Frank Lampard Coventry City manager says he models his approach on his two most influential bosses, describing himself as sitting ‘somewhere in the middle’ of Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti as he prepares for his first Premier League season in charge at the club.
Lampard, 48, played under both managers at Chelsea, winning the Premier League and the FA Cup with each of them. Eight years into his own managerial career, he told BBC Sport that the two men represent contrasting ends of a spectrum he is still navigating.
‘Jose and Carlo are like both sides of the coin,’ Lampard said. ‘Jose was very on you, he transmitted his self-confidence, but if you stepped out of line or did something wrong, you’d feel the strength of him, whereas Carlo was chilled and calm. When you look back, you go, “that’s a nice environment to work in”. It felt like he trusted you. So I try and take little report. I’m probably somewhere in the middle.’
Frank Lampard Coventry City manager on striking the right tone
Lampard said he has learned to read situations rather than default to one style. ‘I start to sometimes go towards being Jose, sometimes I go and be a bit more Carlo,’ he explained. ‘I’ve learnt that young managers, you come in and feel like you have to criticise a bad performance or say something about an individual that turns up late. The more I’ve done this job, I realise that they’re all humans.’
He added: ‘Sometimes a lad comes in late, you don’t know the back story. And so trying to jump on him and being this hard man manager, you’ve got to be more Carlo. But then if you’re a bit more relaxed sometimes and people are on the pitch, not doing their job, sometimes you’ve got a bit more Jose.’
Lampard also cautioned against being consumed by the need to silence critics. Speaking to musician and Sky Blues fan Tom Grennan, he said: ‘The thing about modern-day football, you’re brilliant one minute, you might not be brilliant the next and then everyone will let you know that. You’ve got to be careful trying to prove every doubter wrong, because it’s not possible.’
Promotion achievement and Premier League ambitions
Lampard guided Coventry City to the Championship title last season with 95 points, taking charge in November 2024. Part of that success was built on a formidable home record: according to BBC Sport, Coventry collected 55 points from 23 home games, winning 17, drawing four and losing just two, the best home record in the EFL Championship that season.
Coventry finished 22 points ahead of Saturday’s opponents Hull City in last season’s table, according to the Premier League. That gap counted for little on the day: Liam Millar, teed up by Mohamed Belloumi, scored with eight minutes remaining to give Hull a 1-0 victory in Coventry’s first home game of the campaign.
The result followed a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal on the opening weekend. Lampard’s side are returning to the top flight for the first time in 25 years.
Lampard placed last season’s promotion among his career highlights, comparing the emotion to winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012. ‘Winning in Munich was the best footballing night of my life as a player by far,’ he said. ‘But then when you do something with a club that’s been through what it’s been through, when you work with a group of lads that are so great as a dressing room, I’ve never experienced, especially as a coach, to have such a good group. When we got promoted against Blackburn, I had a rush of pure emotion, it all came on top of me. It certainly goes right up there in things I’ve managed to achieve.’
As a player, Lampard won three Premier League titles, the Champions League, four FA Cups, two League Cups and the Europa League. His managerial record before Coventry included taking Derby County to the Championship play-off final, an 18-month spell at Chelsea that ended with his sacking in January 2021, and a stint at Everton cut short in January 2023.
On the challenge of the Premier League, Lampard was direct. ‘We want to keep hold of the good things from last year,’ he said. ‘We’d be fools to think that we’d just go and play like we did in the “Champ” every week when we dominated a lot of games.’ His stated ambition for the season: ‘Let’s stick our chests out and let’s be brave about it. These boys have earned where they’ve got to, so go in with that attitude.’
