“You can’t beat experience…”
And boy, does Frank Lampard now have some from his seven years as a manager.
What the former Everton and Chelsea manager has been able to achieve at Coventry since taking over in November has been mightily impressive.
Not just following the departure of a club legend in Mark Robins, but taking a team from the edge of the relegation zone to a play-off place – amassing 10 wins from their last 12 in the Championship – deserves recognition as well as admiration for what Lampard has been able to do in a relatively short period of time.
As I sat down with Lampard – I had an easy first question: how has he done it?
“We were in a position of looking over our shoulder towards relegation at that point – so from my experience going to Everton – I understood that going in mid season in a difficult moment like that – confidence and environment is the first thing.
“You want to bring some freshness and confidence to the group so we tried to do that.
“We were conceding too many goals and we felt different elements of our game could be improved which were backed up by what we’d seen and the numbers so we got to work quickly on it.
“The players have been a pleasure in terms of their engagement and application.”
It is clear Lampard has had an impact on the pitch – the results themselves suggest that.
However – who is Frank Lampard the manager? We know him as a Premier League legend for his playing career and number of trophies to his name but as a manager – what are his core beliefs as the leader of the changing room?
Lampard said: “I’ve been doing this job for a while now at different levels and challenges of competition and I think you realise that there are the non-negotiables.
“Work ethic, an application, you have to run for your team-mate, you have to not complain, not moan and understand how fortunate we are in a way.
“I get every day, every week, problems that need a solution – so I try to relax more with that in my own self because I think that hopefully rubs off on the players and hopefully they feel comfortable to come to me and staff to discuss or open up about something – I’m not a dictator, far from it.”
The Frank Lampard journey
Lampard is firm in his core beliefs of what he wants his team to represent, but what is clear from his time at Coventry so far – is his own growth into the role as a manager.
When you consider he was just 39 in his first role at Derby – to the jobs and situations he has taken on his seven years since then – he does not just come across with an aura of a player who has achieved much, but more so a manager in his own right who has earned respect for continuously taking on challenging experiences.
“In my first week at Derby I was fresh, open-eyed to everything and there were a lot of things I needed to learn quickly,” Lampard said. “So I’ve certainly matured through that and seen that, and to be able to work at Derby in the Championship was a real development year for me.
“To then go to Chelsea and work in the Champions League and get into the Champions League, through the league – those things are all great experiences, so you kind of layer them up hopefully.
“Everton in a relegation battle and we stayed up, and even going back to Chelsea’s interim, it was a really tough time at the club and I saw a lot of things with people questioning like was it the right thing to do…I’m absolutely better for the experience of that, even though it was six or seven weeks.”
So from the fresh faced Lampard at Derby to the boss who now occupies the hot seat at Coventry – the most interesting aspect of his personal growth he explains, is something perhaps we can all relate to, and that is work-life balance.
“I probably have got a better life balance. As a young manager you really want to prove yourself and every result becomes so critical – even every training session to a degree.
“I think that’s normal in that early period – the more experience you get you understand the coaching, the training, they might not go so great, you might not get the result when you’ve done everything you feel right in the week – I probably have more balance with that.”
The seven-week return to Chelsea
As Lampard suggests, his return to Chelsea for the temporary period at the 2022/23 season was seen as a perceived risk and although there were not many positive results – it is something he reflects on that solidified his values as a manager.
Lampard explained: “I saw things that I know cannot be right at elite football and that’s the truth.
“I didn’t love working in that short period because it’s hard to lay down an idea when you’re going to be leaving but Chelsea will always be a massive club in my life.
“But when I understand the standards of Chelsea – in that period of time a lot of players were in transition of maybe leaving and some problems and motivation were a problem – in an interim period you can’t really affect that.
“When you see the results of it, I’m experienced enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong and basic things in a training ground on a pitch.
“I didn’t learn anything tactical but it did reinforce my beliefs of all my experiences of when you know what a group is really fighting in the same direction – how strong that can be and when it’s not, it can be really challenging.”