THE FRANK LAMPARD-CHELSEA CONUNDRUM

A thread

When Chelsea signed club legend Frank Lampard from Derby, I’m convinced it wasn’t just about “we have a club legend the fans love and if he’s achieving a little bit of success at Derby, why not bring him here? He wil unite the fan base and we might have a Barca-Pep fairytale too”

I’m of the belief that more went into choosing Frank Lampard as Chelsea manager 2 seasons ago but will not also turn a blind eye to the fact that the above could have also played a part because Sports especially football is about many parts

Frank Lampard got the Chelsea job under very difficult circumstances. The Englishman came into the job from failing to secure promotion for Derby at Wembley
He also started the job knowing Chelsea had been banned from signing new players for a whole season

However, his biggest headache wasn’t the above and trying to garner support from a fan base who had become so toxic because of their difference in opinion about their last manager, the Italian Mauricio Sarri

Lampard’s biggest headache was replacing Eden Hazard. The Belgian who had been Chelsea’s BEST player in the last decade was leaving for Spanish giants Real Madrid and looking at his contributions to Chelsea and being unable to replace him because of the ban was a really big blow

Lampard got appointed and his first option was to recall talents who he could use and were on loan spells at other clubs like Kurt Zouma, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham both who were with him at Derby.

He also promoted and gave chances to young stars like Fikayo Tomori and Reece James. Chelsea had also bought the American Christian Pulisic from Dortmund before the ban so he was available and they made the loan spell of Mateo Kovacic permanent from Real Madrid

So Lampard had his team and was set for the start of the 2019/2020 season
Season started and he had a mixed bag of results from losing 3-0 at Old Trafford in his first game to coming from behind to win at the Emirates and losing to Bournemouth at the Bridge

As results came flying in and in the middle of the season, some fans started comparing Lampard to Sarri and some even concluded the Italian played good football than Lampard

Chelsea kept fighting for Top 4 and made it beyond the Group stages of the Champions League but that came with a lot of sweat especially that game at the Bridge against Ajax

The biggest talking point for Chelsea fans during this period was why Mason Mount was the first on the team sheet and why Tammy Abraham started ahead of established strikers like Olivier Giroud

“Boy this ain’t the Championship” was what someone posted on a Chelsea fan page after the loss at the bridge against Bournemouth who were in the relegation zone and ended the season relegated

Lampard had his ups and downs but Chelsea was not going to just sack him after a run of bad results
Even by their standards, that would be strange
The swan song was “Give him a chance and judge him next season when he’s signed his own players after the ban is lifted”

At end of Season placed 4th, lost to Arsenal in the FA Cup final and were embarrassed in the 1/16th stage of the UCL by eventual winners Bayern Munich
Chelsea could take heart in the fact that the Germans destroyed many teams in their run to the cup including a 7-2 win over Barca

A new season starts and Lampard gets Hikem Ziyech, one of the stars of the recent Ajax renaissance, Timo Werner, the jewel in the RB Leipzig team, Kai Havertz, the new Mesut Ozil from Leverkusen, Left back Ben Chilwell from Leicester and a 35 year old Thiago Silva from PSG

Chelsea had spent over 150m getting in these players because they believed these were the players Lampard needed to get the London club back to the top

Few days to start of a new season and the Chelsea team sheet had changed dramatically and significantly
They could now have a starting XI of Captain Aspilicueta, Zouma, Thiago Silva , Chilwell, Kante, Kovacic, Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech and Werner

This Chelsea looked good on paper and it was now up to Lampard to guide them to success
But there was a problem. The first name on every team sheet was the Keeper but says to start of a new Season and Chelsea fans still had doubts abt their 72m GK Kepa Arizabalaga and rightly so

The Spanish had had horrendous moments since he was signed from Atlético Bilbao in 2018.
The worst of his crimes was when he refused to be changed during a cup game and that embarrassed Manager Sarri who left the game straight to the dressing room whilst game was in progress

Kepa had made some basic errors leading to goals and Chelsea fans never trusted him. Caballero was also error prone
So with all these top quality signings, Chelsea was stil in the market for another Goalkeeper and they did that by purchasing Edouard Mendy from French side Rennes

5 games into the season and Chelsea have won 2, drawn 2 and lost once and lie 6th.
It’s a good start but Chelsea have not been convincing like how they conceded 3 HT goals against newly promoted WBA and had to fight to get a draw and 3-3 draw at the Bridge against Southampton

Chelsea was delight going forward but atrocious at the back. The team plays very eye pleasing quick football in transition but they are not good in midfield and at the back

So whilst watching the first half, I tweeted Chelsea was playing like prime Barca but another tweet from me said Chelsea were weak like Arsenal 2006-2016.
Many thought I had contradicted myself but I don’t think so because it’s not a either or situation

Both statements can be right about the team Chelsea. My observation is that Lampard’s views about how the game should be played is evident in the players he’s acquired. Technically gifted players good on the ball and can create spaces for others

However there are players in the team struggling to adapt to the kind of inter positional play and quick passing Lampard envisages his team to play

Aspilicueta is aging and not quick as he used to be so that affects the attack on the right unlike what Chilwell is doing on the left
Jorginho has not managed to shield the defense enough and Kante has still not found his best position after his first season

