Sky Sports pundit says Coventry City star was ‘non-existent’ vs Sunderland, ‘surprised’ by Lampard decision

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Coventry City lost to Sunderland on Friday and one of Frank Lampard’s players had little impact on the result, according to one pundit.

It was a night to forget for Frank Lampard, who was looking to avenge Coventry City’s poor play-off record in recent seasons.

Sunderland had a game plan that worked perfectly, sitting deep in a makeshift 4-4-2 formation while looking to counter.

It worked well and Regis Le Bris praised two players vs Coventry for the role they played in their new system.

Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda both scored for the Black Cats, while Jack Rudoni netted for the Sky Blues.

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Haji Wright struggles for Coventry City vs Sunderland

Rudoni has found form over the last few months, but one of his attacking partners was not up to scratch on May 9, according to Clinton Morrison.

The former player was acting as a pundit for Sky Sports during their coverage of the match.

Post-game, Morrison was speaking about Coventry and suggested that Haji Wright was ‘non-existent’.

He added that he was ‘surprised’ Lampard did not bring on Ellis Simms.

Morrison said live on Sky Sports: “They’re still in it [Coventry]. They dominated possession.

“Listen, you’ve got to give credit to Sunderland. Sunderland came here with a game plan and Coventry couldn’t really create anything, they defended for their lives and in their numbers.

“And what Sunderland had was counter-attack; they caused problems. I thought Haji Wright was non-existent. I thought Ballard and O’Nien did a great job on him.

“I know he doesn’t really like to play up front, but when you play up front as a centre-forward, go compete against the centre-halfs, don’t make it easy. That’s why I was surprised Frank didn’t bring Simms on.”

Frank Lampard on Coventry City mistake

Sunderland took the lead before Coventry equalised just two minutes later.

It looked as though Lampard’s men were set to head to the Stadium of Light next week with a 1-1 draw.

But a mistake from Milan van Ewijk late on allowed Le Bris’ team to snatch a winner.

On the mistake, Lampard told the BBC: “It was a good performance. I don’t need to dwell on the mistakes too much but the performance was good.

“We couldn’t break the deadlock because they defended their box so well, but we did everything we could for large parts of the game without maybe that little end bit.

“It didn’t happen and so we go again. The game may look different on Tuesday and it may feel different at their stadium whether they play the same way.

“But I’m proud of the players, we obviously didn’t get the result we deserved and we didn’t deserve to lose, but we can’t drop our heads and understand there’s loads to play for.”