Coventry City news from CoventryLive as we take a look at why so many of last season's Champions are being used ahead of summer arrivals

For two consecutive games Frank Lampard has named eight players from Coventry City’s Championship winning side from last season.

Both games ended in defeat but the 3-1 loss at Tottenham had all the ingredients the head coach wants to see from his team who competed and created chances in a gritty performance away from home, albeit the final scoreline didn’t reflect the Sky Blues’ endeavour.

Saturday’s game against Fulham was then clearly a case of letting the same starting eleven from Spurs go again to see if they could take things a step further by adding a positive result.

It begs the question as to whether the fact that so many of last season’s stars are being preferred to the summer signings – which included ten new faces from the 12 deals completed – says more about those lads’ determination and character to step up and prove themselves at Premier League level than being a reflection on the recruitment?

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This comes against the backdrop of two of the club’s recent signings, Loum Tchaouna and Yann Gboho, not making the matchday squad at all against Spurs and the former being missing from the teamsheet the last three games now.

“Well I think what’s clear to me – and it is the first time I’ve done this, of coming up a division – and now I’m getting asked questions about Yann and Loum, but when you bring in the players that you have to bring in to compete sometimes there’s a bit of an adapting period for some,” explained Lampard.

“I think history tells you that you have to bring in players. Everyone lauds Sunderland for last year but they bought in a lot of players. But there’s an adapting period for some players, for whatever reason, and for some players like Ethan (Pinnock) he has experience with the Premier League so it’s much more comfortable for him to do it.

“So there’s all those things about the players that come in and some will land on their feet, some will take a bit of time but then hopefully find their feet as long as they integrate and want to integrate to what we’re doing.

“But to answer the question, yeah, I think it’s shown when you think about Brandon’s journey, when you think about Rudi’s journey or you think about Jay Dasilva’s journey, they’re all slightly different but they’ve all been waiting for this moment. And I think that’s why I was pleased after Tottenham.

“People from the outside might go, ‘how are you pleased with a 3-1 defeat?’ But I think I know what I’m talking about and when I see players that are looking more confident and doing all the things that are the demands in the Premier League then I’m happy.”

Lampard then appeared to hint at one of the reasons why Tchaouna and Gboho are struggling to get in his team at the minute, adding: “I was thinking about the wingers because the modern winger is not stand on the touchline and wait for the ball. No, you have to do all the things, all the work off the ball, run back and sometimes you have to run back like Tatsu did and be outside Milan and sometimes he has to be inside Milan.

“They have all these things to do. And when I see the players doing all those bits and owning it then I’m proud of them and hopefully they just keep going in that same direction.”