Former boss Gordon Strachan on Coventry City's tough start to life in the Prem

Gordon Strachan believes Coventry City have had a raw deal to the start of their return to Premier League football.

The former manager, who was in charge when the Sky Blues last competed in the top flight, still has a soft spot for the club where his grandchildren are fans and CBS Arena season ticket holders.

“I’ve got to say that Coventry have been so unfortunate, because they could have got the three points against Hull easily,” said the 69-year-old.

“But when that game was between Arsenal and Man City away, there’s something perverted about the computer that wrote that. That really shouldn’t have happened. It really shouldn’t have happened.

“They didn’t deserve to lose to Hull. Let’s get that right, because I watched the game, they didn’t deserve to lose. But you play the first and second teams from last year with the three games you get up. You can be very lucky at times with what you’ve got, because I know the other teams are coming later on that you might think you’ve got a better chance against.

“But mentally, when you see somebody who you think is in your kind of range like an Ipswich or a Hull who are four points or five points ahead of you after four games, it’s hard to work with mentally.”

Strachan, however, believes Frank Lampard has enough to keep Coventry up - something Vincent Kompany was unable to do after leading Burnley to promotion but went on to become a top manager.

“I think all of the newly-promoted managers have enough to lead them to safety, but the secret here is the players,” he said.

“When Vincent Kompany went to Bayern Munich [from Burnley] he became a real top manager. Why is that? Because he’s got better players.

“I don’t remember how many points [Burnley] got in the Premier League and I don’t know how many wins [Kompany] got. So he goes to Bayern Munich. He’s got all these great players, everybody’s going: ‘what a manager he is. Oh, that’s fantastic’.

“But it’s all about players. There are systems, you need systems and you need a manager who can rectify things during the game. You need a manager who can actually take in information and make the team better. I get that. We all understand that and analysis now is phenomenal. It’s phenomenal.”

Gordon Strachan was speaking to Midnite as part of its ‘Built Different Index’ launch which ranks all 92 clubs across the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two.

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 City content.

Social media: Our dedicated reporter Andy Turner - who you can follow on X by clicking here - follows the Sky Blues home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.

We also have a Facebook page updated throughout the day, every day, and is a place where you can share your views and reactions with other fans - click here

There's a our Coventry City account on X, too - click here

WhatsApp: You can also get all your favourite content from CoventryLive's Sky Blues team on WhatsApp. Click here to sign up for breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club.App: If you prefer reading our stories on your phone, consider downloading the CoventryLive app, in which you can personalise the content you see by selecting Coventry City as one of your designated topics. You can get it from Apple here and for Android here.