How Frank Lampard FIXED Coventry City

On the 7th of November 2024, to the shock of many fans and outsiders, Coventry City parted ways with manager Mark Robbins. The initial shock of Robbins leaving was furthered when he was replaced by Frank Lampard, a manager who's been branded with the stamp of really good player, not a very good manager. However, fast forward 12 weeks and Big Frank Sky Blues have seen 7 wins in the last 9 games, as Lampard has guided his side from 17th in the championship to 7th in the championship. With his side amassing more points in 2025 than any other championship club. So, how is Big Frank doing it? What's making his side tick? Which are the players that are standing out and performing? Well, in today's video I'm going to break down some of his tactics, I'm going to break down how some of the players are really thriving under Frank Lampard, and why Coventry could well get themselves in the playoffs and possibly in the Premier League. The first thing that I want to look at in today's video is their main way of attacking. How do they create chances? Well, it's through spamming a bucket load of crosses into the 18-yard box. I mean, no team in the championship completes more crosses per 90 than Frank Lampard's side, and no team in Europe's top five leagues and the championship have scored more headed goals this season. Now, Lampard has used two different types of setups during his time at Coventry, at least in the back line. One of them being a 5 at the back and the other being a 4 at the back. But when they go forward, things are incredibly similar. If we start off by looking at the 5 at the back, because it's given them a lot of success as of late, obviously losing once in the last eight games, and it's also really, really interesting the way that Lampard's using this 5 at the back, because it's not the typical get the wingers, bombing up the pitch, we'll have we're back five, sitting property, wingbacks overlapping, all that jazz. No, he uses things slightly different. Instead of being a really defensive side, someone who sits deep and use the wingbacks as the main creative outlet, it's a bit different with Coventry, because it's all about finding complementary partners across the pitch and getting players like Mason Clarke, Van Uyik, Matt Grimes, and a few others in certain positions, so they can affect the game as much as possible. And then they just kind of let Rodoni do what he wants. Like in the game against Preston, he was playing left wingback, but he was also playing left wingback number 10, number 8, on the left wing, on the right wing. He just kind of does whatever he wants. More often than not, Coventry will look to play out with a 3-2 to ensure they've got security when playing out, and it also means they can create a lot of different passing angles into the centre of midfield. On top of that, though, it also means they're stretching the opposition's press, giving the opportunity for long balls forward to the big man Ellis Sims, with them averaging 52.2 long balls per 90 this season. Now, playing the long balls isn't necessarily their main way of going forward. It's not what they're always going to do. But because they've got a big forward like an Ellis Sims, who hasn't been as prolific this season, but can still use his body really well, can get up for aerial duels, and can compete in physical battles, it means they do kind of create the opportunity for themselves to have an out ball. They're not stuck to just playing on the floor, not just stuck to playing long ball. They can vary things. They can go in a multitude of different ways when they're coming out of that first phase. When Rudoni is pushed into that left wingback role, he isn't really a left wingback, let's be honest. It's just kind of where he's positioned on the pitch to start things off and where the kind of rest formation is for Coventry. Because really, and as I've said before, he's given the freedom to float around and pop up in loads of different areas. I mean, if we look at the goal he actually scored against Preston, he's in the middle of the 18-yard box. Gets up, big header, bang, Coventry are winning. And to be honest with you, this may be a little bit out there. Coventry fans, feel free to disagree. I think this freedom is kind of reminiscent of what we got with Callum O'Hare. A lot of the time, Mark Robbins gave Callum O'Hare that free roll, give him that autonomy to pop up in the different pockets, come deep if he had to, pick up the ball on the wing, around the striker, wherever he wanted to be. Because O'Hare had the creativity, the drive and the passing range to affect the game from wherever he was on the pitch. And although it's a little bit different with Rudoni, I do think there's a lot of similarities there. However, as I said, there is differences. And I think the biggest difference is Rudoni's physicality. He's more aggressive and has a larger figure, which means he's a much