Coventry City and Frank Lampard can benefit from £4m deal – Ipswich Town could regret it for one reason | OneFootball

Coventry City should benefit from the signing of a Luke Woolfenden for a reason that will hurt Ipswich Town.

Coventry City have started the season very well as they seek promotion to the Premier League, but some tweaks can still be made and the late summer addition of Luke Woolfenden could massively aid them, and leave Ipswich Town regretting the sale.

Having taken over from Mark Robins back in November last season, Frank Lampard and his Coventry side put in some excellent performances on their way to make up considerable ground en-route to finishing fifth in the Championship, eventually succumbing to a dramatic play-off semi-final loss to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

In what was a quiet summer transfer window, Lampard clearly identified an area of weakness has being defensively, with Coventry’s only incomings being in the defensive third of the pitch.

Carl Rushworth has been brought in on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion to become their new number one, whilst full-backs Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Miguel Angel Brau joined from Aston Villa and Granada respectively.

Then, on the final day of the summer transfer window, they brought in Ipswich Town centre-back Luke Woolfenden for a fee believed to be in the region of £4 million.

Woolfenden will provide further depth and vital versatility to their back-line, but also an important level of experience and promotion-winning pedigree that could massively aid Lampard, whilst hindering Ipswich.

Coventry City have started well but Frank Lampard will want defensive improvement

On the opening day of the season, Coventry shared a goalless draw with Hull City to start their 2025/26 season in relatively underwhelming fashion, but at least they managed to keep things tight.

Since then, Coventry have been remarkably entertaining to watch with a 5-3 victory over Derby County at Pride Park being followed by a 7-1 demolition of Queens Park Rangers at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Prior to the September international break, they shared a 2-2 draw with Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium, leaving the Sky Blues unbeaten after six matches across all competitions thus far.

A concern, though, will be that, in the 4-2-3-1 shape that Lampard is currently preferring, they have conceded six goals in their last three games, and those six goals conceded this season is the joint worst, alongside Millwall, in the top-half of the table.

In fact, only seven teams have conceded more often so far this year and three of those, QPR, Derby and Oxford, have conceded a hefty percentage of those strikes to City.

Coventry certainly look a strong team and do have some excellent defenders, and they will likely continue to improve, but it is fair to suggest than in order to sustain a tilt at the top two then conceding that many is unsustainable, and that is where the added quality and assurances of Woolfenden will massively benefit them.

Luke Woolfenden can also help Coventry City switch system - and why Ipswich Town may regret sale

Coventry are currently deploying a back four, but with the attack working so well as it is and a need to be a little bit tighter at the back, it wouldn’t be a shock to see a reversion to a back three on occasion.

Quite a few of their defensive personnel would seemingly suit the back three, too, with Milan van Ewijk and Kesler-Hayden having proved to be excellent wing-backs, as well as Miguel Angel Brau in the second-tier of Spain with Granada being a very attacking left-sided full-back.

Jake Bidwell is the archetypal left-sided centre-back in a back three, whilst both Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching thrived in that system when under the management of Michael Duff at Barnsley.

The reason that Ipswich should have ensured they kept hold of Woolfenden was because of his ability to slot into the middle of the back three, and being able to ensure there was more tactical variety to their play.

Woolfenden is an excellent ball-playing defender, but perhaps best known for his defensive characteristics, with a smart ability to read the game and brilliant when going man-to-man.

The 26-year-old’s departure has now left Ipswich lighter than they would have wanted at centre-back, and persisting with a 4-2-3-1 that doesn’t seem to be working like it did a couple of years ago, as a result of so much change to the squad, appears to now be Kieran McKenna’s only option.