We were wrong about Frank Lampard

Justin, they might actually do it. They might actually replace Mark Robbins with Frank Lampard. I feel sick. It is a downgrade. It's like driving a Ferrari and then getting a 4KA. There's no comparison. It's just, you know, a huge, huge drop in quality. I just, I just do not get this. It's just a brain dead decision. This isn't a Coventry team who want to be, you know, building towards the future. They want to make that next step up. That's why they got rid of Mark Robbins because he spent, he had £45 million spent over the past two seasons, couldn't get them into the Premier League. Now they want to do that. And Frank Lampard is just not that man. He hasn't got the tactical capability to get them into the Premier League. And that's why I just find this so bamboozling. I've not seen any evidence of Frank Lampard being a very talented coach. You look at some of the other names who have been mentioned and Frank Lampard is just lazy. And apart from the fact that it's a big name in Frank Lampard, I just don't really see what other positives he's got going for him. I'm not impressed. I'm slightly underwhelmed. You know, it's a bit like your dad promising you pizza in the morning, but you get home from school when your mum's made cottage pie. It's just, it's, it could be good. It could be nice, but it could have been great. It can't be a CV which makes him the best man for the job, can it? He's been brutally exposed on a tactical level as a manager in multiple reigns now. I genuinely just do not get this. I still have a lot of reservations over Lampard, particularly on a tactical basis. I didn't see enough last season to change that. Do I dislike him? No. Do I rate him as a manager? No. We were very critical of the appointment when he was made, Justin, and we were saying at the time that Coventry needed someone to take them to the next level that Mark Robbins couldn't do, and we didn't think Frank Lampard was that man, and I would still be very, very, very surprised if he did turn out to be that man, because tactically, I just don't think he has it. Fine. We admit it. We were wrong about Frank Lampard. Now let me eat my humble pie in Just over a year ago, Frank Lampard was appointed Coventry City manager. It came after club legend Mark Robbins was sacked with the Sky Blues sat 17th in the Championship. Coventry had been a club knocking on the door of the Premier League over the previous two seasons, and had spent a lot of money in trying to make that jump, but to no avail. They needed to try something different. Enter Frank Lampard. Now, at the time, we weren't very complimentary of that decision. Fast forward 12 months later, and Coventry City are 10 points clear at the top of the Championship. So how did we get it so wrong, and why weren't we a fan of the appointment in the first place? Today, I'm going to explain all of that. I'm Ryan Dilks from the second tier, and this is We Were Wrong About Frank Lampard. Before we get underway, please make sure you like this video and subscribe for more content like this. Right, let's begin. So why did we have our doubts? Well, to answer that, we have to go all the way back to 2018, when Frank Lampard was appointed at our club, Derby County. Derby missed out on promotion after losing in the playoff final, in Lampard's only season at Pride Park. And while he did oversee possibly the most memorable game in my entire time supporting Derby, I did feel like him getting to a playoff final papered over the cracks from that season. First of all, in my personal opinion, the fact that this team only squeezed into the playoffs on the final day of the season was an underachievement. In my eyes, it should have been competing for automatic promotion. You had Fukayo Tomori and Mason Mount, who had gone to play regularly at Chelsea the season afterwards. You had Harry Wilson, who scored 18 goals that season. You've got a solid core of experienced Championship players here, with the likes of Richard Keough, Bradley Johnson, and Tom Huddleston. And Lampard was backed heavily, with signings such as Jack Marriott and Martin Waghorn, for big money. And while, yes, I accept it was Lampard's first season in management, it would have been a failure if he didn't get this team into the top six. But that's before even getting onto Derby's performances that season, because it was unconvincing, to say the very least. And the only way I can possibly show that to you is with the XG, because Derby's XG that season was only slightly better than Rutherham's, who got relegated. So often, it felt like Derby were relying on Harry Wilson scoring a screamer out of nowhere, and he did that on a fair few occasions. So really, while Derby salvaged a playoff place, we were fortunate to get even that. The most criminal thing in the eyes of a lot of Derby fans, though, is that he didn't start a striker in the playoff final. He ended up starting Mason Bennett, who was an unproven winger at the very best, while keeping his expensive signings in Martin Waghorn and Jack Marriott on the bench. And it really showed in the game, because Derby were quite easily second best. Ultimately, when he left for Chelsea, I don't think many Derby fans were that bothered. Yes, he was well liked by supporters, but I don't think many knowledgeable fans thought it was that big a loss. And then looking back at his spells at Chelsea and Everton, in his first season at Chelsea, he got them fourth, but it would have been a failure if they didn't finish in the top four. His second season, they finished ninth before he was sacked. He then went to Everton, where he had next to no positive effects, leaving them when they were second from bottom, and then had a brief spell back at Chelsea, which went terribly, absolutely appallingly. He won just five points from a possible 27 in the time he was there. The bottom line is, up until that point, it seemed to me like Frank Lampard was a classic case of a manager who got jobs based purely on what he achieved as a player, as opposed to actually being a good manager. And while that's definitely the case with some, hey, hey, Wayne, Wade, hey, you stay over there, all right? This doesn't concern you, okay? It might not be the case with Frank Lampard. But when Coventry took the controversial decision to sack Mark Robbins, a club legend who had taken them from League Two all the way to the top end of the Championship, to justify that move, they had to get in someone who'd be able to get them to take that next step. Now, at the time, had Frank Lampard shown enough in his managerial career that he was a good enough manager to get them to make that next step? I didn't think so. In Lampard's first season at Coventry, he