Frank Lampard on play-off aspirations, managerial Lessons & adapting his game

Frank, thank you very much for your time. Well, I think it's safe to say that it's been good here at Coventry. What's been more enjoyable in your period here? Yeah, it's been good. I'm very happy here. We've been five months together, I think, and I've enjoyed pretty much everything. You know, the work's been good. I mean, these football clubs like Coventry are always about first and foremost the people, the club, you know, what you come into with the staff and people behind the scenes, the fans, and everyone's been so welcoming from the beginning. Easy to work with here at the training ground. The players have worked really well. Very good group, very together, good character and personality within the group. Quite a young squad. So all those things have been really good, really positive to be around. And then results-wise, we've gone in the direction we want to go. And so there's been a lot of work behind the scenes. Not perfect, never is. But we're in a position now where we have an opportunity to make the playoffs, which is from when we come in, that's good steps forward. Yeah, and you've been there, and I know it's been a few years, but how much did the Derby experience in the Championship helped you here at Coventry? Yeah, it did. It helped me because Derby was my first year in management, so I was learning a lot anyway in management. But also understanding the demands of the Championship, the amount of games, the styles, the now and this critical moment of trying to chase something. We did the same with Derby, and we managed to make the playoffs. And every situation is obviously different, but I think it's good to know the feeling of what the league is. It's so competitive. Sometimes it can be up and down by nature, where you're on a good run, good results, and then surprise result or performance, or different styles of teams against you, more physical at times. So I've experienced that before, and it certainly helped me in coming into this job. And I thought that when I took the job, that I could rely on all my experiences in management, but particularly with Derby. Yeah, and when you took the job, Coventry was 17th on the table. And throughout your managerial career, you already showed that you can really reinstall confidence in groups of players, especially at Everton. I think it's a good example. But what have you learned in this process? What is important? Even as a leader in your playing time, what is important in this process of reinstalling confidence? Yeah, that's a great question, because you learn all the time in management, particularly as a player. I think you see it through a different lens. You see it as a player's view, which is different. You pick up a lot of things and you respect your manager, but you're young. You're not taking information and then keeping it too much. But when you're a manager, you have to try and learn about everything, because the first thing you realise from the moment I walked in at Derby, Chelsea, Everton, is that it's about people. It's about getting the right feeling in an environment. It's like the first thing. And you're right to probably compare Everton, because I came into their mid-season, we were in a relegation fight, a serious relegation fight. And quite quickly, I knew I had to try and install confidence and bring confidence. So the whole club, as the head coach. So this was a little bit similar in that way of how quickly can you make an impact? And I think the thing I learned at Everton and now at Coventry, and I've tried to really focus on, is keeping things very, very simple. Really clear messages for the players. Direction of how we want to play. Train to show how we want to play. And give those simple messages to try and get the quickest answers and reaction. So yeah, we're not there yet. But in those first steps, I have had experience of this. And you always need the players to be receptive to that as a group. Because you'll always have players that are playing, not playing, disappointed. But they have to understand, we want to get here, to this direction. And I felt very quickly the players hopefully understood what, not just myself, but what the coaching staff and what we want to do on the pitch. You mentioned there how it was different in terms of confidence when you're a player and when you're a manager. Did your vision of the game in general, did it change a lot compared to when you were playing? Of course, the game changed, but did it change a lot? Yeah, I think so, because as a player, me particularly, I played under lots of different managers. I was always very focused on my role. And then you take direction from the manager. But sometimes the bigger picture, you're not quite viewing lots of things. You learn the minute you step into management that your working week is full of a million situations. You've got to find solutions for things, whether it be a small detail or a big tactical detail or player detail. So, I think when those challenges come, you learn by experiences, some successes, some failures. You go into coaching with an idea of how you want your team to play. But every new team you go into, squad, new squad you go into, the makeup of the squad is different, the players you can rely on, the attributes of the players. So, I think I've learned to try and be very adaptable. You have your basic idea of how you want your team to look, but you have to adapt. And we've done that here with injuries, change of system, but still trying to keep the same idea. So, I think I've tried to strip down my work, strip it back, be really clear for the players. What would I have taken as a message from a manager? What did I take the best? Probably the most simple messages. And care, like feeling really a connection with your manager. So, I try to do