Frank Lampard sends Sheffield United “trick” message after Coventry City stick boot in on Blades
Frank Lampard sends Sheffield United “trick” message after Coventry City stick boot in on Blades
Frank Lampard, the Coventry City manager, has no doubt that Sheffield United will turn around their current struggle despite adding to it with a third successive defeat on Tuesday night. While things are only looking up at City, who moved five points clear at the top of the table, United’s problems run much deeper.
The January window has already been earmarked as a chance for Chris Wilder to put his mark back on a fragile squad he reinherited earlier this year but United also can’t afford to wait for that, with 10 games to play and 30 points up for grabs before the new year sales begin.
Even then few managers get what they want or need in the early stages of the window and so United must look at themselves in the meantime as they look to arrest a start to the season that has already seen them lose more games, from 14 in the league, than in the entirety of last term.
Next up before the international break is a home clash with Queens Park Rangers and although United have shown signs of life in recent weeks that has only increased frustration that they returned no points from close encounters against Preston North End, Derby County and Lampard’s Coventry.
On all three occasions United were the architects of theirown downfall in terms of conceding wholly unavoidable goals and it is a worrying trend that Wilder and his coaching staff must address in the weeks and months ahead.
Frank Lampard sends Sheffield United “trick” message after Coventry City stick boot in on Blades
But inside the football bubble there seems to be a recognition that United’s problems run deeper than the manager, with Lampard joining Preston chief Paul Heckingbottom in a steadfast belief that things will turn for United under Wilder.
“I’ve got huge respect for Chris,” Lampard told The Star after full-time on Tuesday evening. “In the periods he’s had at the club, he's brought great success. He's a brilliant football man and coach. I've got a lot of respect for him and have had from the minute I started coaching. And we've had a couple of ding-dongs on the touchline, to be fair, when I was at Chelsea.
“There are some managers who have been around for a while and really have this kind of togetherness about other coaches in the game, who are working. He's always been like that with me, and I've always appreciated that.
“I think that it's not easy. People think that when there’s a manager change, he will just come in and it'll all change. ‘Because Chris will bring back this and they've got a good squad.’ I think they have got a good squad for the league, still.
“But it's not always that simple. So my view is that Chris will get what he wants out of that team and make them what he wants them to become. But sometimes it's not just like a trick that you can pull.
“I know he will give everything. And I believe that they will [turn things around]. Because you saw bits of the game today where you know they've got some power and a team of good players. And I'm sure that will come for them.”