came in when they were 17th and took them to 5th before losing in the playoff semi-finals. Now, admittedly, a great achievement on paper. But over the summer, we're at the second tier, double down on our Frank Lampard scepticism. While doing our never-controversial manager rankings, where we rank every Championship manager based on how much we would want them in charge of our club, we put Frank Lampard 16th out of the 24 managers. Now, a reason for that was because of our longstanding scepticism over Lampard, but I also thought the job he did at Coventry last season was a bit overrated. In my eyes, Coventry never should have been that low in the first place. It was a top six squad at the very minimum. Plus, they were only 10 points off the playoffs with two-thirds of the season to go. So, going from 17th to 5th, it didn't actually eat up that many points. Coventry did go on a run of 9 wins in 10, which saw them fly up the league. But during that run, I thought they were fairly fortunate with a lot of late goals, plus they weren't exactly dominating games. But also, they nearly messed up a playoff place at the end of the season. They were in the top six with 10 games to go, but in those final 10 games, they did have some dodgy results, including losing to the likes of Derby, Luton and Plymouth, who all finished in the bottom six that season. And they didn't secure a playoff place until the final day of the campaign. I also thought the playoff semifinals against Sunderland were an example of Lampard's flaws, because while they did dominate in terms of possession, they didn't create that many chances. They were often resorting to just lumping the ball into the box, and that ultimately cost them. So, I wasn't expecting a vast improvement for Coventry heading into this season. How wrong I was! We're 18 games in now, and this is how Coventry City compare to every championship side ever at this stage of the season. They've broken the record for the most goals scored, they've got the biggest gap ever between first and second, they've won the second most points ever, and have the second biggest goal difference ever. You won, Frank, dear lord, what a sad little life. Lampard has turned Coventry into this relentless goal scoring machine, who just batters teams into submission, and they have conceded a fair few goals recently. But it doesn't flippin' matter if you're on course to score 128 goals this season. Coventry have got some brilliant players, and I think their squad was always capable of finishing in the top two. I even predicted them to get automatically promoted last season, but what he's done this season is turned so many of them into machines. Victor Torp was a midfielder who would show glimpses of being a top player, now he's doing it pretty much every week. Similar with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto on the wing, who's now got much more of an end product. Efron Mason-Clark has become an absolute beast on the left wing, while Milan van Ekvijk has matured into a Premier League right back. Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching have been phenomenal at centre half, both in and out of possession, and Jay De Silva at left back has been the underrated cog in this Coventry side. But the biggest mention has to be for Brandon Thomas Assante, who had always been an unconvincing striker at this level, however is now the joint top scorer in the division. I'll also give shouts for Haji Wright and Matt Grimes, who have also been quality this season, but have been quality at Championship level for quite some time, so it's not that much of a surprise. It's also got to be mentioned though, that Coventry's incredible start has seen arguably their best player in Giapardone missing for the majority of the season. I've barely noticed he's not there! And the crazy thing is, all those players I mentioned just there, were at Coventry last season. Lampard's just taken them to a whole new level, because they didn't really sign anyone over the summer. They spent money on Luke Wolfenden and Kane Kessler-Hayden, but they've spent most of their time on the bench. The only player who's a new signing, who's featured regularly this season, is goalkeeper Karl Rushmuth. And that's what makes their success this season all the more surprising, and the achievement all the more impressive. So the question is, yes, Coventry have been amazing this season, but will they get the job done and get promoted? Put it this way, you'd be a brave man to say no right now. The table speaks for itself. For Coventry, not to get promoted from this position would be insane. They have been by far the best team in the division this season. They have been a bit rickety at the back in recent games, but it doesn't matter when they're scoring goals at the rate that they are. And that may slow down at some point as well, but it would take quite a drop off for it to get to the point where it's a problem. Perhaps the biggest plus for Coventry though, is the lack of sides who look capable of catching them. All the sides you would have expected to be competing for the top two this season have had slow starts. So for us to get to a point where there are two teams who overtake Coventry for points seems very, very unlikely at this stage. And say the worst does happen and Coventry somehow don't get promoted this season, I would still be willing to sit here and say we were wrong about Frank Lampard. Prior to this past weekend, Frank Lampard had overseen 46 championship games at Coventry City and won 92 points. That would be enough to see you promoted in most championship seasons. And so when we were making our feelings known about the Lampard appointment just over a year ago, the point we were making was that we didn't think he was the man to get Coventry to make that next step. 92 points in 46 games proves that he is. Frank Lampard is a very good manager. He is probably the man who's going to get Coventry City to the Premier League. And we were very, very wrong about him. I've said it. So there you have it. This has been we were wrong about Frank Lampard. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below. Feel free to laugh at us in the comments section below. If you've enjoyed this video, then please make sure you like and subscribe for more content like this. And if you're a particularly big fan of what we do here at the second tier, then please make sure you join our new YouTube membership community, where for just £4.99 a month, you get access to the second tier discord and an exclusive bonus video every single week. All you need to do is hit the join icon right next to the subscribe button. I've been Ryan Dilks from the second tier and a big thank you for watching.