FULL PRESS CONFERENCE | Frank Lampard and Matt Grimes look ahead to Coventry City vs Stoke City 🎙️

Has it been beneficial to have a week off? No, I think the week is good for us because we've still got some players coming back to fitness who are fit but need training and maybe need matches too to be fair. It's been good to have a bit of recovery plus a bit of work, let those players get fitter and prepare for the busy week we now have coming up. You seem to be in a bit of a run at the moment where you're told every match after the game about a new record you've broken. Has it surprised you at all the level of success and how quickly you've had such a clear impact on results in particular? I'm very happy with it clearly. I don't know about surprise, I think I've got belief in the players and the work that we've done in a short period of time. That doesn't always translate into results, that's been the real positive of it. I think we've seen some uplift in performance, I think we've had some challenges where we've had to be adaptable and I think the players have reacted really well to that. We've found different ways to win games and now we've got a fuller squad at this point. I'm very aware that this league is a challenge always, it's always up the next game and the next week ahead of you is a big challenge so I'm really pleased because moving up the table means better feeling, better confidence, it's always tempered by don't get complacent, keep working, keep doing the right things because the minute you relax those performances and wins will stop coming. Big believer in that. You were speaking in a podcast in the week about one of the big things as a manager is a clear and effective message, that's one of the big things for players to simplify it. Is that even more important when you come in midway through a season to get your ideas across? Yeah, I believe so because I've been doing this job for a while now at different levels, different squads, different players and you always evolve and learn and feel like what's the best message, what's the clearest message to players? Especially in the beginning, what's the priority, what do we need to get better at? I think we try to pinpoint things when we first come in and as you start to work you see things within that. So we try to be clear, I've said it a lot here, the group are really good in terms of application and taking on message as far as we've seen because we're playing the games, you see things you work on and talk about, hopefully they come off, not all of them, there's always room for improvement. But I think that's been the biggest positive is actually working with the group, feeling very together on it and there's nothing better than the players feeling it when we start getting results and start feeling uplift and it feels like the message is good. But we can't stop repeating it, we have to keep going because the basics that we've been doing well must continue. It promises to be an emotional day of sorts tomorrow with Mark coming back to Coventry, to your mind is there any danger that can become a little bit of a distraction? Well it won't be for me, it shouldn't be for the players. Mark will clearly get an amazing reception from our fans and I completely understand that, I'll be involved in that. You can't disrespect the opposite, you have to respect every bit of work he did at the club. I think he's a great football person, he's always carried himself well, crossed his path a few times and everybody will be appreciative of his time here. So I think that becomes a story of the game but it's not 90 minutes on the pitch. The important thing is that we as a group of players and staff focus on the game in hand and for sure once the game starts our fans will know who they're supporting and will get behind us as they have done since I've been here. As a new manager you come into a club usually when things aren't going particularly well, that was still partly the case at Coventry but did you ever feel any extra pressure that you are following or were following a man who brought Coventry from the abyss and had such success? I was aware of it because you can't not be. I've followed the story from the outside and when you're in talks and conversations about having the job you obviously consider many things. Firstly the squad and can you improve it and get better results but secondly the situation. Modern day there's a lot of talk around appointments and you have to understand that side of it but it wasn't the biggest consideration for me. I've got confidence in myself, I have respect for the work that Mark did. The team at the time were not in a position they wanted to be, all those decisions were done before me, it's not my choice. So I knew it was something and it was a thing but I felt like if I can come here, work well, get my head down and try and improve the team then I'm at a good club hopefully that can progress. So that's just how I took it. What do you think the biggest differences and improvements are from the team you inherited to the team we see now? That's not my question to answer. I think that would be, I come in and quickly you want to learn about the squad and you refer back to what they have done in the short-term distance of what the last 18 months particularly have looked like with this squad is this transition and become a newer squad from the play-off final squad and even the FA Cup semi-final squad players have come in, there's been a turnaround and transition. I came in and just tried to evaluate the squad and where we felt we could improve it in the moment. Mark would have had his way of working, I had my way of working, he had big success here and it's not for me to compare, anyone else can but it's not for me. Will there be a debate on social media with Sky Blues fans about how best to say their thank yous to Mark? Would you like to see it happen at the start of the game and then get on with the match? I genuinely don't mind, I don't mind. It will be, that part of it will be not much consequence to me, I think they will show their respect to him as they will and should and my focus won't be on that, that's for them to decide. Do you think it might be a little awkward for him because he's got a job to do at Stoke City now? I don't know about awkward, I