LOOKING BACK AT LAMPARD'S TIME AT COVENTRY CITY!

It's been one year since Frank Lampard took over Coventry City after Mark Robbins was sacked from the club. In this video, we're going to be looking at his tenure, his win-loss ratio, the changes he's made in the starting eleven from his first game, which was against Cardiff City, to the most recent one, which was a 1-0 win against Stoke City. We're going to be comparing this season compared to previous Coventry City seasons up until this point. Then we're also going to be comparing this season against the championship winners from previous seasons. So if you're going to enjoy this video, a like would be appreciated. We all know Frank Lampard came into the club over a year ago and he took over Mark Robbins, who is a club legend of Coventry City, my football club. What Mark did for this club is absolutely incredible. Taking him all the way from League 2, all the way to the championship. One kick away from the Premier League and losing that FA Cup semi-final, which Coventry were robbed in against Manchester United. And at the time, the decision to sack Mark Robbins came off really harshly. Every Coventry City fan said he deserved more time for what he did for the football club. But Doug King said, you know what? I don't care about that. Football's about winning. I'm going to bring in a winning man. And his man was Frank Lampard. We're going to be looking at the first starting eleven that Coventry had when he first came into the squad. And it is night and day compared to what it is right now. As you can see, this first squad, he had Collins in goal, Van Uyverker right back, Thomas and Binks as the two centre-backs, with De Silva at left back. A midfield two of Josh Eccles and Ben Sheaf, who is no longer at the football club. Mason Clarke on the left-hand side, Rodoni is at number 10, Sakamo on the right-hand side, and most surprisingly, Norman Bissette up front. Which is interesting to see how Norman Bissette has actually evolved as a Coventry City player. He's fell out of favour with Frank Lampard and the coaches, and now he's on loan. Looking back at it, the key players in that starting line-up for Frank Lampard was Ben Sheaf in that midfield role. He was the captain of the football club, he showed leadership on the pitch, but we all know what was wrong with Ben Sheaf. He was injury-prone, so any time he'd get into a 50-50 tackle, you'd be closing your eyes, hoping that he doesn't get injured. We just talked about the key players for Frank Lampard at that time, but who was the players who were out of favour? Well, Liam Kitchen didn't start for nine matches until that game against Norwich, where Coventry did lose 2-1. He played in the back three of Latabodia and Thomas, where we did concede that 91st-minute goal and the 94th-minute goal. I can't believe we still lost that game to this day. The second notable player who's not in the starting line-up is Thomas Asante. He was in and out of the side all season long. Lampard preferred Hadji up front, Ellis Sims at the time, beset towards the start of his tenure. And yeah, he did play 43 games last season, but he wasn't a starting striker. He was almost an impact player who necessarily didn't make too much impact because he only scored six goals and three assists, which is totally blown out of the water already this season. As mentioned before, there's no Hadji Wright in the starting line-up because he was injured, and that meant that Lampard had to change his formations at the start of his Coventry City tenure. He constantly played with the back three slash back five. He went with a 4-4-2. He went with the 4-2-3-1 that we all know and love. And even early on at the Coventry City days, he showed that he can adapt the side no matter what's happening at the club. Doesn't matter what player is injured. He always knows a way around it. And then comparing it to nowadays, the squad is night and day. Of course, we've got Karl Rushworth in goal. Van Eyverke right back is still there. Thomas and Kitchen as the two centre-backs. We've got Ipswich centre-back Wormden on the bench. You can't even get past those two centre-backs. That's how good those two, Thomas and Kitchen, are playing this season. De Silva has gone up tremendous levels. You've got Grimes in the midfield, which is probably one of the best Coventry City signings I've ever seen in my lifetime. He's so instrumental to the side and he only cost four million. Victor Torp also was at Coventry at the time Frank Lampard was in. But again, he was injured. He didn't necessarily get the playing time. You've got Thomas Sassante in that ten role just because Jack Radony is injured. And as we all know, Jack Radony was Coventry's best player last season alongside Milano right back. Mason Clarke on the left-hand side, Sakamo on the right. And then, of course, Hadji right up front. So the differences in the two sides are night and day. The way that we play is different. Lampard has implemented many ways of playing, and we're known as the everything team this season. And that's what you want to be when you're winning the championship. You have three to four ways of playing and they're all really good. He has the way of playing where the centre-back will pick up the ball and ping it to Sakamoto and then will pin their full-backs going into the box. We've got Grimes dropping deep for that midfield pass and then playing it through the middle or to the sides. When it goes to Kyle Rushworth in goal, he knows how to ping it long to Hadji right or to Brandon Thomas' Sante or even Mason Clarke on that left-hand side. And we can break from there. We're just a very everything team. We don't have one way of playing, which is very dangerous coming up against sides because we can change it mid-game. We can change it in the 70th minute, 80th minute, whatever we need. And we have the personnel off the bench to be able to do that. What shocked me most about Lampard is his points per game for Coventry City or win percentage. I want you to go down in the comments and guess what you think it is. Out of any club that he's managed so far in his managerial career, his win percentage is the highest for Coventry City, sitting at 56%. Closely second is that Chelsea stint that he had the first time around, which was a 52 win percentage. That's almost a two points per game ratio that you most likely need to get out of the championship. You see the likes of Burnley, Leeds United, they averaged that last season. And if he keeps this going, we're definitely going to get promoted this season. And what's crazy in this international break going into this, he's managed 50 games on the dot. He's won 28, he's lost 13 and only drawn nine. It's an incredible start for Frank Lampard at Coventry City. If he continues this, he will definitely become one of the