![\"Liam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2_JS388880173.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCoventry City news from CoventryLive as Frank Lampard faces a big selection decision at the back<\/p>\n
13:33, 09 Feb 2026Updated 13:35, 09 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Frank Lampard says Coventry City’s Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching are the best central defensive partnership in the division, in his opinion <\/p>\n
Coventry City boss Frank Lampard has explained his decision to drop what he considers to be the best central defensive partnership in the Championship.<\/p>\n
The Sky Blues<\/a> head coach swapped his first choice central defenders Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching for Luke Woolfenden and Joel Latibeaudiere against Oxford United at the weekend following a dip in form and failure to keep a clean sheet in seven league games.<\/p>\n Woolfenden and Latibeaudiere helped keep a shut out against the U\u2019s albeit City not exactly tested against the second from bottom relegation scrappers who managed just four attempts on goal, none of which were on target in the goalless draw at the CBS Arena.<\/p>\n FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK! Get more Coventry City news and analysis via our FB page<\/a><\/p>\n Asked for his thinking behind the selection decision and how he felt the drafted in duo did, having had to be patient in waiting for their chance this season, Lampard said: \u201cYeah, and they train well and sometimes players deserve to be rewarded for training well. And they\u2019re good players, so they deserve their chance.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIn terms of Bobby and Kitch I think they\u2019re probably, if not the best centre-halves in the league this year, they\u2019re the best partnership in the league this year to this point in the season, in my opinion, but I think you could ask a lot of people for how they\u2019ve played.<\/p>\n \u201cBut sometimes over the course of the season there are moments when you feel it\u2019s the right thing to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n Coventry City’s Luke Woolfenden started ahead of Bobby Thomas against Oxford<\/p>\n Whether Woolfenden and Latibeaudiere will now be handed a run in the team and keep their places in next Monday\u2019s huge home game against automatic promotion rivals Middlesbrough remains to be seen.<\/p>\n And Lampard insisted of his Saturday selection: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean anything going forward. It means that the competition is good. People are training well to try to get in the team and that\u2019s good to have those selection problems going forward. But there\u2019s no problem and I thought the boys did well.\u201d<\/p>\n Who would you play at the back against Boro next week? Click HERE to have your say.<\/a>Get the latest Coventry City headlines sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n Get the latest Coventry City news sent straight to your phone by joining our Sky Blues WhatsApp group. It’s a free service. You just need WhatsApp on your phones to participate. To join, just click here<\/a>, select ‘Join Community’ and you’re in. If you later decide to leave our community, you can do so by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking ‘Exit Group’. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you are curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Every day, the CoventryLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Coventry<\/a> City content.<\/p>\n Our dedicated reporter Andy Turner – who you can follow on X<\/a> – follows the Sky Blues home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.<\/p>\n So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur – that’s why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox.<\/a> You can also get all your favourite content from CoventryLive’s Sky Blues team on WhatsApp.<\/a> Sign up f or breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Frank Lampard faces a big selection decision at the back 13:33, 09…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[154059,79458,218,30301,154062,154060,154061,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-416561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-bobby-thomas","9":"tag-coventry-city-fc","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-frank-lampard","12":"tag-joel-latibeaudiere","13":"tag-liam-kitching","14":"tag-luke-woolfenden","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Coventry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_JS395594494.jpg\")
<\/p>\n