bigger asset out of position than Callum O'Hare was. That's shown by his versatility. O'Hare, as much as, yes, he was floating around, a lot of the time he was still positioned in that attacking front line. Whereas Rudoni has shown versatility this season to play as a number eight, as a wing back and get back and defend, as a number 10 as well. And I feel like his whole game this season has shown he's such a complete player at just 23 years old as well. And he kind of competes anywhere he's thrown on the pitch, which means that when he is floating around, it's not necessarily just about what he does with the ball. It's what he does without the ball as well. And Lampard's done really, really well to get the most out of Jack Rudoni, who didn't have the best start of the season, although pretty much every Coventry City player had a pretty poor start to the season under Mark Robbins. But I feel like under Lampard, his versatility, his adaptability is really, really well suited. So far, the 23-year-old has averaged 3.83 shot created actions per 90. He's also completed 5.11 progressive passes per 90 and is averaging an assist every 270 minutes, with him racking up a total of 14 goal contributions in 32 leagues, starts this season. But it's not all about Rudoni's position. It's not all about him being this free-throwing player who's a number eight, a number 10, a wing back, a right winger, a striker, a centre-half. It's not all about Jack Rudoni, because a lot of what Coventry do comes right the way back to their deep midfielder, whether it is Ben Sheaf, who's had a few problems with injuries this season, or, lately, Matt Grimes, who I thought at the time was a sensational, sensational purchase, and he's came out to be exactly that. Yeah, we see that same back three as before, with Van Uyck pushing higher this time. However, we've also got Matt Grimes sat in the centre here. Now, you can see yourself, there's a lack of many options in midfield, with Preston going man to man. But due to Coventry keeping the ball on this left side and having the majority of players on this left side, they leave all this space for Van Uyck to get on the ball. Kitchen drives the ball forward slightly, and as soon as he stops his run, you can see Matt Grimes right here glancing to the left, as he knows exactly what he's going to be doing when the ball comes back to him. He takes a touch, and straight away, that ball's pinned out wide to Van Uyck, skipping out the frontman press of Preston, and also going direct to Van Uyck, rather than playing a short pass before getting to him, which means that the Preston press is absolutely scrambling, and Van Uyck is in a ton of space to get the ball down and drive it to the middle, or find the feet of Alice Sims, or take the ball down the outside himself and drive forward. It means that he is completely isolated and left in what will likely be a 1v1 with a defender that's coming across to cover, rather than maybe playing a little bit slower, having to play a few passes there, letting Preston shuffle over. Instead, Matt Grimes' brilliant pressing range that we've all known he's had since Swansea, means that they can bypass the press and give their players really, really nice positions with the ball. However, as much as Lampard's football this season has came from creating overloads on one side of the pitch to then create isolations on the other side, it doesn't just come down to the fullbacks. The wingers are a gigantic part in this system. If we look at the wingers and wingbacks that start against Preston, we've got Sakamoto, who's left-footed, playing right wing, Van Uyck, who's right-footed, playing right back, then we've got Mason Clarke, who's right-footed, playing left wing, and Jack Rodoni, who's left-footed, playing left wing back. Now, you may be asking, they're only feet, why is that so important? Well, having a two wingers who are incorrectly footed or wrong-footed on the wing means that they have the ability to come inside, strike on goal, putting in swinging crosses, and therefore, variate the way in which Coventry can attack the ATR box. For example, if we look at Mason Clarke's heat map from that Preston game, he's coming inside really often in order to put in them in swinging crosses or have shots on goal. If we then also pull up Mason Clarke's shot map from this season, we see the majority are from this wide area in and around the 18-yard box. As a result of both the left and right winger often coming into the middle to produce crosses and shots, the partner and wingbacks can then exploit the space that is often made when the winger drags the opposition's fullback inside, and therefore, it's easier for Rodoni, Van Uyck, or whoever is at left or right back to produce a successful out-swinging cross. Now, for me, if I was a central defender and you sat there dealing with not just bombardments from wide areas, but also wingers coming inside and swinging them at your feet