Three Coventry decisions Frank Lampard got wrong vs Wrexham that show he is not ready for the Premier League
Kieffer Moore’s hat-trick saw Wrexham inflict Coventry’s first league defeat of the season with a 3-2 win at the Racecourse Ground.
Ephron Mason-Clark’s first-time finish put Coventry into the lead in the first-half, but Wrexham piled the pressure on after the interval and soon equalised as Josh Windass set Kieffer Moore up for tap-in.
Moore netted his brace not long after as he headed past Carl Rushworth to put the hosts into the lead, and he sealed the win with his perfect hat-trick late on as Windass also notched three assists.
Tatsuhiro Sakamoto scored late on to reduce the deficit, but the visitors went home empty-handed on Friday (31 October) as Wrexham beat Coventry 3-2 for their first league defeat of the campaign.
Frank Lampard‘s side remain top of the Championship for now as they chase promotion, but Football Insider have looked at three decisions he made that show they still have a long way to go to be fully ready for the top-flight.
Started Jake Bidwell over Jay Dasilva and Miguel Brau
Jake Bidwell made his first league start of the campaign in North Wales, and his rustiness was clear to see as he struggled against the pace of Issa Kabore and was targeted in the second-half.
The 32-year-old was caught way out-of-position twice in the first-half as Lewis O’Brien and Windass failed to make him pay, and two of the visitors’ goals came from his flank before he was taken off in the 74th minute.
First-choice left-back Jay Dasilva was a doubt before the game and so was rested, but would surely have been a better option than Bidwell, just like summer signing Miguel Angel Brau, who has much more potential at 23-years-old and needs to be bedded in sooner rather than later.
Continued playing a 4-4-2 despite losing the midfield battle
Coventry went into the break a goal ahead, but Wrexham certainly caused them problems in the first-half and could easily have been level if not for a strong save from Carl Rushworth to deny O’Brien.
O’Brien, who joined Wrexham from Nottingham Forest in the summer, made things tick for the hosts in the middle of the park throughout, and was partnered well by ex-Coventry captain Ben Sheaf and veteran Matty James.
Phil Parkinson has been under pressure at Wrexham, but his smartly-picked trio gave Matt Grimes and Jamie Allen no time on the ball to dictate play, and Lampard needed to act to add another midfielder to his side at half-time and sacrifice one of Haji Wright or Brandon Thomas-Asante.
He failed to do so, and the hosts were able to turn their dominance in the middle of the park into better chances in the second period to eventually go on to win the game with relative ease.
Kept Haji Wright on for too long
Wright had scored eight goals in 11 league games prior to his side’s trip to the Racecourse Ground, but he was completely ineffective on Friday (31 October) night and should have been taken off long before he was.
Wright took two shots, with one off-target and the other blocked, while he only had two touches in the Wrexham penalty area, made one pass into the final third and lost nine of his 10 duels.
Wrexham have been poor at the back in numerous games this season, yet the USA international did nothing to challenge their defenders and was shown up by Mason-Clark and Sakamoto before being taken off in the 67th minute, and Lampard should have acted earlier to change things up.