FRANK Lampard insists hard work on the training ground is behind Coventry City’s uplift in results and performances since his appointment as head coach.
Lampard passed the three-month milestone in charge of the club before the Sky Blues won at Oxford United to move into the Championship play-off places.
The 46-year-old replaced Mark Robins as City head coach in November with the club 17th in the table.
However, a sensational run of eight wins in their last nine league games has seen Coventry rise up the table and mount a challenge for the play-offs.
And Lampard admits he now feels comfortable in his role at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Lampard said: “It feels like I’ve been here a long time already, in a positive way, it’s not to say it’s been an endurance test.
“This job is a challenge always, but I’ve really enjoyed three months, feeling like I’ve been here a long time is a positive in terms of I feel comfortable in my surroundings, and we’ve had good results as of late.
“I’m still fresh to the job, so it’s nice to have made those first steps and there’s many more to come, I hope.”
Lampard took the head coach role at Coventry following difficult spells in charge of Everton and Chelsea in the Premier League.
And Lampard admits joining one of his former employers mid-season helped prepare him for the task in front of him at the CBS Arena.
Lampard added: “To come in mid-season, and I’ve done it before at Everton, it brings a lot of challenges to work quickly and find the problems and challenges and try and put them right.
“You have to get to know the players quickly, understand the individuals and the collective and I think with the uplift in results is a consequence of the work done on the training ground.
“The uplift in performances as well is also the work we’ve done and we’ve done it with some injuries to important players, which is good because now they’re coming back.
“We’re in a really good position from where we started and we’ve also now got a pretty much fully fit squad, with some big players that are back for the run in.”
Lampard also admits he and his coaching staff highlighted the club’s defensive frailties from the off, having recorded just two clean sheets all season prior to his appointment as head coach.
Coventry have kept seven clean sheets under Lampard’s tenure and have only concded more than two goals in a game on one occasion in the league.
Lampard said: “You need the buy in from the players. We want to motivate them with hopefully good training, good clarity of message and hopefully we’ve seen that with our off the ball work and organisation, I think that has certainly improved.
“We pinpointed that as something to get right straight away. To concede too much will never get you where you want to be. We’ve corrected that to this point, and we have to continue with that and get even better.
“They’re a real pleasure to work with, I’ve said it most weeks, it’s a real strong dressing room, a good group, good players and who want to get better and play well for this club and that’s the first and main thing you ask for when you’re coaches.”
