FRANK Lampard admits a much-changed Coventry City side ‘did not play to the same level’ in defeat against Millwall in the Carabao Cup.
The Sky Blues suffered a 2-1 defeat at The Den to exit the competition at the second round stage.
City head coach Lampard made eight changes for the cup tie following a rampant 7-1 victory against Queens Park Rangers last weekend.
And Lampard challenged the players coming into the side to maintain a high level of performance following the club’s strong start to the league season.
Lampard said: “We made changes because we have to, because we don’t have a big squad and we’re early in the season.
“Players need to either come in and show what they can do and take the opportunity, or we have to be careful at this stage for the players to be able to play three games in the week.
“Maybe that’s some part of why performance looked as it did and that’s for me and us to digest a little bit and we need to improve on that front.
“If players come in, they have to keep the level and we didn’t quite do that.”
Millwall took command of the cup tie courtesy of goals from Massimo Luongo and Kamarl Grant before Haji Wright scored a late penalty for the Sky Blues.
And Lampard admits his side must defend set-pieces better after conceding from two corners against Millwall.
Lampard added: “It was two set-pieces. I don’t think we were under any pressure from them at all other than that. So, that’s disappointing to concede two set-pieces.
“Then we’re pushing to try and score, late in the game and couldn’t quite do enough.
“We’ve had a good start in the league, and we need to carry it on and this can’t break the rhythm, and I’ve just said it to the players in there, we have to get back to where we were before the game.
“This game has now gone, and we have to move back on to the league this weekend.”
Coventry travel to Oxford United on Saturday, August 30 with kick-off at 3pm at the Kassam Stadium.