When Pep Guardiola first joined Barca, the team was in transition and the poster boy was Ronaldinho. Guardiola who a disciple of Johan Cruyff has his views on the best way the game should be played so he goes out to get the players that can play that style

So when they say a player has to play the Barca way, it’s the attributes they first look out for not how good the player is in another team

A classical example was how many a football fan didn’t rate Victor Valdes as a top GK but Barca and Pep knew what they wanted from him

So Barca in the last 15 years have struggled getting value for many of the purchase they’ve made because of that way of assessing players
From Dmitry Chygrynnski to Nélson Semedo to Coutinho, Barca has had so many misses in the transfer market

But they’ve also had top players suited to their style like striking gold with Dani Alves and Iván Rakitic and promotion of of Sérgio Busquests and Pedro

So what Lampard is doing is play beautiful quality football but he needs every part to be correctly done else he fails

Is Jorginho the DM he needs? Are the GKs good enough? Is Kurt Zouma and Thiago Silva the ones to solve the defense problems? Should Reece James start over Captain Aspilicueta?

Lampard needs to answer these but quickly because his honeymoon is over. I have a feeling Lampard has his ideas on how he wants to play but he doesn’t have all the parts he needs to make Chelsea the BEST

It’s like when Pep first came to England and struggled the first season because some of the players were not suited to his style.

He went out there and bought players and dominated the league.
I think the challenge Lampard faces is akin to what Klopp also faced when he came to Liverpool and I found too many similarities

Klopp came and wanted to do the “gengen” pressing with the players available at Liverpool at that time. Initially it worked but Liverpool started struggling even against minnows

This was because after some time, teams had found a way to beat the press by playing a deep lying playmaker(the Pirlo type) so anytime the Liverpool midfield pressed, they lifted the pass above them and the defense had very little protection

Then Klopp got Salah and Mane and started using Firmino differently
So Salah and Mane pressed from the front and Firmino dropped back into midfield to occupy the opposition deep lying playmaker whose ball beat the midfield press

Then Klopp realized he couldn’t have his midfield pressing the way he wanted and creating as well so we decided to create through his wingbacks

He promoted Trent and got Robertson from relegated Hull City
I remember watching Trent at Old Trafford and Martial destroying him and I said many a team will target that young Right back when they play Liverpool

Little did I know Klopp wasn’t going to use him that way but was preparing him to play in a certain way that suited him

Trent’s best attributes doesn’t include defending but Klopp has set up his team to fix that frailty of Trent

So in his 2nd season, Klopp started to find his feet after getting in most of the players suited to his system and not actually the best in the position so take note

So I think this is where Lampard is at the moment, a Klopp 2nd Season
Klopp’s problem in his 2nd season was his defense and GK and they always destroyed the perfect team he was building by making school boy errors and no stability at the back

So Klopp who had complained about the amount spent in buying players when United paid 89m for Pogba, changed his stance and bought VVD for 75m and that hugely improved Liverpool

VVD coming in the January transfer window stabilized Liverpool at the back and they conceded less and got to the finals of the UCL where they lost to Real Madrid

Liverpool didn’t lose to Real Madrid but GK Karius did because he was calamitous that night gifting Real Madrid 2 of their goals in the 3-1 win. The Benzema goal was embarrassing and a night the young German Keeper would want to forget

So Klopp went against his principles again and spent 67m to buy GK Allison of Roma
Allison was the missing piece in the puzzle and once he came, Liverpool became unstoppable. They won the UCL in Klopp’s 3rd season and in the 4th season, won the league for the first time in 30 yrs

But it’s the manner they won that was breathtaking. They destroyed every opponent amassing 99 points and finishing 18 points above 2nd placed City

So this is where Lampard finds himself. Klopp’s 2nd season and I know if he makes the right decisions, Chelsea will be unstoppable

He doesn’t have the luxury Klopp had because Covid-19 has affected the finances of clubs

However if Lampard will succeed with this team, he needs to buy a top level GK who is reliable like Jan Oblak of Atlético Madrid and top rated Center back like Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli

Thiago Silva will not make Chelsea the best and same with any of the Goalkeeper Chelsea currently has

The missing piece for Chelsea is a top level GK and an imposing Center back and until they do that, they cannot be the best

With the kind of players Chelsea currently have, they will be bullied in away games at top 6 sides and have dodgy results at home against lowly ranked teams

That is so reminiscent of Arsenal when they started Project youth. Wenger invested in youth that played very quality eye pleasing football but they always withered at the business end of the season and won zilch

I always say the reason beautiful football won Barca trophies but not Arsenal was because Barca had steel at the back with Puyol, Pique, Alves and Abidal

Arsenal didn’t because Wenger proved over the years he was poor at recruiting top level defenders
Wenger inherited a very solid defense from George Graham with Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould, Adams and Keown

Every time he tried replacing them, he failed. From Pascal Cygan to Philippe Senderos, Johan Djorou, Justin Hoyte and even Laurent Koscielny

Wenger’s best break was a free Sol Campbell and Kolo Touré and that was 2 out of how many buys?

So Lampard will come good because I see some nice football and a good team he’s building but until he gets a top level GK who’s reliable like Jan Oblak and imposing center back, his work will be in vain

Austine Woode
@obimpenaAustine

THE END