Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Frank Lampard explains how players are making his job easier by picking themselves this season

Frank Lampard insists he has a ‘heart’ when it comes to his Coventry City team selection but knows he can’t let that rule his head.

The Sky Blues boss sympathises with players who are left out of his starting line-up and, particularly, those who don’t get on the pitch of even make the matchday squad. He does, however, say that those decisions are getting easier and are driven by the players themselves by the way they train and contribute when they do get their chance to make an impact.

A shining example of that is fan favourite Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, for whom the head coach has a soft spot due to the way he handles himself on and off the pitch.

Like a number of City’s established Championship players, questions have been posed as to whether or not the Japanese winger could step up to the required levels in the Premier League. His top flight game time has amounted to an hour so far, starting with 31 minutes from the bench against Hull.

He was criticised, however, for his part in not cutting out the source for Liam Millar’s decisive break-away goal and found himself an unused substitute in the following three games in the new division before handed the last 29 minutes against Newcastle United on Monday night when the versatile Brandon Thomas-Asante started on the right and fellow rival wide man Loum Tchaouna failed to make the squad.

Sakamoto made a lively contribution with his trademark work-rate while showing real determination to wriggle away with the ball from a challenge in the box in the build-up to City’s third goal, scored by Ellis Simms.

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Asked what role he sees the 29-year-old playing this season, Lampard explained: “I know Tats really well and I love him as a player and as a person. He’s a dream to work with; I’ve said that many times. And he also offers a lot. He trains every day with a real hunger to get into the team.

“I think he understands that there’s competition as every Premier League squad has. If you’re playing with wingers, every team will have four wingers, minimum, sometimes more. So the players all have to know that, but for what Tats showed the other day was what Tatsu you can bring the football club and more because we’ve seen it here ourselves already.

“And it’s easier for people to do it with a lot of our players, to go ‘oh, they’re Championship players, that’s all they’ve ever been,’ but we’ll only find out if they can play in the Premier League by fighting for their opportunity and then taking it.

“And to be fair to Tats, I thought for the 30 minutes plus that he played the other night, I think he showed everything that we love in Tats. And there’ll be more to come, I hope, because I’ve got a lot of faith and trust in him.”

Asked if one of the hardest parts of being a manager is leaving players out when they had been used to regular game time last season, Lampard admitted: “Yeah it is tough, and it’s very personally tougher if you have a heart, and hopefully I do, because it’s not something many jobs have. It’s sport so it’s slightly different but in team sport it’s very specific that you can work all week behind the scenes and not take any part or be on the bench or have a bit-part in a weekend as you see it.

“So that is tough but if I’m brutally honest, the more I do this job the slightly easier it gets because when you’re picking players on merit – on training, on performance, on behaviour and how they are for the week, you try to stay true to that and those decisions, some players can make them for you.

“So Tatsu, you know, comes on and does that and it gives me a lot to think about for what the next starting team is or when I’m making subs in the future. So if you can be that cut and dried about it then that’s easier. But emotionally, of course, when the players are disappointed I feel it too.”