Coventry City at risk of Frank Lampard repeating Chelsea issues - it could deny them promotion | OneFootball

Coventry City's recent defensive issues are a reminder of how things went wrong for Frank Lampard at Chelsea

Coventry City supporters will be feeling quite nervous after their 2-1 loss to Norwich City on Monday and Frank Lampard’s two Chelsea stints will only inform that further.

The Sky Blues took a 1-0 lead at Carrow Road through January signing Romain Esse, but second-half strikes from Anis Ben Slimane and Ali Ahmed turned the game around for the Canaries.

Defensive frailties have become a persistent issue in recent weeks for the Championship leaders, with the team failing to keep a single clean sheet in their last seven fixtures.

Coventry have earned just seven points from their last 21 available, and it has seen their lead at the top of the standings shrink to just three points.

These defensive issues could stand in the way between the club gaining promotion and being stuck in the second tier for yet another year.

And it’s Lampard’s two stints at Chelsea that don’t bode well for supporters, who are hoping to see the team return to the top flight for the first time since 2001.

Coventry City’s defensive issues are similar to Frank Lampard’s Chelsea

Lampard’s first season at Chelsea was quite positive, with the team coming fourth and earning qualification for the Champions League.

But the Blues conceded 54 goals from their 38 league games, which was the most of any side in the top 10 in the Premier League that season, with the top three only giving away 33, 35 and 36 goals, respectively in comparison.

The 2020/21 campaign saw the team immediately concede six from their first three games to continue the pattern of defensive issues.

By the 19th game of the season, Lampard was sacked and the London outfit had given away 23 goals to their opposition.

This includes games in which they conceded three to West Brom, Southampton, Arsenal and Manchester City.

His final eight games in the top flight saw Chelsea earn just seven points from a possible 24, conceding 12 times.

Meanwhile, his replacement Thomas Tuchel immediately turned the Premier League side into a defensive powerhouse, conceding just 13 from the final 19 games of the season, five of which came in a remarkable 5-2 loss to the Baggies.

Lampard’s second stint fared even worse, with the 47-year-old taking charge for the final nine games of the 2022/23 campaign.

His side won just one of those fixtures, earning a total of five points from 27, and conceded 16 times to finish 12th in the table.

Coventry need to turn around this form to avoid promotion battle slide

Notably, Lampard was unable to turn things around in either stint at Chelsea when things began to slide. He does, though, have the credit in the bank at Coventry for that to be different.

The form of seven points from his final eight games maps to Coventry’s most recent seven fixtures, and another defeat away to QPR this weekend would make it a perfect comparison.

Middlesbrough are enjoying a fine vein of form under new boss Kim Hellberg, and Ipswich Town are lurking behind by eight points but with a game in hand and an impressive January transfer window. Hull City also cannot be ruled out of contention given their form and transfer dealings.

Those teams could quickly be on top of, or even ahead, of Lampard’s side unless he can arrest this slide and worrying defensive pattern.

That they took the lead against Norwich and still failed to get a result will only add to these concerns, as this failure to close out the game in the second half is a really worrying sign.

It is not all doom and gloom just yet, but it is far from the rosy picture that it appeared at the CBS Arena just a few weeks ago.