Glenn Hoddle admitted he was surprised to see Frank Lampard give the captaincy to on-loan centre-back Conor Coady at the weekend.
Wolves loanee Coady took the armband for Sunday’s 1-0 win against West Ham at Goodison Park, with club captain Seamus Coleman on the bench and Jordan Pickford injured. The Blues picked up their first win of the season thanks to Neal Maupay’s second-half strike and a spirited performance in midfield and defence.
The battling performance was typified by defensive duo Coady and James Tarkowski, and Hoddle reserved high praise for the pair of ‘captains’ for their defence-first attitude - but the ex-Tottenham midfielder added it was ‘amazing’ to see Frank Lampard give the armband to the loanee, rather than the permanent signing.
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“They [Coady & Tarkowski] are decent on the ball,” Hoddle told Premier League Productions. “More than decent as in Coady.
“But they are both defenders first, which has gone out of the game a little bit. A lot of teams look at, ‘can my defender play out with the ball?' – if they stay fit, then it’s going to be the basis of what Frank [Lampard] is trying to do.
“It’s amazing to give that captaincy for somebody who is on loan. You could have given the captaincy to Tarkowski. But, at the end of the day, they are both captains. That’s really good for the midfield and the young full-back, Nathan Patterson. He will be secure and be talking non-stop to them.”
Tarkowski and Coady have come straight into the centre of Lampard’s team and have contributed massively to a defence that has conceded just six goals in seven games - the joint second-best defence in the league behind Brighton - and kept consecutive clean sheets against Liverpool and West Ham.
The two signings are looking like increasingly shrewd moves, especially considering neither garnered a fee this summer - Tarkowski arrived on a free after his contract at Burnley ran out, while Coady’s loan move can be made permanent at any point during the season for just £12million.
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