Hull City held runaway Championship leaders Coventry City to a 0-0 draw at the MKM Stadium – but the Sky Blues boss was less than impressed with the pitch
Frank Lampard of Coventry City
(Image: Greig Cowie/Shutterstock)
Frank Lampard criticised the MKM Stadium pitch after his barnstorming Coventry City side were held to a 0-0 draw by Hull City.
The league-leading Sky Blues arrived on Monday night having won eight of their last nine games but found their momentum halted by a gutsy Tigers side.
They managed just one shot on target and had one of their lowest Expected Goals (XG) totals of the season – and while Lampard was happy to praise the home team, he was less pleased with the condition of the playing surface.
“I loved it, a clean sheet, a point,” he told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire. “The pitch is really, really difficult. It’s not conducive to how we want to play, but we had to deal with it and I thought once we rode the early moments of the game, we grabbed it in the first half and started to play a little bit.
“In football you can’t have it all your own way and when you’re under pressure, as we were at different parts of the game, I love the way that the team dug in and did all the right things.
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Latest Hull City news and analysis on our Hull Live FB page
“Were we as clinical at the top end? No, some of that I put down to that pitch because as a technical player it’s really hard.”
Lampard also mentioned the pitch in his press conference with the written media saying: “The pitch here is really difficult to play on, really difficult to play well on. They’re used to handling it, I guess. I’m not making excuses for that, it was a fair point for both teams.
“Bits of it were cutting up. Soft, bare. It’s worse on it than what it looks like, I walked on it at the end.
“It’s not a critique of Hull because I’m sure their manager wants a better pitch because they’ve got good players but it’s difficult to handle. It can just affect the nature of the game.”
Lampard even suggested he was so worried he decided he couldn’t risk playing star-man Jack Rudoni for the full 90 minutes.
“We got him back quite quickly for Derby,” he said. “I knew what this pitch was going to be like and recovering from a muscle strain to go again three days later was a big ask. I think the right solution was to have him on and impact it late in the game.”
However, Tigers boss Sergej Jakirovic was less willing to attribute the result to the playing surface.
“This is the best condition of the pitch since August,” Jakirovic said. “I think pitch was OK. In the Premier League, they will have better pitches.”
WORLD CUP LEGENDS: The stars who lit up football’s greatest tournament – Buy the Special Edition today
Here at Hull Live , we are dedicated to bringing you the best Hull City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group.
You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.