Frank Lampard: Balancing Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti's Influence
Frank Lampard sits in the chair, but two familiar shadows loom over his shoulder.
Jose Mourinho on one side. Carlo Ancelotti on the other.
The Coventry City manager, now eight years into his own coaching journey, knows exactly where his influences lie – and how different they are.
“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 available 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 men well. Lampard won Premier League titles and FA Cups under Mourinho and Ancelotti at Chelsea, and built his playing reputation in dressing rooms shaped by their contrasting personalities.
Now he is trying to blend them in his own image in the Midlands.
Between Jose and Carlo
“I start to sometimes go towards being Jose, sometimes I go and be a bit more Carlo,” he admits.
That tension – between hard edge and soft touch – has sharpened with experience. Lampard talks about the trap young managers fall into, the urge to be the disciplinarian, to stamp authority on every detail.
“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.”
That balance has carried Coventry back to the Premier League for the first time in 25 years, with Lampard guiding the club to the Championship title with 95 points last season after arriving in November 2024.
From mixed spells to a Midlands revival
His path to this point has been anything but smooth.
Derby County in 2018, a bold first step, ended with defeat in the Championship play-off final to Aston Villa. Then Chelsea, where his 18-month tenure at Stamford Bridge was cut short in January 2021. Then Everton, a bruising spell that ended in another January sacking in 2023.
A mixed bag, by any measure.
Yet Lampard insists his motivation cannot be fuelled by the noise around him, no matter how loud the verdicts.
“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.
“My personal ambition to prove any doubters wrong is sort of always there, but I try not to let that be my driver.
“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.”
Promotion that rivals Munich
As a player, Lampard’s medal collection speaks for itself: three Premier League titles, the Champions League in 2012, four FA Cups, two League Cups, the Europa League.
Yet he talks about Coventry’s promotion as something that stands alongside those glittering nights.
“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.”
You can hear it in his voice: this isn’t just another line on a CV. It’s something that moved him.
A new reality in the top flight
Now comes the hard part.
Coventry’s return to the Premier League has already delivered a harsh reminder of the level. A 3-0 defeat to champions Arsenal on the opening weekend underlined the gulf they must bridge.
Lampard knows the football that swept them to 95 points in the Championship cannot simply be copied and pasted into the top flight.
“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.”
The message is clear: adapt or suffer. Especially without the ball.
He talks about defensive adjustments, about the need to respect the quality they will face week after week. Yet he refuses to let the season be framed purely as a survival mission.
Brave, not scared
“Everyone's going to ask me, 'staying in the league, is that your target?',” Lampard 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.”
That is the tightrope Coventry now walk: respect the division, but don’t fear it.
After Arsenal away, they step out at home for the first time this campaign, hosting fellow promoted side Hull City on Saturday. The emotion of promotion has faded. The grind has begun.
Somewhere between Jose’s fire and Carlo’s calm, Lampard has to find a way to keep Coventry in the room.
