Exclusive: "Surprised" claim made on Frank Lampard at Coventry City | OneFootball

Carlton Palmer spoke exclusively to Football League World about Frank Lampard and Coventry City

Pundit and former England international Carlton Palmer has heaped praise upon Frank Lampard, who is leading Coventry City towards an unprecedented finish inside the Championship's top six.

The appointment of Lampard at the end of November was met with division from the Sky Blues faithful and both supporters and commentators throughout the wider domestic footballing sphere, although owner Doug King is swifly seeing real vindication for the difficult decision to part ways with Mark Robins and bring the ex-Chelsea head coach to the CBS Arena.

Robins saw his seven-and-a-half-year stay with the Sky Blues, whom he had taken from League Two to the top-end of the Championship, brought to an abrupt end earlier this term.

Coventry had spent the previous two seasons in and around the play-offs, having lost out to Luton Town in 2023's Wembley final, but were left 17th in the Championship at the time of his exit.

Since Lampard's arrival, however, Coventry have enjoyed a spectacular run of form which places them third in the division across that timeframe.

Only Leeds United and Sheffield United, who are first and second in the league table respectively, have been in better form than Lampard's side, and Coventry sealed their ninth victory in ten second-tier matches by beating Oxford United 3-2 on Saturday afternoon to elevate to fifth place.

Coventry are now on course to seal a top-six finish and a swift chance at returning to the Premier League under Lampard, who is beginning to earn serious praise for his efforts.

Carlton Palmer's Frank Lampard, Coventry City verdict

Palmer is surprised at Lampard's success with Coventry, though he has praised the 46-year-old while acknowledging the squad - which many felt had underperformed - he was able to inherit from Robins.

"I am surprised at how Lampard is doing," Palmer told FLW.

"I think he's a really good bloke and a really good coach, but he's done unbelievably well at Coventry.

"I have to say that Mark Robins left a really good squad of players at Coventry, there's no doubt about that. Sometimes it's like that for managers unfortunately, Robins had a lot of injuries and now a lot of those players have come back under Lampard.

"He's got a 55 per cent win rate, which is fantastic - 18 games, 11 wins, three draws and four defeats. It's a great statistic and they're now in a play-off place.

"Like I said, there was a great group of players that Robins had assisted with and he had a lot of injuries which didn't help with the results. The performances were going down a bit towards the end with Robins and that's what happens with managers sometimes when they've been at a club for a while, either you have to change the players around or the manager has to go.

"That's the way it goes, the manager has gone and Lampard has come in. He plays a different style of football, they've gone on an unbelievable run and they're in a play-off position, and that's what he will be looking to solidify.

"Anything can happen once you get into the play-offs. There's still a bit of work to do, but the run they've been on is unbelievable and great credit has to be given to Lampard and his staff.

"I think only the Championship's top two have picked up more points than Coventry since Lampard was appointed back in November.

"Everybody was disappointed when Robins lost his job because he's a terrific bloke and had done a great job, but well done to Lampard."

Frank Lampard is vindicating big Doug King, Mark Robins decision at Coventry City

As aforementioned, the decision to part ways with Robins was a hugely controversial one at the time. It was widely argued that King had made a knee-jerk decision which would soon backfire, but that hasn't turned out to be the case.

Instead, King rolled the dice and appears to have scored big by landing Lampard's services in the dugout.

Lampard is quite simply getting so much more out of what is an undeniably talented Coventry side, which also cost a pretty penny to assemble, and he looks capable of taking the Sky Blues to new heights.

At this current rate, those heights could well be the dizzying ones of the top-flight. Coventry are looking all-but-unstoppable right now and much of that is down to Lampard.