that. And talking about adaptability and changes, especially in your area of the pitch, the midfield, we've seen quite a few changes. How do you see these changes in terms of, you know, we talk a lot about positional playing today and even fullbacks playing midfield. So, how do you see the changes in midfield? I think the first thing you have to do is look at the squad and see the attributes of the players, where they're comfortable. And sometimes I think you maybe see something they don't see and you want to have conversations, you know, like a player that plays in one position. Maybe you feel they could be better if they move. You have to convince them and work with them. And it takes detail and time on the training pitch. And then you think about the collective. But these things are something that I like my players to have good structure, clear idea of the balance of the team in terms of your positional discipline and things that you talk about. But I also want them to have a sense of freedom that from those clear details, the minute you go onto the pitch, there are parts of the game that have to be your understanding. Like with a fullback, if it's talking about coming inside into the position in the pitch, then it's more like, I don't want to have to say to you, you play here, this is you. It's like, but when you feel the moment and you feel your teammates and the movements, can you arrive in the space at the right time? Can you then look forward to play to your winger? So, those things are like detail and then a little bit of freedom around that. And I've got some good players here. You know, they're receptive. They listen. We make little mistakes. We try and fix it. And we're all in it together. And I like to work with the players. So, some of those rotations have been probably our work and our input as staff, but also the players go, oh, OK, I can work off you. We can move. We can be adaptable. I think it's a strength in the team. You like what's happening to midfield in the past few years? Yeah. Listen, I think it's a big talking point at the moment in terms of coach's styles, the positional game and these things. I think there doesn't have to be one answer. Like I said before, the team that you're working with, you have to have your identity as a coach, but an identity or philosophy that's not getting results in anything. So, sometimes you have to adapt around that. So, I think in midfield, when you look at your players, you look at the great Manchester City team, the positional game, nobody can criticise the game that they played for so many years, winning title after title with these great players, great coach. Some other teams have a different idea, different style. So, I like to have some freedom in rotations. You have to have that. To be too rigid is easy to defend against. It's also dangerous when the transition happens and I think sometimes you can be too rigid. You want to have some flexibility in your team, but also the reaction to always be able to deal with transition. So, we work a lot with the team. I think hopefully they're understanding our ideas. Hence, we've had some good results. Well, when you play and when you stay a while not playing, if you're injured or anything, you kind of need rhythm, you lose rhythm. With management, if you don't manage for a while, how would you compare? Do you kind of lose rhythm or it's no such thing? No, I don't think you lose. I think you can gain motivation and desire to get back into work. So, rest is good. When you're not managing, I think being out of the game using it positively would be my advice for people in that position because when you work, it's full on. It's consuming every day. So, I think you try and improve yourself when you're out of the game. Of course, you always look in and try and think, what did I do wrong? What can I do better next time? Or what did I do right? Can I improve? But you also need to rest and then when you come back, hopefully you've got more energy and some more learnings to come back and go again. And yeah, a bit of rhythm. Like when I'm not working, I walk the dog in the middle of the morning, but when I'm working now, I can't do it. So, my wife walks the dog or somebody else walks the dog. So, those things, but they're good changes. I love this job. I love coming to the training pitch. I love working with players. I love the moment if we feel like we're improving as a team. So, trying to catch and get back into rhythm here was quite easy for me. Yeah, and in those 18 months, you mentioned that you had a chance to talk to other managers and I find that very interesting, the manager's community. So, how does it work? How do you support each other? Well, I've been fortunate enough through my long career to, when I've been managing, is to have certain relationships with some really, really top managers and people in the game. And I'm talking, Harry Redknapp is my uncle, but he's got an amazing experience of the game. Sir Alex Ferguson has always been amazing with me in the few times that we've crossed paths and he's one of these managers that will always send you a message or something. He's supporting every manager, not just me for sure, but supporting every manager. Having Roy Hodgson, Gareth Southgate, Thomas Frank. I could go on with many names. I think the best managers, well, I'd say the best managers, but a lot of the top managers are very happy to have a support system because they understand that the demands of the job and they understand that it's not easy. And it's nice as a manager to take advice or ideas from someone who's walked in those shoes. And when you've done that, they can tell you as many things you might not know. So I try and rely on that when I can. When you're working, you kind of keep your head on the job in hand. When you're out of the game, it's quite easy to have dinners