many Sky Blues fans he was seen as a PR appointment by owner Doug King, who many accused of courting the spotlight by hiring a big name.
There were three weeks between the departure of long-serving manager Robins and the announcement of Lampard’s arrival. Rumours swirled during that time. Coventry were 17th in the Championship and stuck in a rut.
It has taken time, but 10 months on and there are no longer any doubts that King made the right call. Lampard has galvanised the squad, getting rid of the sense of staleness that had set in to turn Coventry into one of the most exciting teams in the country.
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The Sky Blues rose from 17th to finish 5th and make the play-offs last season, where Dan Ballard’s header broke their hearts in defeat by Sunderland. Yet that heartbreak, which came two years on from a play-off final penalty shoot-out defeat by Luton, has made them stronger and, eight games into the 2025/26 Championship season, Coventry are unbeaten and sit second.
Coventry have plundered 22 goals already this season – a whopping eight more than the next best attack in the second tier. They boast the Championship’s top scorer in Haji Wright (8), the joint-top assist-maker in Milan van Ewijk (5) and the joint holder of the most clean sheets in goalkeeper Carl Rushworth (4).
After demolishing Millwall 4-0 at The Den on Wednesday night, Lampard’s side have attempted 137 shots in eight games – 21 more than any other side – while their tally of 43 on target is also the league’s most. Their expected goals (xG) total is 17.3 – a full four better than mid-table Southampton in second place.
Middlesbrough may sit top of the Championship table for now, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Coventry are the league’s best side. So how has Lampard managed it? The answer doesn’t lie in the transfer market.
While the £4million signing of Matt Grimes from Swansea in January has been transformational, giving the Sky Blues one of the best deep passers in the league, Lampard’s success has been based on getting the best out of the players he inherited. Coventry only paid a transfer fee for two players this summer and yet their window can be considered a huge success, given they managed to keep hold of their top talents.
Right-back Van Ewijk and attacking midfielder Jack Rudoni were strongly linked with transfers, but both stayed put. They are among the players who appear capable of flourishing in the Premier League and the fact they stayed with Coventry shows the belief in what Lampard is doing.
Victor Torp is doing a good impression as a Lampard-style box-to-box midfielder and goal threat. Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching remain a strong foundation at the back. And there is pace on the wings in the form of Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Brandon Thomas-Asante.
It is undoubtedly the attacking which has attracted the most attention, with their 7-1 thrashing of QPR in August raising eyebrows, but improvement has come across the pitch. “When you get in, you try and analyse the problems quickly and we were conceding too many goals,” Lampard told Football Focus last season.
“We weren't compact enough, we weren't aggressive enough, so we tried to really prioritise our off the ball work. The players have done it because they've bought into everything we've tried to say. I have to say, this group of players, the humility, the application of them is absolutely amazing.”
Having been an elite player himself, Lampard has found a way to connect with his players. He is also being driven by the perception of him as a failed manager at the top level, having struggled at Everton and in his second spell at Derby.
Lampard led Derby to the play-off final in 2019, where they were beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa. If Coventry continue on their current path, he might not need to rely on the lottery of the play-offs this time around.
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