Coventry City delivered their best performance of the season, stunning their fans with a dominant 3-0 win over bitter rivals Sunderland at the CBS Arena.
The Sky Blues triumphed in one of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of the season, with Frank Lampard’s tactical masterclass proving decisive.
The Coventry supporters were in full voice, out-singing the Sunderland fans, as Lampard’s game plan was executed flawlessly by his team.
They faced a strong Sunderland side that has been a consistent contender in the promotion race, maintaining a ten-point cushion over their closest rivals in the fight for a play-off spot.
So, how did Lampard mastermind such a commanding victory?
Explaining his strategy, the head coach told CoventryLive: “We had to be confident in ourselves and understand how they press. They press consistently, but we aimed to get our full-backs higher up the pitch.
We wanted to build from the back, with Grimesy and Jamie (Allen) dropping deep with the centre-backs to draw them back, and we managed to do that effectively. That gave us control of the ball.”
Lampard continued: “They didn’t press us in the middle of the pitch because we had extra passes and spare men. Off the ball, I thought we were excellent.
Sunderland has some strong players in their midfield, but we didn’t want to sit back and be intimidated.
We wanted to be aggressive, and our midfield and defence delivered on that. All the things we spoke about before the game came to fruition.”
He also praised the preparation, highlighting the respect he had for Sunderland.
Despite their attacking threats, the Black Cats were limited to just six shots, with only one on target. Lampard explained: “Sunderland is a team with excellent wingers who like to go one-on-one.
We didn’t want to allow that, so we doubled up on the flanks whenever we could, and our wingers helped our full-backs. Their midfielders are quality young players, so we made sure we denied them space to play in behind.”
The Coventry boss added: “When the ball was played to Bellingham or Rigg, we were ready to intercept, and our centre-backs helped us out with that. Haji and Torpy (Victor Torp) did well in applying pressure up the pitch too.”
While Lampard was quick to downplay the performance, insisting it was only one step in their journey, he acknowledged the significance of the win. “I don’t want to over-praise the performance, as it might make people think we’ve cracked it, but today felt like a bit of a matchup between how they play and how we play. And we were better today.”
He concluded: “We managed to stop their key players from getting the ball in dangerous areas and put pressure on them to ensure they couldn’t control the game. The players executed that plan perfectly.”
