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No magic wand as same old deficiencies continue in Frank Lampard's first game in charge
It promised so much and yet delivered too little in the end as Frank Lampard’s Coventry City reign got off to a stuttering start at the CBS Arena.
The stage was set as the new head coach was introduced to the fans, who gave him a really warm welcome. His deliberate low key response, however, saw him shy away from stepping out onto the pitch with grandiose gestures or soaking up the adulation in favour of a more modest wave of acknowledgement before taking to his seat in the dugout, keen to get down to business rather than milk the occasion.
What followed was a frantic opening 20-odd minutes during which City conceded the first of two horrible goals from a defensive point of view but managed to get themselves back on level terms until the break to maintain the belief from the expectant crowd. But as has often been the case with the Sky Blues this season, they failed to keep to the script and found themselves trailing again within minutes of the restart, only to salvage a point and spare their new boss an opening day defeat when they were awarded a late penalty, expertly dispatched by Victor Torp.
Here we take a look at some of the big talking points and things learned from Frank Lampard’s first game in charge.
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Frank’s first formation
It came as no surprise that the new head coach reverted to a back four with wide men given that, historically, Lampard has favoured that defensive set-up at his previous clubs. And when City found themselves 1-0 down inside the first four minutes of his new tenure, he might well have questioned his decision to impose such an immediate change after a period of attempted stability with the cautionary approach of five.
But the 46-year-old set out his stall from day one, explaining afterwards that: “... to move to a back four, there are always going to be some challenges. It’s a challenge from what the players are already used to so you expect some things to be not quite right, and we saw some of those things today. But better for me and us to get there quickly and make the decision to do that because I think if we want to be more effective at the top end of the pitch through pressing and our attacking play, an extra attacking player is an important part of that. And so that’s how I saw it.”
No big surprises
Other than the fairly predictable formation switch, there were no big surprises in terms of his first team selection which saw just two changes – the introduction of Ephron Mason-Clark for centre-half Joel Latibeaudiere and number ten, Jack Rudoni, for Victor Torp in a 4-2-3-1 system. The fact that he didn’t pick Ellis Simms – a player he worked with at Everton – was, perhaps, one of the players who some might have thought would have got the nod to return to the starting line-up, given his knowledge of the striker.
But Lampard opted for a degree of continuity from recent games, keeping faith with Norman Bassette as the lone striker. He was, however, immediately rewarded with the return of Mason-Clark who scored a lovely goal, made by his fellow wing man Tatsuhiro Sakamoto to get City back in the game three minutes after conceding the first goal.
One suspects that there may be bolder changes next time out after he’s had time to spend a good solid week on the training pitch, during which time he will have the opportunity to have a much closer look at what he’s got at his disposal, rather than after just a couple of days.
Same old story
For all City’s exciting forward players, the same old defensive deficiencies were there for all, including Frank Lampard, to see. The first goal conceded was from Cardiff’s first corner of the game which resulted in Yakou Meite having a free header in the box – simply not good enough. The second then saw Alex Robertson given far too much time and space to pull the trigger, hitting a hard and low shot that bent away from a full stretch Brad Collins and into the bottom corner.
“It’s not nice but it can happen,” Lampard said of the free header. “And then the second goal I was more disappointed that we didn’t get out to the shot, block the shot, run at it full pelt to body and block it, so that feels like an individual thing, and then when you are where we are it ends up in the bottom corner rather than in the keeper’s hands.”
Bright start faded fast
Despite conceding the early goal, City actually started quite brightly and enjoyed a decent 25 minutes when the likes of Mason-Clark and Sakamoto caused all manner of problems. Unfortunately, the tactically astute Bluebirds’ boss Omer Riza quickly identified the threats and tweaked his side to deal with it, after which the Sky Blues faded. And, surprisingly for Coventry, they looked worse after the break when Cardiff took the game to the hosts and got their rewards with a second goal in what was a really disappointing overall performance. Whether nerves came into it, it’s difficult to know with every City player perhaps keen to impress the new man in charge but unable to find that extra gear to put on the required show.
No magic wand
To be fair to Frank, and to use a phrase he’s used himself in the past, he has no magic wand. The bloke is a student of football and has spent his time out of the game wisely, learning as much as he can from other coaches and managers before jumping back into the hot seat. He’s brought with him some very experienced and talented coaches but they had just two days to work with and prepare the players for their opening game. They now have a full week to get their teeth into the squad in readiness for another busy schedule of three games in eight days when, again, things might not go as smoothly as we’d all like. The fact that he got off to an unbeaten start is important – incidentally, City’s third 2-2 comeback draw in the last four games – and it’s something on which to build going into Millwall and West Brom away before being back on home soil against Hull City.
The players will hopefully take on board plenty of instructions and be better for it, but it might take a bit of time for it all to sink in and start producing the consistency that has eluded them so far this season.
