FRANK Lampard insists he will pick a ‘strong team’ for Coventry City’s FA Cup third round tie against Sheffield Wednesday.
The Sky Blues reached the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in 37 years last season as City suffered a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat against Manchester United at Wembley.
And Lampard, who scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final for Chelsea against Everton in 2009, admits he views the competition as high on the club’s priority list.
Lampard said: “From my time growing up as a young boy, watching it on TV. I love the competition, I’m still a traditionalist in the sense of how important it is growing and waiting for cup final day and watching the build-up.
“I was lucky to have good success in the competition for the most part, so it’s a big competition for me.
“We pick a strong team because I want to do well in it. We have a competitive squad so there may be some chances for some players who haven’t played as much but I’m picking a team that I want to win the game.
“There’s always an appreciation for what a cup run can do for the club and for the fans.
“The fans would have loved going to Wolves last year and to Wembley and were so close, so it was a good run for the club, but this is a new year.”
Coventry beat the Owls en route to reaching the last four of the competition last term but suffered a 2-1 home defeat against the same opponents back in October earlier this season.
And Lampard is expecting a difficult test against Danny Rohl’s side who have lost just one of their last six league games.
Lampard added: “They’re a good team, they’re a strong team and I think they are well-coached and well-recruited.
“They’re really strong in transition and they have a lot of speed in their team and they’re a threat from set-pieces so players would have felt that in the game previously this season.
“We have to get things right and compete with them, which we clearly can do, but it will be a difficult game.
“We will put out a competitive team and we expect the players to be competitive.
“You start again in this competition, and we have to just look at the game that’s in front of us and the carrot, we know what it is if we start going through the rounds.”
Coventry host Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, January 11 with kick-off at 6pm at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