or phone calls and meet up with people. But how different is it with managers that are still working like Thomas Frank and Gareth Southgate, like you mentioned, and with those more experienced managers that you mentioned already? Well, it's different every time. The experienced managers can have a thousand stories. They've been there and done it and we'll see those things so they can offer that advice. And I think, and I'm the same, if any manager wants to come and see what we do here at the training ground, I'm very, very open with that. And I think the most confident and the best are generally like that. And so Thomas Frank, for instance, invites me to the training ground. I'm sitting having lunch and coffee. We're talking about his experiences, my experiences, Pep Guardiola is the same. And Pep is the best, so you'd think he'd be consumed with everything he's got going on. And he's like, no, sit down for an hour, let's chat football. So I really respect that. And I hope that if I can ever be like that, that's what I would aspire to. Each job as a manager comes with different demands and different expectations, but how different does this challenge compare to the other ones? Because you really seem to enjoy challenges as a manager. It's never like, oh, I'm going to take this job. Things are nice and easy here. I'm just going to arrive there and just do my thing. Well, let me say that no manager's job is nice and easy. Everybody has like these demands and expectations. You know, the best, you know, the Pep Guardiola's and Jürgen Klopp, there's some at Liverpool who go on. They have to win every week. They have to win every year. And it's very difficult. So every job is challenging. Yeah, I have. I think I can be truthful and it won't sound like I'm trying to sort of just fight my corner about. I had hard challenges, but I stepped into Chelsea with a transfer ban the first time and younger players. And OK, so you work and you try and do the best you believe in yourself to do it. Everton clearly was very difficult, which I think we've seen Everton before me and after me. And it's great to see David Moyes doing so well there now at this moment. But I think that, you know, those challenges and it's no problem for me. It's that the issue, the thing maybe in the modern day is that everyone is very, very like social media or the media reaction is like very much this in the moment, you know, it's intense. If you're in a good run, you're a great manager. If you're in a bad run, you're a rubbish manager and you have to go, you know, that's what it is. I see every challenge as every experience is a challenge. And if it's a challenge for me, so if it's a tough challenge, then you go, OK, well, that's what it is. I'm ready to work. I want to do my best. With Coventry, it's felt to me when I was speaking to the owner, a really good challenge. I felt like I could work well here. I felt like I could help and get some, you know, positivity with my work. And fortunately, at this point, that's the feeling I have still. And I want to continue in that next step, next step. How do you deal with the emotions? Because I imagine it's different even because it's different moments of your life as a manager and as a player. But you had to deal with a lot that happened in all the clubs that you went through. And now at Coventry, things are going up, but you stepped in, again, a huge challenge. So, yeah, I think... And you always seem very composed. Well, that's not true. That's not true. I try to be. And maybe experience sometimes helps. I think when you're a young manager and fresh, like you feel the need to win every game, not to justify yourself, but to show good work. Reality is it can't always be that case. And especially if you are in a challenge, in Everton, in a relegation fight, the reality is you're probably going to win maybe 30% of your games to stay in the league. And that's a success. But 30% doesn't sound a lot. So you have to understand what it is. And I think in time, you become more level-headed with that. And you understand that my main work is through the week, preparing the team, trying to create the right atmosphere and environment. And then come Saturday when you play, things can happen. You know, there's many things happening. So you have probably the smallest input sometimes on those hour and a half of the game. So I try and stay more level-headed, but I haven't cracked it. I haven't solved that one. I think a manager's job, you have to be ready for the ups and downs. And you have to try and stay level-headed. When you're winning, don't think you're the best ever, because something's around the corner. And if you're losing, keep believing in yourself. And when you have these big moments, big challenges, do you still go back to your experiences as a player? Or do you go back more to your successful experiences as a manager? Is it because you've had enough of those to have it as a reference? Both, because it's a good point. Because as a manager, I've had experience of making playoffs at Derby. I remember that feeling in the running. So you recall things and how you speak to the players, decisions that you made when you come into more critical games. You know, you understand before maybe how you prepared for a game because your responsibility is so big. But also you have to stay attached. I think it's a benefit of having had a career playing for so long is that you understand the feelings of a player. So I understand or I feel in a good position to understand the tension, say, in a playoff run. We're trying to make the playoffs. Sometimes there's a big tension and you want to release the tension. Sometimes you need to add to the tension. And I think as a player, I understood that great managers I work with that really found the right tone at the right time. So I try and use both of my experiences.