or straight towards you, it makes your job so much harder because you're dealing with such a wide range of different crosses into the box. And that's exactly why Coventry are finding so much success because not only are they putting them in swinging balls in which are obviously hard to deal with, you're that sat there trying to come onto a player who's attacking in swinger, but also the out-swinging crosses are really, really hard to deal with as well. And it's hard to read on what Coventry are going to do because the partnerships between the wingers and the fullbacks are so good. It feels like the squad is proper harmonised and they're really bouncing off one another at the moment. Now, though, before we move on to looking at how Lampard's team have been playing when they've been playing with more of a four at the back, I want to first look at something that kind of links the two different systems. And I think it's important that we touch on the adaptability of Lampard's side out of possession. We see here that when Coventry press higher up the pitch, they'll go with a 4-3-3. Rodoni inverts from his wingback role to really jam up the middle of the pitch, as like many teams nowadays, Coventry want to prevent any passes into their block and would prefer to force teams wide. Ellis Sims then presses the centre half almost every time with Sakamoto and Mason Clarke covering and pressing the two other options in the opposition's first phase build-up. However, if a team does break through Coventry's initial press, then they instantly drop back to a 4-4-2, with Rodoni and Sakamoto taking up the wide midfield roles. The centre midfielders mark zonally but are really, really aggressive when attempting to turn possession back over and then supported by Bobby Thomas, being ready to jump out of the back line to support them if the runners do escape them. Moving on, though, and it leads us nicely onto the four at the back, which was a primary way of playing for Coventry just a few months ago, really. I know they've kind of shifted a little bit more into the five at the back now and they've seen a lot of success with it, but the four at the back carries many of the same principles that we've seen in this five at the back system, specifically going forward. Before, when we were talking about the wingers and the wingbacks, I emphasised the point that they build these really good relationships so they know what the other's doing and they facilitate the movement of one another and that, again, carries over into when they were playing just a couple of months ago with a four back. Despite not having the wingbacks, the four backs are still incredibly, incredibly important to this attack. We see Mason Clarke come central here after doing a lot of good work to carry his side forward. This then leaves Bidwell in a 1v1 situation. He beats his man and, obviously, he puts a cross into the box, which meets Rodoni's head and narrowly goes wide. Out of possession again, they're still very, very aggressive. The wheel's still pressing that 4-3-3 and when they drop deeper, it's back to a 4-4-2, sitting a little bit deep and absorbing a little bit of pressure at times. Because of the pace and the ball carrying they've got on their team, Coventry can hit you in transitions as well, not just play through the thirds and that's where I think maybe the difference with playing with the four at the back comes in here because I feel like there's a lot more responsibility put on the wingers in terms of what they do in the first and second phase. I feel like the wingers were expected to come a little bit deeper if we compare Mason Clarke's heat map in the game against Plymouth and compare it to the game against Preston. He's a bit more active in deeper positions and I feel like Lampard's plan here was to get two really good ball carriers in Mason Clarke and Sakamoto deep to burst through the opposition's block or attack open space in transition rather than slowly building to create wide isolations through circulating the ball. Now, this four at the back could have easily been as a result of not really having your proper deep midfield. I know Ben Schieff was playing there but I believe he was injured maybe near the end of the four-back system and then obviously Matt Grimes came in which facilitated maybe going to that five at the back where there's less reliance on the wingers and the midfielders doing a lot of ball carrying. Instead, they just kind of wait till the ball gets in the final third and then that's where the more advanced midfielders and the wingers come into play massively. But at the same time, it could have just been some other injuries and therefore we may as well see the four at the back coming to play for Conte later on in the season. But to be honest with you, for me personally, I prefer the way in which they've played when they've played with the five at the back and having Matt Grimes with a little bit more responsibility