think he deserves to come back and be given the reception he's going to get given and I think that's a great thing. I think in life when you look back on moments like that, if you're lucky enough to have them, I just think they're nice things because it's a show of the good work he did here. I'm sure Mark's considering absolutely trying to get the points that they want and need, as we do. I think he's for sure experienced enough to not let that affect his actual match mindset. You talked about your players being on message, you do seem to have got a rapport with them pretty quickly, were you worried that might take a bit of time because the previous manager being here so long? No, not really because you never know what you're coming into, you never know the relationships, what you think you might know from the outside you don't know until you get there. All I wanted to come in was try and come in and be fair in a way but firm with the message and I respect any manager that I might follow or that may follow me, that's happened as well so it will always happen in this game. So no, that wasn't a big concern of mine, again I respected the job generally but when I got in here I just tried to form relationships quickly because it's a big part of my job, particularly mid-season, between myself and the staff and the players and staff in the building. I feel like we've done that and that's not to the detriment of the manager that was here before, he would have had all these relationships. You mentioned before that 8 out of 9 wins is the best, it's 96-9-17, I actually looked at one of the teams they beat and that run was West Ham but sadly Frank Lampard Sr didn't play, maybe that's why Coventry won? I don't think that was why Coventry won, I'm pretty sure it might not have been why, probably maybe Trevor Brookings wasn't playing and that might have been more important but I don't know, it's a twist of fate. I enjoy the run we're on and the fact that it's some form of a record somewhere, it doesn't mean much to me other than the fact that it's got us playing well and moved us up the table and now we're in a different position and I think the mentality of a team that sits fifth has to be different from the mentality of a team that's 17th. There are natural things that are different, maybe less nerves, more confidence but that can also delve into a different state. We have to now be more resilient, more focused and ruthless about the good things that we're doing because the challenges come in in Stoke, Derby, Sunderland and then after the international break are big. So we've made big steps but the biggest steps are to come I would say. I was going to ask you that actually because you've gone from chasing a top six place to now holding it, is that a different mindset? Well yeah, I mean we've just got in there so if you look at the table after Oxford you get excited and then when you go through the week you realise that it's really close and you realise that this league, we've moved up it quickly, can go the reverse. So our mindset has to be just focus on ourselves. We're here for a reason, we've managed to get good form for a reason. The players are responding, we're doing well, we've got a good resilience, we're playing pretty well but there's lots more that can be better so we need to show that, simple as that. You've been winning by the odd goal, does that suggest your team have found a way to win, got into the habit of winning? Yeah, either suggest that or suggest that we don't put teams away when we can do in certain games. So I think there's good resilience in our games. Sheffield Wednesday sticks out to me, QPR probably because they were really tough matches. There were games that have been 2-1s or Watford and Preston that should have been clearer results for us but we didn't get that so that's another thing we need to improve on when we are playing well, to be more ruthless about putting our foot down again. Again, we can't have everything in a short space so those are things we're learning and winning is obviously the most important thing but we can improve on that as well. You spoke of a 0-0 in the last game, are you expecting them to be tight? I'm expecting them to be a big challenge because they've got good players, they're in a difficult position in the league I would say but this is what this league can do to you at times so it shouldn't mean that we should treat them any differently other than expecting the best version of themselves. When a team's fighting and in that sort of position, they're always dangerous and they've always got quality and this championship we know of probably all the leagues that we all follow, it feels like the biggest leveller at times. There are so many results week on week out that you don't expect and that's the nature of the league so we can't fall into any form of complacency or thought processes like what's the jump in the hand, stoke, what's the difficulties, where's the strengths and weaknesses for us and for them and then try and do our best job. You just seen Gennady Radonjic, I think I saw him push the door open with his shoulder, it might have been his good shoulder, what's the state of play? He dislocated his shoulder and I'm not a doctor telling you this obviously, it popped back in and so from that you get some soft tissue damage around the injury so we're hoping it's the lesser end of an injury of this type so hopefully he'll be back after an international break is what we're hoping without complications going forward so big news for us because he's quickly become a really big player for this club and I'm a big fan of his and enjoy working with him. Even the goal when he gets the injury shows exactly what the type of player he is arriving in the box but he's got so much more to his game than that but we've had to put up with getting on without big players in the team so we have to get on with that again. That may be necessary to change your system at all do you think? Yeah, obviously not going to declare that right now but we'll have to work around it and we have players in that area of the pitch, it's a different profile slightly but it'll be for us to find the best solution to missing what has become a key player for us. So Matt you've been here a little while now, you settling in