Dietmar Hamann: Frank Lampard doing ‘wonderful job’ at Coventry City, but it’s still early in the season

Former Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann thinks Frank Lampard is excelling at Coventry City after a difficult couple of years elsewhere – but cautions it’s still early in the season.

The 47-year-old has taken the Sky Blues to new heights this season, currently top of the Championship after 14 games, with nine wins and an impressive 39 goals scored.

A blip against Wrexham ended their unbeaten run, but Coventry responded strongly with a 3-1 comeback victory over struggling Sheffield United in the midweek action.

Lampard’s previous spells at Chelsea and Everton ended sourly, but Hamann insists both clubs were challenging environments for any manager.

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Smart

In an exclusive interview with footballblog.co.uk, he discussed why Lampard has clicked at Coventry: “Chelsea’s not been a happy place for managers after [Jose] Mourinho left.

“They’ve changed managers a lot in the last 10, 15 years. Sometimes, when he’s so attached to a club, as he was at Chelsea, it makes things a little bit harder.

“Everton were a similar case with the owners – there was always a lot of uncertainty. I don’t want to make excuses, but I think there’s a reason why it didn’t work out.

“This year, we’re early in the season. Obviously, he’s doing a wonderful job. He’s top, and they have a very good goal difference, which means he’s got an awful lot of goals with this side.

“Obviously, he had a bit of a setback the other day against Wrexham. I think he was a very smart player, always a good reader of the game and obviously that helps him as a manager.

“He’s got a good way of communicating with the players. He comes across well, and, as I said, it’s early doors – a lot can happen in the course of a season. It’s good to see him doing well.”

Relentless

Hamann also thinks that Leicester City have a chance of going straight back up to the Premier League, but warns that the Championship is tough because of the sheer amount of competition.

“Obviously, they lost a few players this summer,” he explained. “El Khannouss is doing really well at Stuttgart now.

“They’ve got these financial restrictions, and lost the manager in the summer as well. 

“If you look at the teams in the Championship, I don’t think there’s many or any teams that’ve never been in the Premier League before, so there is experienced competition. 

“With these financial restrictions they’ve got, it doesn’t make things any easier – it’s a tough league.

“As we know, it’s 24 teams. You’ve got 46 league games. You need a pretty big squad because the Championship is different and relentless.

“It’s even more physical than in the Premier League. Have they got a chance for promotion? Yeah, of course they have. 

“But, when you look at the Championship now, you’ve probably got eight, nine, 10 teams who think they are in with a chance of promotion.”

Read Dietmar Hamann’s full interview at footballblog.co.uk

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