The adage about dogs mirroring their owners often applies to football teams and their managers. A glance at the top of the Championship reveals that Coventry City is no exception.

Guided by Frank Lampard, Coventry City is making an impressive bid for the Premier League, playing with a flair that reflects their manager’s style.

Their recent triumph over Middlesbrough propelled them to a 10-point lead at the Championship’s summit after just 17 games — the largest margin at this point in the league’s history. Coventry has netted an astonishing 47 goals, more than twice the amount of many competitors. Remarkably, in nine of those matches, Lampard’s squad has scored three or more goals.

This Coventry team embodies Lampard’s dynamic approach. The Sky Blues, under his guidance, consistently push the ball forward, seizing every opportunity.

What sets Lampard’s team apart is their versatility. They are the Championship’s shapeshifters. Coventry isn’t limited to just long balls or confined by a rigid playing style. Instead, Lampard adapts his tactics to exploit the weaknesses of each opponent.

Frank Lampard has his Coventry City team playing in a variety of ways – and to great success as they have a 10-point lead at the top of the Championship 

Coventry’s Liam Kitching celebrates his second goal of the night as his side turn over Middlesbrough at the Riverside on Tuesday

Whether it’s stringing passes through defenses, attacking down the flanks with crosses, launching direct balls, or capitalizing on counter-attacks and set-pieces, Coventry has a varied arsenal at their disposal.

Not only have Coventry scored the most goals and had the most shots from open play, put in the most crosses and scored the most headers, they have also done the same at set-pieces. 

Their 18 goals from set-pieces is at least double the tally of every team except Derby. Only Oxford have launched more long throws into the box, too. Coventry’s second goal in their 3-1 win over Watford last month came courtesy of a catapult into the penalty area.

Their last two games alone are evidence of the huge variety in Coventry’s play and how they can – and will – beat you in multiple ways.

At home to West Brom, where they fought back from two goals down to win 3-2, Coventry had nearly 70 per cent possession, the most in any of their league games this season, and attempted nearly 600 passes, with less than seven per cent of them pumped long and more than 200 of them in the final third.

At Middlesbrough, they had just 40 per cent of the ball, attempted little more than 350 passes, yet went long twice as often, and had fewer than 100 passes in the final third. And they still managed 20 shots.

Against the Baggies, Coventry enjoyed sequences of 10 or more passes on 21 occasions, their most this season. Against Boro, just five, their second lowest. 

No counter-attacks against West Brom. Four of them, their most of the campaign, against Boro – and the source of their opening goal when Victor Torp won the ball back in the Coventry half, sprung the attack and slipped in striker Ellis Simms who produced a stunning dinked finish.

Coventry turned to the counter-attack against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night. For their opening goal in their 4-2 win, Victor Torp wins the ball back in the Coventry half…

He leads the breakaway with striker Ellis Simms out on the left… 

Torp then slips Ellis in with a lovely pass and the striker dinks the ball home brilliantly to give Coventry the lead

The average position maps from both games show just how on the front foot Lampard’s side were against West Brom and how much deeper they sat at Boro.

Coventry pushed high up the field against West Brom in their 3-2 comeback win…

But against Middlesbrough they sat much deeper and hit them on the break

Of the seven goals across the two games, one was a counter-attack, two came following corners, three came from crosses, and another came from a long ball down the middle from deep.

Their ability to mix it up is played out in the numbers. For a team so far clear at the top of the table, so dominant, they sit in the middle of the pack for possession, dribbles and ball carries.

And for a side that loves to get the ball forward at speed, it’s no surprise that Coventry lead the charts for direct attacks in the Championship, sit third in the division for progressive passes and second for progressive carries – ones that move the ball towards goal. But they are towards the bottom of the table for long balls and also sit just outside the play-off places for build-up attacks, ones where a move of 10+ passes ends with a shot or a touch in the box.

They play in every way. And are ruthlessly efficient with it.

Coventry’s pressing numbers are, on the whole, also nothing special. They sit bang in the middle for the number of passes they allow their opponents on average before trying to win it back. 

And yet they are third for high turnovers, when a side regains possession within 40 metres of goal, and joint-third for how often that ends in them having a shot. They don’t press relentlessly but, when they do, they do it decisively.

Their second goal in a 5-0 rout of Sheffield Wednesday was a perfect example, which came when Ephron Mason-Clark pinched the ball back just outside the area and Brandon Thomas-Asante finished it off.

Coventry know when to snap into a high press, as they did here against Sheffield Wednesday – Ephron Mason-Clark pinches the ball back and Brandon Thomas-Asante scores

Coventry won 17 high turnovers against Norwich earlier in the season. They did so just once in their 4-0 thrashing of Millwall.

Yet while they continue to serve up their variety of victory processions, whether it be Simms’ physical domination of Boro, winning 10 of his 13 aerial duels, or the peerless goalscoring of attacking midfielder Thomas-Asante and striker Haji Wright, there is one constant at the heart of it. A man who, like his manager back in the day, can do the lot from midfield.

Captain Matt Grimes, who signed from Swansea in January, has established himself as one of the finest midfielders in the Championship. 

The former youth frisbee champion and amateur hairdresser to his team-mates is a man of many talents off the pitch and on it.

Grimes has completed the third-most passes of any player in the Championship and made the most progressive passes. 

He’s had more touches than any midfielder in the division and created the third-most chances too, helped by his superb delivery from set-pieces.

This, remember, in a team that does not dominate possession week in, week out. 

It’s just that everything goes through Grimes. He sets Coventry’s tempo. He speeds things up when they want to shift through the gears, with his superb ball-carrying and precision passing, and he can slow it all down when they need to take their time.

Just look at his pass map from Tuesday night.

Matt Grimes has established himself as one of the finest midfielders in the Championship and his pass map from Tuesday’s win at Boro shows how much ground he covers

All over the pitch, back to front, drifting wide and also whipping balls into the box. 

It was his stunning first-time cross, after his blocked corner looped back towards him from high in the night sky, that found the head of defender Liam Kitching for Coventry’s second and another deep curling cross from the other side that led to their third.

Grimes lifts the ball into the box after his blocked corner looped back to him to set up Kitching to score Coventry’s second goal

Grimes’ deep, curling cross leads to Coventry’s third goal, also scored by Kitching

He does everything, everywhere, all at once. Only Boro’s Hayden Hackney has won possession more often in the Championship this season than Grimes. 

Grimes made six tackles on Tuesday night, the most of anyone on the pitch. He wins the ball back and moves it forward better than anyone else in the division.

A passage of play during the victory over Sheffield Wednesday encapsulates everything Grimes is about. 

He springs out of the midfield line to win the ball, drives forward away from his man and then plays a splitting ball that cuts through three defenders and leaves Wright through on goal.

Against Sheffield Wednesday, Grimes springs out of the midfield line to win the ball…

He then drives forward away from his man through the midfield…

And he then plays a defence-splitting pass that cuts through three Wednesday players and leaves Wright through on goal

Coventry have the quality and the variety to reach the promised land. They appear to have the spirit, too.

The Sky Blues had come from behind to win two of their previous three games, and on Tuesday night had to battle once again after they initially let a two-goal lead slip at the Riverside Stadium.

Their one remaining concern is whether they have the strength in depth. First-choice striker Wright has missed the last two games with a calf injury and top-scorer Thomas-Asante limped off in the first half against Boro.

If they can keep hold of their stars in January, and maybe add a few more, it feels like only an injury crisis can derail Coventry’s promotion charge now. Because, like the man in the dugout, they have the all-round game to take them to the top.