Lampard seeks Coventry progress as belief grows ahead of Everton visit
Frank Lampard says belief is growing at Coventry after a difficult start to the season and the Sky Blues could move up to 11th in the Premier League with victory at Everton on Friday as he returns to the club he managed from January 2022 for a year.
Coventry had lost their opening four Premier League games by an aggregate of 10-0 and had gone four matches without scoring, but Lampard says there is scope for improvement as the club begin to find their feet following Saturday's victory over Sunderland.
The optimism at Coventry's Ryton training base endured despite earlier setbacks, including a 5-0 home defeat by Brighton and a period in the Sunderland match when the side played almost 45 minutes with 10 men after Taiwo Awoniyi's dismissal; Lampard and the squad felt performances against Hull, Manchester City and Arsenal showed they could compete in the top flight.
After a 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat by Aston Villa, Lampard altered his system to match Nottingham Forest's back three and secured a 1-0 win at the City Ground. "The result sometimes you can't quite control, but you can control your idea going into a game, that maximises our strengths and looks at the opposition's," said Lampard, who is in before 7.30am every morning, using the gym before training. "There can be various reasons why we do it. We went to Nottingham Forest and we matched up their formation because I wasn't keen to go there in the moment we were in with a back four and the problems they can give you with wing-backs and 10s.
"It's not just my, or our, choice on formation which is going to win or lose games. We know we have a big fight so every small percentage in our set-up if we feel that way we will do it - but we must feel it's going to be the right one."
Lampard's tactical flexibility has coincided with three wins in five games and Coventry climbing out of the relegation zone; statistical shifts underline that pragmatic change, with possession dropping from 68.5% in the 1-0 defeat by Hull to 42.6% in the 3-1 win over Sunderland, more than 200 fewer passes and more than 50 fewer forward passes, and passes in the final third falling from 128 to 60. The decision to bench skipper Matt Grimes, a key figure in last season's promotion, was highlighted as a significant call that has been accepted within the squad.
Coventry still have the lowest xG in the Premier League at 8.34, and Lampard acknowledged the difficulty of the start given that three of their opening four away games were at Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham. After Everton, Coventry host Crystal Palace and Ipswich either side of a trip to Leeds, a sequence sources considered crucial to their survival hopes, and Lampard warned: "When you're in the zone, enjoyment of the win is pretty short-lived - you switch your attention to the next game. Relaxation and complacency is the biggest danger in this game.
"If we can keep the strength of feeling, even when difficult results come, we will give ourselves a chance." Jack Rudoni has attracted admirers after his start to the season, with one Premier League manager privately saying if he were to take any players from Coventry, one of them would be Jack Rudoni; the former Huddersfield midfielder has four goals in 10 appearances in all competitions. Taiwo Awoniyi (90 games) and Ethan Pinnock (117) have the most Premier League experience in the squad, while Loum Tchaouna, Ellis Simms, Matt Grimes, Kaine Kesler-Hayden, Dan Bentley and Gus Hamer have also featured in the competition.
Simms made 12 appearances for Everton, Grimes played four for Swansea, Bentley featured 10 times for Wolves and Kesler-Hayden had only played five minutes; Tchaouna's and Hamer's Premier League experiences were relegation with Burnley and Sheffield United. "Sometimes you go through hundreds of games to find that resilience and a lot of our players haven't had that," added Lampard. "There have been some complications. The squad and ourselves have managed pretty well when you see what we're trying to do."
A win at Everton would take Coventry to 12 points, level with eighth-placed Bournemouth a quarter of the way through their first season back in the Premier League in 25 years; historically, only Middlesbrough (1996-97), Burnley (2009-10) and Cardiff (2013-14) have been relegated from the Premier League after taking 12 points from 10 games.
