Lampard wants 'energy and urgency' in his team

Frank Lampard makes it quite clear that it will be very much his own team when Coventry City host Cardiff City in his first game in charge on Saturday.

It's a meeting of17th against 21st, between two teams who are both without a win in four games - and Lampard's new charges will begin the day only one point better off than the Bluebirds, knowing they could do with an immediate upturn in results.

"I'll pick the team," Lampard, who took training for the first time on Thursday, told BBC CWR. "With a lot of conversations from the coaching staff. I'll tap into their expertise of having worked with the players but I come in with a few ideas of my own.

"I've got a good impression from what I've seen. The squad is strong, has been well put together and has a nice balance to it. But there's a reason why we're where are in the league. We have to find the reason and we have to find results."

Cardiff themselves have made a managerial change this season, having sacked Erol Bulut in mid-September, after which they won four times in seven games under interim boss Omer Riza. But they have now picked up just one point from a possible 12 ahead of their trip to the CBS Arena.

Having said that, Cardiff did win on their last visit in April when an out of the blue 2-1 away win proved a massive blow to Mark Robins' side's Championship play-off hopes.

"The first task is get a win and get a good feeling," added Lampard. "We're at home and we'll have the fans behind us and I'm always grateful for what the fans can bring you.

"But, for me, it always rests on the players to produce an energy and an urgency that the fans will relate to that. For me, that is always the first thing I demand."

Having lost 2-0 at home to bottom club QPR on Tuesday night, the Bluebirds are wary of what changes Lampard may make.

"He may go to a back four because has never played with a back three," Riza told BBC Wales. "But Coventry are an attacking side. They like to go forward. There has to be an element of cautiousness away from home which is something I'm looking at, but without taking away our attacking threat."