The Secrets Of Coventry Citys Incredible Title Charge How Frank Lampards Chameleons Mix Up Their Tactics, Why Theyve Scored So Many Goals, The Key Player Driving Them On… And The One Thing That Could Derail Them

Like the old saying about dogs and their owners, football teams so often resemble the manager who leads them. Cast your eye to the top of the Championship and Coventry City are no different.

Under Frank Lampardthey are marching towards the Premier League in sensational fashion and a style befitting the man in the dugout.

Their victory over Middlesbrough sent them 10 points clear at the top of the table after just 17 games, the biggest lead at this stage of a season in Championship history. They have scored a staggering 47 goals, than double most other teams in the division, with Lampard’s side scoring three times or in nine of those 17 matches.

Back in his pomp, Lampard was never a midfielder famed for fancy flicks or tricks, or of passing sideways and backwards in a bid to keep possession for possession’s sake. He was known instead for his ability to get the ball towards the opposition goal with devastating efficiency, whether that be courtesy of a killer pass, a driving run, a thunderous strike or one of those famous late runs into the box to finish off a chance. No frills, all action.

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His Coventry side are exactly the same. The Sky Blues under Lampard are a team who get the ball forward at every opportunity.

But the beauty of Lampard’s side is that they do it in so many different ways. They are the chameleons of the Championship. Coventry don’t just hoof it, nor is Lampard a manager bound to some idealistic philosophy. His side plays whichever way is most suited to breaking down their opponent.

Coventry can pass through you, they can play down the sides and kill you with crosses, they can lump the ball forward and beat you in the air. They can hit you on the counter and they can destroy you at set-pieces.

Not only have Coventry scored the most goals and had the most shots from open play, put in the most crosses and scored the most headers, they have also done the same at set-pieces.

Their 18 goals from set-pieces is at least double the tally of every team except Derby. Only Oxford have launched long throws into the box, too. Coventry’s second goal in their 3-1 win over Watford last month came courtesy of a catapult into the penalty area.

Their last two games alone are evidence of the huge variety in Coventry’s play and how they can – and will – beat you in multiple ways.

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At home to West Brom, where they fought back from two goals down to win 3-2, Coventry had nearly 70 per cent possession, the most in any of their league games this season, and attempted nearly 600 passes, with less than seven per cent of them pumped long and than 200 of them in the final third.

At Middlesbrough, they had just 40 per cent of the ball, attempted little than 350 passes, yet went long twice as often, and had fewer than 100 passes in the final third. And they still managed 20 shots.

Against the Baggies, Coventry enjoyed sequences of 10 or passes on 21 occasions, their most this season. Against Boro, just five, their second lowest.

No counter-attacks against West Brom. Four of them, their most of the campaign, against Boro – and the source of their opening goal when Victor Torp won the ball back in the Coventry half, sprung the attack and slipped in striker Ellis Simms who produced a stunning dinked finish.

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The average position maps from both games show just how on the front foot Lampard’s side were against West Brom and how much deeper they sat at Boro.

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Of the seven goals across the two games, one was a counter-attack, two came following corners, three came from crosses, and another came from a long ball down the middle from deep.

Their ability to mix it up is played out in the numbers. For a team so far clear at the top of the table, so dominant, they sit in the middle of the pack for possession, dribbles and ball carries.

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And for a side that loves to get the ball forward at speed, it’s no surprise that Coventry lead the charts for direct attacks in the Championship, sit third in the division for progressive passes and second for progressive carries – ones that move the ball towards goal. But they are towards the bottom of the table for long balls and also sit just outside the play-off places for build-up attacks, ones where a move of 10+ passes ends with a shot or a touch in the box.

They play in every way. And are ruthlessly efficient with it.

Coventry’s pressing numbers are, on the whole, also nothing special. They sit bang in the middle for the number of passes they allow their opponents on average before trying to win it back.

And yet they are third for high turnovers, when a side regains possession within 40 metres of goal, and joint-third for how often that ends in them having a shot. They don’t press relentlessly but, when they do, they do it decisively.

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Their second goal in a 5-0 rout of Sheffield Wednesday was a perfect example, which came when Ephron Mason-Clark pinched the ball back just outside the area and Brandon Thomas-Asante finished it off.

Coventry won 17 high turnovers against Norwich earlier in the season. They did so just once in their 4-0 thrashing of Millwall.

Yet while they continue to serve up their variety of victory processions, whether it be Simms’ physical domination of Boro, winning 10 of his 13 aerial duels, or the peerless goalscoring of attacking midfielder Thomas-Asante and striker Haji Wright, there is one constant at the heart of it. A man who, like his manager back in the day, can do the lot from midfield.

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Captain Matt Grimes, who signed from Swansea in January, has established himself as one of the finest midfielders in the Championship.

The former youth frisbee champion and amateur hairdresser to his team-mates is a man of many talents off the pitch and on it.

Grimes has completed the third-most passes of any player in the Championship and made the most progressive passes.

He’s had touches than any midfielder in the division and created the third-most chances too, helped by his superb delivery from set-pieces.

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This, remember, in a team that does not dominate possession week in, week out.

It’s just that everything goes through Grimes. He sets Coventry’s tempo. He speeds things up when they want to shift through the gears, with his superb ball-carrying and precision passing, and he can slow it all down when they need to take their time.

Just look at his pass map from Tuesday night.

All over the pitch, back to front, drifting wide and also whipping balls into the box.

It was his stunning first-time cross, after his blocked corner looped back towards him from high in the night sky, that found the head of defender Liam Kitching for Coventry’s second and another deep curling cross from the other side that led to their third.

He does everything, everywhere, all at once. Only Boro’s Hayden Hackney has won possession often in the Championship this season than Grimes.

Grimes made six tackles on Tuesday night, the most of anyone on the pitch. He wins the ball back and moves it forward better than anyone else in the division.

A passage of play during the victory over Sheffield Wednesday encapsulates everything Grimes is about.

He springs out of the midfield line to win the ball, drives forward away from his man and then plays a splitting ball that cuts through three defenders and leaves Wright through on goal.

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Coventry have the quality and the variety to reach the promised land. They appear to have the spirit, too.

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The Sky Blues had come from behind to win two of their previous three games, and on Tuesday night had to battle once again after they initially let a two-goal lead slip at the Riverside Stadium.

Their one remaining concern is whether they have the strength in depth. First-choice striker Wright has missed the last two games with a calf injury and top-scorer Thomas-Asante limped off in the first half against Boro.

If they can keep hold of their stars in January, and maybe add a few , it feels like only an injury crisis can derail Coventry’s promotion charge now. Because, like the man in the dugout, they have the all-round game to take them to the top.