legends of a football club like this. What does that mean for Coventry City in the championship this season? While comparing it to last year, 15 games in, Coventry only managed to get 16 points and they had only won three games at this point in the season. Comparing it to this season, of course, we're at 10 wins already in the league. Four draws and one loss. We got 18 more points than we did at this stage last season. And comparing it to the 23-24 season, we had 15 points, three wins, six draws, six losses. The 22-23 season, we had 17 points with four wins, five draws, six losses. And in the season prior, the 21-22 season, we had 27 points, which was only seven of what we have right now with eight wins, three draws and four losses. You're probably thinking that's all good. But how does it compare to last season's championship winners and runners up? Well, in this graphic here, we've got Burnley and Leeds United. The graphic for them at this stage in the season, 15 games in. Leeds United had 29 points in the league calendar and Burnley had 27. Now, I didn't create these graphics. It's by Buzzwell on X. So if you want to go and follow him and check it out for yourself, the link will be in the description. And finally, comparing it to the seasons of when the championship sides had the most points ever at the end of the season, the 2005-2006 Reading side and the 98-99 Sunderland side. This is one game prior to that Stoke City victory, but it was 14 games in. Coventry have 31 points. Reading, 14 games in, had 31. So the exact same amount of points. Exact wins, exact losses, exact draws as Coventry. And Sunderland had 28 points at this time of the season in the 98-99 season. So it's always interesting to see how good the championship actually is when your team's competing in it, in which league season. A lot of people are saying that this season is so open and any team could get promoted. I definitely think that's the case. But as Coventry, we've pounced on it. We've taken our chances so far. And that's why we're sitting top of the league. Now, this is all good. But what are the improvements that we've seen from Lampard so far in this season especially? Well, the team is more attacking. 40 goals in 15 games. We've got multiple formations, multiple ways of playing. That just makes it so dangerous to play against. And I know the squad isn't as big as it should be, but it's a nice, tight, lean squad, as Doug likes to say. He prefers to have a team worth 16, 17, 19 players rather than have 26 sitting all on the bench. Lampard ran into that issue when he was at Chelsea. There was too many players in the squad that wanted to be in that first 11 and they caused an upset and ruined Frank Lampard's win record in his second tenure. A big improvement in Coventry from Frank Lampard is those games that Coventry last season lost compared to this season. I'm talking about the likes of when we go away to a Cardiff and Watford, those sort of teams that you find in the championship towards the bottom slash mid table. Frank Lampard is putting them to the sword this season. Sheffield Wednesday, 5-0 win. Millwall, 4-0 win. Portsmouth, 2-1 win. And historically, Coventry have not been able to put away those teams. They usually fall over them, get a draw. Don't go on winning runs. And Frank Lampard has instilled a winning mentality in the squad. He's got two winning runs so far in his tenure. He's got eight wins out of nine games. He's just a manager. When he's on a roll, he's impossible to stop. So what does that mean for Frank Lampard's Coventry City? Well, for the first time this season, they currently sit the favourite for Sky Bear to win the championship. And if you told a Coventry City fan at the start of the season that that would be the case, we would tell you you're absolutely joking. No one predicted Coventry to be the favourites to win the league this season. A lot of people probably had them in the top three, maybe top four, because you've got those parachute teams who come down from the Premier League and compete almost every single season. But this season, as I mentioned before, is very open. So anything could happen in this. And we've taken our chances and we are deservingly the favourites to win the championship this season. Second is Ipswich, third is Middlesbrough, which Rob Edwards has let them. So anything could happen with them. Stoke City in fourth, who are notoriously known for finishing 16th to 18th in the championship. And Mark Robbins has done a fantastic job with them, followed by Birmingham and Leicester. So it's Coventry's to lose by the bookies odds this season. And the stats back about 40 goals in 15 games is absolutely mental. If Frank Lampard continues to do what he's doing, which is engaging with fans, engaging with media in a positive way because it was very toxic when Robbins got the sack, Frank Lampard came in and everybody thought he was just going to be a yes man to Doug King. But he's shown that he is his own man. He has his own way of playing. He works with Doug King in a positive way. And the atmosphere has just elevated to another level that nobody thought possible. Coventry finally bought the CBS or Doug King bought it, which now the club owns. Every single thing that people buy within the stadium goes straight to the club, which is absolutely awesome and fantastic for the future of the football club. We're smashing teams at the moment. 4-0, 5-0, 7-1, anything that you say we can do. We have the enemy playing before games against Sheffield United. We'll live and die in these towns. It's just elevated to another level. The question I'm going to leave you with is this. If Frank Lampard gets Coventry City promoted to the Premier League, where does he rank amongst the best Coventry City managers of all time? For me, it's got to be top five. It's not number one. You've got to win a major trophy to be number one. And we know who that is. You've got Jimmy Hill is one of the most influential people in Coventry City folklore coming up with Let's all sing together. Play up Sky Blues. He changed the club image. He's one of the reasons why Coventry is where they are today. He gave Coventry the new identity for the Sky Blue kit. He is instrumental. Mark Robbins obviously is there. So I would say Frank Lampard puts in the top five spot for me. So let me know in the comments, how do you think Frank Lampard's one year has been at Coventry City? Has it been a success or could he have done a lot better under circumstances? Losing that playoff semifinal, of course, to Sunderland in the last minute would have hurt us. But I think that was a good thing for the football club. And if you've enjoyed this video, hit that like button and subscribe to the channel. That'd be much appreciated. And as always, I'll see you in the next video. Thank you for watching.