Frank Lampard: Balancing Between Mourinho and Ancelotti at Coventry City

Frank Lampard leans back in his chair and smiles when he talks about Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. Two giants, two extremes – and the blueprint for the manager he is trying to be at Coventry City.

“Jose and Carlo are like both sides of the coin,” the 48-year-old tells BBC Sport in the second episode of The Football Interview, airing on BBC One at 12:45 on Saturday, 29 August, and on BBC iPlayer, BBC Football YouTube and the BBC Sport website and app.

“Jose was very on you, he transmitted his self-confidence, but if you stepped out of line or did something wrong, you'd feel the strength of him, whereas Carlo was chilled and calm. When you look back, you go, 'that's a nice environment to work in'. It felt like he trusted you. So I try and take little snippets. I'm probably somewhere in the middle.”

He knows both sides well. Lampard played under Mourinho and Ancelotti at Chelsea, winning Premier League titles and FA Cups with each. Now, eight years into his own managerial career and back in the Premier League with Coventry, he is trying to fuse their best traits while staying true to himself.

“I start to sometimes go towards being Jose, sometimes I go and be a bit more Carlo,” he says.

Early in management, he admits, he leaned too hard into the disciplinarian role.

“I've learnt that young managers, you come in and feel like you have to criticise a bad performance or say something about an individual that turns up late. The more I've done this job, I realise that they're all humans.

“Sometimes a lad comes in late, you don't know the back story. And so trying to jump on him and being this hard man manager, you've got to be more Carlo. But then if you're a bit more relaxed sometimes and people are on the pitch, not doing their job, sometimes you've got a bit more Jose.”

From mixed spells to a statement season

Lampard’s journey to this point has been anything but smooth.

He arrived at Derby County in 2018 and took them to the Championship play-off final, only to fall at the last hurdle against Aston Villa. That promising start launched him into the Chelsea job, but his first Premier League spell as a manager ended after 18 months when he was sacked in January 2021. A difficult stint at Everton followed, cut short in January 2023.

A mixed bag, by any measure.

Coventry changed that narrative. Lampard took over in November 2024 and drove the club to the Championship title with 95 points, ending a 25-year exile from the Premier League. It was a promotion built on momentum, belief and a dressing room he clearly cherishes.

“When you get promoted, it's hard to balance against winning the Champions League with Chelsea,” he says.

“Winning in Munich was the best footballing night of my life as a player by far. But then when you do something with a club that's been through what it's been through, when you work with a group of lads that are so great as a dressing room - I've never experienced, especially as a coach, to have such a good group.

“When we got promoted against Blackburn, I had a rush of pure emotion, it all came on top of me. It certainly goes right up there in things I've managed to achieve.”

This from a man who, as a player, won three Premier League titles, the Champions League in 2012, four FA Cups, two League Cups and the Europa League. For Coventry’s promotion to sit alongside those nights says everything about what it meant.

Blocking out the noise

Lampard knows exactly how quickly the mood can turn in “modern-day football”.

“The thing about modern-day football – you're brilliant one minute, you might not be brilliant the next and then everyone will let you know that,” he tells musician and Sky Blues fan Tom Grennan.

“You've got to be careful trying to prove every doubter wrong, because it's not possible.”

He doesn’t pretend that criticism bounces off him. It fuels him, but he refuses to let it take the wheel.

“My personal ambition to prove any doubters wrong is sort of always there, but I try not to let that be my driver,” he explains.

“I've been in the Premier League as a player, I've been as a manager, I understand the challenge of it. I can't get ahead of myself and I can't worry too much about the outside world because otherwise you succumb to it, you'd be making different decisions.”

A new challenge, a different Coventry

The Premier League has already reminded Coventry how ruthless it can be. A 3-0 defeat to champions Arsenal on the opening weekend underlined the size of the task ahead.

Lampard is under no illusions.

“We want to keep hold of the good things from last year,” he says. “We'd be fools to think that we'd just go and play like we did in the 'Champ' every week when we dominated a lot of games.”

This season, he knows, will demand adaptation – especially without the ball. Coventry will have to defend deeper, concentrate longer, survive long spells without possession. They cannot simply roll over teams as they did in the Championship.

The target? Survival, of course. But Lampard wants more than a relegation scrap mentality.

“Everyone's going to ask me, 'staying in the league, is that your target?'” he says.

“Of course it would be success, because it's such a big challenge for us, but in the beginning, we'll go into it and go, 'let's stick our chests out and let's be brave about it'.

“These boys have earned where they've got to, so go in with that attitude. There's a lot to lose, but go and show yourselves.”

Between Jose and Carlo, with Hull next

The next test comes on Saturday, when Coventry host fellow promoted side Hull City in their first home game of the campaign. It already feels significant: a chance to respond to Arsenal, to show the Sky Blues can carry their swagger from last season into a far harsher environment.

Lampard will stand on the touchline at the Coventry Building Society Arena knowing he cannot be just Mourinho or just Ancelotti. He will need the steel of one and the calm of the other.

Somewhere in the middle lies the version of Frank Lampard that might just keep Coventry in the Premier League – and reshape how people talk about him as a manager.