in the first phase rather than maybe putting more responsibility on a Sakamoto or a Mason Clarke. Yes, I'm not going to discredit Mason Clarke because we're about to go into his game now because I've been really, really impressed and yes, he's only played at 11 starts this season but he has been absolutely sensational under Frank Lampard. He's currently averaging 4.17 progressive carries per 90, receiving 8.11 progressive passes per 90, taking 2.25 shots per 90, producing 2.09 key passes per 90 and to everyone's surprise, he sits in the top 3% of wingers in the championship for successful crosses per 90. What a shock, eh? A country city winger is putting the ball into the box very often in the air through a cross. Nevertheless though, the 25-year-old is really, really thriving in a system that allows him to both go on the outside and go on the inside and he's got ability to operate on his left foot and his right foot and I also think the fact that he's being kind of tasked with taking more shots on goal than he really would have under Mark Robbins and he's being able to take them shots in the middle of a block rather than going in behind the block is showing him a lot of success this season and I mean, like I said, he's started 11 league games this season and has nine goal contributions. That is a sensational return. I feel like, become the running, if Coventry are gonna push for playoffs and push in the playoffs, he's gonna have a lot to say. Now, I feel like I have done a lot of talking about the attacking players and the likes of Radoni, Mason Clarke, even a little bit on Ellis Sims but the defensive play of Coventry is equally as important. I mentioned before that Thomas often jumps out of the back line to support the midfield and facilitate the midfield as being really aggressive but it's not always about using his aggressiveness to support the press. He also use it to win first contacts and prevent Coventry being pinned in. This season, Thomas has won 76% of his attempted tackles, is contesting 7.7 ground duels per 90 and is winning 3.1 aerial duels per 90. He came through at Burnley and I'm a Burnley fan myself and I always thought he was a really good centre-half and I feel like if you're promoted to the first team in a Sean Dice side and you're a centre-half, the likelihood is you're gonna be very, very decent. Obviously, he went to Coventry on loan, then on a permanent and he's been really, really good since he signed for Coventry City and I also think his partnership with Liam Kitchen is massive because I feel like they've got a proper understanding of one another. Again, coming back to the idea of having partnerships in this side, they both understand each other's game. Bobby Thomas, in my eyes, is slightly more aggressive and Kitchen, being a little bit more mobile, does a little bit more of the covering work but the alternate at times. Kitchen, again, himself is competing in 8.1 duels per 90 so they've got a really good understanding on who's gonna press, who's gonna sit off a little bit and it's working really, really well for Coventry. I mean, since Lampard took over, his Coventry side have conceded an average of 0.88 goals per 90, a significant, significant improvement on the 1.46 goals per 90 they were conceding under Mark Robbins. All in all, I think that Coventry are a really, really good side and they've also got a lot of room for development. They've shown signs where they can be a little bit sloppy in possession coming out from the back but I also think that's still probably teething issues with, obviously, Lampard coming in changing things up around November time. You've still got to give them a little bit of time, a little bit of leeway but I also think that they've got a really nice squad they've been building that for a long time now and the way they should have been at the start of the season, they should be pushing in playoffs, they should be in the playoffs come the end of the season and that's what I feel like they will do come, what is it, May? May time? I think they will be in the playoffs and competing to go up in the Premier League and I think, yeah, there's some really, really nice players Sakamoto, brilliant, Enes Sims has been, as much as he's not great in front of goal, he's holed up plays really important as I've already mentioned. Bobby Thomas, I'm a big fan. Van Uyck, as much as he's been a little bit inconsistent this season, I'm still a really, really big fan of himself and obviously in goal as well. Dovin's been really, really good at times, kept them in some big games and yeah, like I said, the squad's good, Lampard's doing well, the tactics are nice, it's good to watch for the most part and yeah, it's going to be a really interesting end to the season. But if you have enjoyed today's video, please leave a like and subscribe. Let me know where you think Coventry City will finish come May and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.