Frank Lampard’s start to life at Coventry City has been a bit of a mixed bag so far, having won three, drawn three and lost three of his opening nine games in charge.

In all honesty, the Sky Blues have continued to be blighted by inconsistency – one of the factors that led to Mark Robins losing his job after the first 14 Championship games of the season when his side won four, drew three and lost seven despite what appeared, on paper at least, to have been a positive summer transfer window.

The biggest conundrum to fathom is how a team that was on course for a play-off push last season and performed so brilliantly against Premier League Wolves and Manchester United in the FA Cup, albeit dropping off a cliff in the league after their memorable Wembley semi-final exit, has suddenly started to struggle.

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The majority of the players that started against Wanderers and United are still at the club, with playmakers Kasey Palmer and Callum O’Hare the only significant absentees this term, leaving many fans scratching their heads and wondering what’s gone wrong. Why, indeed, are players who performed so strongly last season now battling to find their form – Bobby Thomas, Milan van Ewijk, Liam Kitching, Ben Sheaf and Ellis Simms to name a handful of key men who are yet to hit the heights of last season.

Although Lampard has only been in the job for just over five weeks, he will already be fairly clear as to what he needs to do in the short-term, at least, to help steer the Sky Blues back on an upward curve. With that in mind, andwith the January transfer window open for business, we have stepped into the shoes of the City boss to attempt to second guess what he’s thinking and what moves he’s likely to make this month....

Cash in or keep?

Three senior Sky Blues players have been linked with interest over the last week or so, with Milan van Ewijk claimed to be wanted by Galatasaray, Ben Sheaf said to be on the radar of Leeds United while Leicester and Ipswich are allegedly weighing up bids for leading scorer Haji Wright.

When CoventryLive asked Lampard about the links to Van Ewijk and Sheaf at the weekend, he said he knew no more about the reports other than that it was speculation, and stressed he was keen to keep his best players. After all, although City might be able to get decent money for one of their star men, the January window is notoriously difficult to operate in and there’s no guarantee the club would be able to spend any profits from a reasonably big sale in terms of finding the right players to replace them.

Certainly, Lampard won’t want to weaken his squad at the mid-term point of the campaign, which brings us to Wright. The head coach has not had the benefit of the club’s star striker yet due to him being out with an ankle injury, and that has clearly hampered Lampard’s attempt to get more points on the board during his first few weeks in charge.

Proven goal scorers are hard to come by at the best of times and selling Wright this month would virtually write off the season in terms of ambition. The summer might well be a different story when Lampard may be more open to the club wheeling and dealing to produce the funds to strengthen.

Defensive strengthening

With the Sky Blues having conceded a whopping and rather worrying 37 goals in their opening 26 games, which is nine more than for the same stage of the league campaign last season, it makes perfect sense for Lampard to strengthen his defence. The one thing that has been lacking since Kyle McFadzean’s departure this time last year has been a similar no-nonsense leader with experience at the back.

City have been strongly linked with former Arsenal centre-back Rob Holding, who is currently out of favour at Crystal Palace, and that makes perfect sense given the 29-year-old’s Premier League experience, assuming he can be persuaded to drop down a division and that the numbers work in terms of his wages for a loan deal.

Elsewhere, City still have no cover/competition for Van Ewijk at right-back and arguably need a fresh option at left-back. German Kai Wagner, who is currently playing for MLS side Philadelphia Union has been linked and the 27-year-old ticks plenty of boxes in terms of his attacking threat.

Missing ingredient

Another area of the team where the club have left themselves short following the deadline day move of Kasey Palmer to Hull is in the number ten position. Jack Rudoni has done an admirable job but there haven’t really been any alternatives. City clearly miss a proper playmaker in the Palmer/Callum O’Hare mould and arguably need someone to come in to compete with Rudoni and also allow him to be deployed in his preferred box-to-box role.

Short on the wing

When asked at the weekend if there were any areas of the squad he’d like to strengthen, Lampard revealed that his side could do with some help on the wings, saying: “We’ve got wingers injured so it looks like an area where we’re short. But obviously we have Ephron (Mason-Clark) and Haji (Wright) to come back – Haji hopefully in two weeks-ish. By the time he’s fit, probably two to three weeks, and Ephron maybe a bit longer.

“So in the meantime, can we help the squad? We’ll try to.”

On the other flank, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto has been Lampard’s main pick and could arguably do with competition and cover. Raphael is finally back fit but has barely been used. This weekend’s FA Cup match, however, might well be an opportunity for him to stake his claim.

Exit strategy

It’s difficult to see too many players leaving in January, other than the odd loan here and there to aid the development of younger players. Kai Andrews is a case in point and looks to be heading to Scottish Premier side Motherwell on loan.

Another player who is struggling for game time is Fabio Tavares. The striker is out of contract in the summer and could well be sent out on loan or even permanently this month. However, it will be interesting to see whether he gets a rare chance to show Lampard what he can do in a competitive match situation this weekend when City entertain Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup. Tavares, of course, has had ample opportunity in training to press his claim for game time, but Saturday’s match might just be sink of swim time in terms of his City career.

Another player whom it might have made sense to let out on loan, or even sell, is goalkeeper Brad Collins who had been seemingly surplus to requirements until Oliver Dovin’s struggle with early season form, coupled with Ben Wilson’s knee ligament injury. All of a sudden the former Barnsley stopper went from third choice back to first for a few weeks.

But disappointing form has opened the door for Dovin to come back in and the Swede has done well, keeping two clean sheets out of four games. And with Wilson no nearer being back to full fitness, it looks as though Collins will be going nowhere in this window unless, of course, a new keeper is brought in.

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