Coventry City are look to have found their feet in the Premier League, winning their past two games.
Frank Lampard‘s side lost their first four games of the season, beaten by Arsenal, Hull City, Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion. But they have strung together a pair of wins either side of the international break.
The Sky Blues first secured a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest, also scoring their first goal of the league season. They returned from the break with a 4-1 victory against Newcastle United, lifting Coventry up to 14th in the league.
But how has Lampard achieved this change in form?
In this article, we’ll cover
Defensive solidity
Despite only letting in one goal against both Hull and Man City, Coventry conceded 10 goals across their first four league matches. Arsenal scored three on the opening weekend, while Brighton trashed Coventry 5-0 at the CBS Arena. They finally got their first clean sheet of the season in their fifth game, the 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
Matching Forest
Lampard has shifted between a back four and back five this season, depending on the opponent. He decided to match Nottingham Forest’s shape in a 3-4-2-1 of their own. They did this by sitting in a 5-2-3 midblock, with Jack Rudoni shadow-making Forest’s double pivot, before pressuring central centre-back Ousmane Diomande on the ball.
Ephron Mason-Clark and Brandon Thomas-Asante both had narrow start positions in order to block central access. But they would jump to press the wide centre-backs when they received the ball. Coventry’s double pivot looked to protect the centre if anything managed to make its way inside, ready to jump and apply pressure with intensity.
Forest’s best moments came from either going direct to gain territory inside the opposition half, or by progressing down the flanks. However, even once they found their way into Coventry’s half, just three of Forest’s 24 shots hit the target. The Sky Blues retreated into their defensive shape nicely, making it compact and allowing their defence to absorb the pressure on their goal.
Shift for Newcastle
Coventry shifted back to a back four against Newcastle, slightly changing their defensive shape and triggers. But the intent remained the same.
The front two looked to prevent access to the Newcastle pivot before jumping to apply pressure. A more zonal midfield four were ready to apply pressure on the sides if play was trapped to one side, while still being in good position to keep things compact and defend against more direct passes forward.
Bobby Thomas has been imperious for Coventry in both of their recent victories, playing in the middle of a back five or on the right of a back four. The 25-year-old defender has made a whopping 52 clearances this season, 29 of which have been headed, while also making five blocks.
Directness to chaos
In possession, Coventry have been clear in their willingness to go direct into their forwards. They look to create chaos against the opposition defence.
As a player, Lampard played in an era where the 4-42 was dominant, and Didier Drogba was his target-man reference point. So it makes sense why he would see value in this strategy.
Coventry start trying to circulate passes in their buildup, whether in a back five or a back four. The aim is the lure the opposition press onto them. The double pivot look to drop deeper and get touches on the ball, offering themselves as a passing option in order to drag the opposition midfielders towards them and open the gap to the defensive line.
Against Nottingham Forest, Coventry’s three centre-backs and double pivot looked to lure the front press onto their buildup. With the wing-backs matching up against each other, this created space for Coventry to go direct into their front three. The trio could interchange positions, run from high to low to receive in space or make runs in behind, keeping the Forest backline guessing. Even if they were unable to win first contact, the trio in close proximity then had a good chance of landing on second balls, generating chaos from these moments.
Different systems, same ideas
We saw this same idea against Newcastle, albeit with a narrow front four. Both wingers made outside to inside runs, coming narrow when going direct in order to create proximity around the ball.
Matt Grimes dropped from midfield areas into the backline, extending the pressing distance for Joe Willock in midfield and dragging him away. At the same time, Milan van Ewijk drifted forward to create a tension for Harvey Barnes in the press.
By luring Newcastle into a press, Coventry were then able to look for direct balls forward into their narrow front four, creating that chaos with runs in behind on the first contact, or swarming actions around the ball on the second/third contact.
Sidiki Cherif
Sidiki Cherif was one of the brightest sparks from Coventry’s 4-1 win over Newcastle, getting himself off the mark. The 19-year-old joined from Fenerbahce in the summer for around £20.5m, despite not pulling up many trees in the Turkish Super Lig.
However, Cherif did score four goals in Ligue 1 playing for Angers in the first part of last season, which earned him his move to Fenerbahce.
The young striker showed a bullish nature in his full Premier League debut, pressing from the front, battling for loose balls hoisted forward to him and putting himself about, earning a penalty in the fourth minute of the game, which Rudoni converted to make it 1-0.
But his goal was the moment of pure quality in the game. Cherif latched onto a loose ball bouncing towards the edge of the box, which he was then able to settle with one touch, before wrapping his body around the ball and adjusting his footwork in order to get his body over the ball and rifle it along the deck into the bottom right corner.
With Haji Wright currently out injured, Cherif has the chance to make the spot his own. And the 19-year-old absolutely has the talent to score goals for Coventry this season and fire them into contention to stay in the Premier League.