Frank Lampard is looking forward to working with Coventry City centre-forward Ellis Simms – a player he knows all about from their time at Everton.
The new Sky Blues head coach put the 23-year-old on just after the hour against Cardiff at the weekend, replacing Norman Bassette, and going on to win the late penalty when he crossed the ball from the byline, whereupon it was handled in the box, allowing Victor Torp to equalise from the spot and salvage a point in Lampard’s first game in charge.
The 46-year-old knows Simms from their time at Goodison Park, where the striker came through the youth ranks from the age of 16.
Lampard joined the Premier League club as manager in January 2022 while Simms was out on loan at Scottish Premier club Hearts.
He had a good look at him, however, during their first pre-season together and it was decided to send him out for more experience, this time at Championship Sunderland where he scored seven goals in 17 league games during the first half of the 2022/23 campaign.
The then Toffees’ boss, however, cut short what was supposed to be a season-long loan by recalling him in January 2023 and handing Simms his second senior appearance as a late substitute in a 4-1 home defeat by Brighton. He sent him on late again the following week in a 2-1 home defeat to Southampton but Lampard was sacked a week later and replaced by Sean Dyche.
Dyche then continued to make use of Simms who scored an important 89th minute equaliser at Chelsea to earn Everton a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, having become a part of the first team squad for the remainder of the season, before being sold to Coventry in the summer of 2023.
Although slow to get started, with just two goals before the end of December, Simms went on to score 19 over the course of the season to equal Haji Wright’s tally in all competitions. It’s been a similar story this term with Simms only managing three goals to date, but asked if he’s looking forward to getting on the training pitch and working with the player, Lampard said: “Yes, I am.
“When I talk about young squads we have also got good options at the front end of the pitch that other clubs might not have in the Championship, but the players need to deliver and have healthy competition.
“I thought Norman (Bassette) did well again but he’s young so there will be bits where you think, great, and there will be bits where this is part of his development.
“Ellis, I know what he is. Brandon Thomas-Asante came on and he’s a different profile, which is good, so I look forward to working with all of them individually and trying to breed confidence in them because the top end of the pitch is a huge part of it.
“Ellis is quite quiet but when he went on he showed moments with his strength and looking like a real No.9. He’s a really effective player, but I want to get the best out of all of them.”
Asked if he thinks it’s a question of confidence with Simms, the head coach said: “I think that’s too simplistic. Maybe because he’s quite quiet it’s quite hard to get to that exact reasoning. Quiet is fine. You can be quiet and confident. Maybe it’s opportunity.”
He added: “He has to keep working. This is a competitive level that he’s at and he has to work to show and make an impact like he did against Cardiff in that little moment. Then in the next opportunity, can he do similar, and can he score goals, because that’s his job.
“And I want healthy competition and all the boys up front need to be delivering to help this team. Because in this league if you are going to come out with the better XG by far, you have got to make that count otherwise I will be talking about XG and you’ll be telling me to stop talking about XG because it doesn’t really matter, you know what I mean? So that’s what we need to get right.”
