Full-back frailties, set-piece worries and no excuses as Sky Blues' squad depth questioned

IN-DEPTH LOOK AT CITY'S 'DISAPPOINTING' CUP EXIT AT THE LIONS

- By ANDY TURNER Sky Blues Reporter

LIKE most managers/head coaches in the early stages of the Carabao Cup, Frank Lampard made wholesale changes to his Coventry City team to give valuable match minutes to his wider squad while resting key players and still trying to get a result.

On this occasion, however, it didn’t go to plan as the eight changes struggled to maintain the continuity of the City’s boss's strongest starting lineup, losing 2-1 at Millwall in the second round of the competition.

That's not to say that everyone failed to impress - Jake Bidwell once again outstanding at left centre-back, as he had been against Luton in the first round - but far too many didn’t take their chance to stake a claim for Saturday’s trip to Oxford.

Here are some of the other big talking points from the match.

Corner concerns

City's Cup exit was completely of their own doing as they twice failed miserably to defend corners in each half. It followed previous shortcomings from set-pieces against Derby and QPR’s late consolation at the weekend when the Sky Blues failed to deal with free-kicks and a long throw into the box.

It's not necessarily a centre-halves’ issue, more to do with players switching off and failing to track or compete with their opponent. But the players clearly need to reflect and reset when it comes to defending dead balls into the penalty area.

Defenders acclimatising