nicely? Yeah I feel like I am, I feel like I've been here longer than I actually have, everyone's been so welcoming, staff, players, just everyone around the club so yeah settling in nicely. You seem to have slotted into the way you play very quickly. Yeah I feel like that comes with feeling comfortable, like I say I've been made to feel so comfortable since the day of moving here so I think it's easy to play the football you want to play when you're settled and you feel at ease. Are you making the point that you're a penalty taker now as well? No, I didn't want to put my name in the hat too early but listen I'm one that players that goals mean a lot to them, I think they should take the penalties and then if they don't fancy it I'm happy to step up. Obviously the team's doing very well at the moment, have you been impressed with the rest of the squad? Yeah really impressed, I knew obviously it's a top squad from playing against them for so many years but yeah I knew that coming here and when you're actually in the building you see what great depth we've got in most positions so yeah it's a really top squad and yeah we're in a good place. It must be a very confident training ground at the moment. Yeah for sure, you can see in our performances even when we're not at our best we still believe we're going to win and I think that's vitally important in the Championship, you can't be perfect every game and when you're not if you still find a way to win that's a massive tool to have. And you've got players coming back, you had a half playing alongside Ben Sheaf in the last game so the squad's getting stronger I guess? Yeah for sure, Sheaf was a top player, I know that from chasing him around on numerous occasions so yeah it was good to get beside him even just for a half the other day so yeah the more top players we can have fit and ready to go at the back. Well you've played against the player a few times and then you're playing alongside him, does that help you, do you feel you know the game? Yeah I feel like it helps to settle in to the club, I mean like I say I've played against most of these lads a number of occasions so I felt like even though I didn't know everyone individually you kind of half know who people are so I feel like it made it a lot easier to settle but playing with someone and playing against them is two very different things so yeah we'll have to build a relationship and you form relationships every day in training and games as well so that might take a little bit of time. And you're in the top six now so now the trick is to stay there? Fingers crossed yeah that'll be the end. Is it harder sort of staying there or getting in there in the first place? I don't really know to be honest, to answer your question honestly. I think you've just got to focus on yourself, you've got to just take the next game as it comes, the next one is an old cliche but the next one is always the most important one and that is exactly the case now, we've got 11 games to go and we just need to be fully focused on each one and keep ticking them off and hopefully keep getting three points. I said to Efron after the last match that you were there to be shot at and he said let them shoot, is that sort of mentality you think this team has? Yeah I mean I think it would be difficult not to have that mentality when we've won 8-9 and that's what we just want to keep continuing, we want to just keep imposing ourselves on our position and keep going how we have been. And this weekend we're talking to the only player who doesn't particularly know the manager who's coming back, has there been a lot of talk about Mark's return? Not particularly inside the dressing room, I know obviously he was here for a very long time, he's very well regarded within the club, but yeah you're right you're talking to probably the only person in the building that doesn't know an awful lot about it. And we're expecting him to get a warm reception perhaps at the start of the game, won't it have any impact on the match will it do you think? No, in my opinion no, but he deserves the reception he'll get, I mean like I say even I know from the outside he was here through some really tough times and he put the club up into what it is today, so he's been a part of that journey so I think it's only right that he's shown the respect he deserves. Because as a player you used to have managers come in and go in, you don't get too many that stay a long time. No for sure, for sure and that's obviously a testament to him and what he achieved over the last however many years. But they are expecting another 30,000 crowds so that's going to be a bit special to play in front of isn't it? Yeah for sure, I mean the fans have blown me away to be honest since being here, the home sport and the away as well, I mean every game I'm just, we're so thankful for what they give us, it really does mean a lot when you've got that force behind you and they're dragging the ball into the goal and keeping it out of your net and they give you that extra bit of energy to really push yourself to the very end. So yeah the fan base is incredible here and yeah I'm very much looking forward to playing in front of the home side. Are you going to join Milan or are those fist pumps any time soon do you think? Hopefully not, no it's not really me to be honest, no it's not really me but I know he enjoys it but I think if you're dragged away to do it I think there's not much choice that you've got but no I'm not one for that to be honest. Stoke obviously fighting near the bottom of the table, you're all up in the top six, is that, do you think the mindset of opponents might change, you might come up against teams like Stoke who will try and stop you playing, try and make it difficult to break down? Yeah I mean every team at this stage of the season with 11 games left is playing for something, whether it's to stay in the top six, to get in the top six, to get out of the bottom three or to make a little bit more distance from the bottom three so everyone's playing for something so that makes every game really, really tough. So yeah they'll be fully up for it I'd imagine and they'll want to get the three points as much as we do but like I said we have to just hopefully make it a game about us and impose ourselves on them.