Coventry City boss Frank Lampard delivers Hull City verdict ahead of lunchtime meeting

Despite the Tigers’ league standing, Frank Lampard feels Coventry City cannot afford to take Hull City lightly when they play on Saturday lunchtime at the CBS Arena.

With just three victories after 20 Championship season games, none of which have come in the previous 12 games, City is currently at the bottom of the standings.

The Tigers ended a string of six straight losses with a 1-1 draw against Watford in the middle of the week. Ruben Selles came incredibly close to winning his first game as manager and is now hoping for his first win in over 70 days.

Like City, Coventry are going through a period of transition after changing manager recently. Lampard was brought in to replace Mark Robins and has had a mixed start in his three games, winning one, drawing one and losing the other – on Wednesday night at West Brom by two goals to nil to leave the Sky Blues 16th in the league, five points above lowly City.

Lampard, who previously managed Derby County in his first senior management position, stated, “The Championship, you can have a team that is fighting to the play-offs to the end last season and didn’t make it, and now at the bottom.”

“From the outside, you have to ignore that stance and realize that they still have talented players and that their new manager has fresh ideas. Seeing just one game with the new manager is obviously challenging since there are things we might anticipate or believe might not happen, so it’s usually best to concentrate on ourselves, which is what we do.

“I know where he’s at because I was there going into Cardiff. He’s had one game to look at and you’re looking at the players, looking at selection and understanding the best way to move forward, so we’re both in a similar situation.”

While City narrowly missed out on the top six last term, finishing seventh, Coventry went close to snatching a play-off spot under Robins but did reach an FA Cup final, and with both teams struggling in the early months of this season, Lampard believes the league table counts for little at this juncture.

We do deserve to be where we are, that’s the table. And this league, I think more than any other in my opinion, means that the table means nothing. You only have to look at the results every match day and see ones that surprise you, teams at the bottom beating teams at the top, so it really is irregular in that sense.”