Lamentable Lampard - Where Do We Go Now?

An honest reflection on Chelsea's current affairs under Frank Lampard. Can he turn it around?

Sad. The singular, overwhelming emotion I felt watching Leicester simply lump Lampard’s side into yet another pile of disarray and disappointment.

In previous tough times, deflation and shock have been the overriding emotions personally, yet today a cloud of sadness came over me, especially whenever I saw the look of defeat on Frank Lampard’s face on the side-line.

Somewhat surprisingly, Chelsea Twitter seemed to be generally happy with the line-up chosen. Frank was true to his word, rotating back in the players who missed out against Fulham, for an exciting, somewhat attacking line-up against a strong Leicester City team.

I was surprised to see Antonio Rudiger keep his place, albeit he played good enough against Fulham, also Kovacic keeping in the midfield ahead of Billy Gilmour. Other than that, it was standard procedure from what I had heard/been told. Three points were certainly attainable for a team of this quality.

The game in general was summed up well by Frank Lampard in his post-match interview with Geoff Shreeves. The better team won, one team is clearly on form, the other isn’t.

Diving a little deeper, when Wilfried N’didi sliced one in the goal, subsequently coming indirectly off a set-piece, of which Leicester haven’t scored directly from this season, it felt like “here we go again.”

With no disrespect to N’didi intended, goal-scoring isn’t his strong suit (even though it seemingly is against Chelsea) and he slightly mis-hit the shot, but that’s just how it’s going right now for Chelsea.

Then you add on the close call for Christian Pulisic getting a potential penalty from a poorly-timed tackle from Johnny Evans, only for VAR to correctly overturn it to a free-kick in the end.

Not long after, Chelsea gave their fans Deja Vu from their comical defending from last year and allowed in-form James Maddison to score one of the easier goals in his career to date.

Antonio Rudiger didn’t cover himself in glory, and Reece James also deserves criticism for his lacklustre tracking back and ball watching.

Concluding this with Timo Werner’s disallowed goal, again correctly for offside, small margins were certainly prevalent.

Yes, the big decisions and margins didn’t go Chelsea’s way correctly so, and you make your own luck. Chelsea were poor, we didn’t create our own luck, and we deserved to lose comfortably, no excuses.

Going back to the players, many struggled today and seemed disinterested. For the first time personally, I saw a number of players look like they weren’t up for the fight, nor aware of or care for the severe pressure their manager is currently under.

Many rumours have circled that some players are dis-gruntled within the dressing room, which is likely with the size of the squad and lack of game time for some established top-level players.

However, more alarming was the evident lack of desire to seemingly execute Lampard’s tactics and game plan against a good side, which would only support the notion that the players are potentially fed up with Lampard’s lead.

Frank Lampard today was simply outcoached by the better tactician. Many talk about Chelsea’s record against teams above them, how we haven’t beaten many teams who are “better” than us.

For me, this is due to Frank Lampard still having a lot to learn tactically, and simply being outclassed by managers and teams simply more experienced than ours.

As many will know from my podcasts and tweets, I am a big fan of Brendan Rodgers as a head coach. Rodgers is tactically astute, very well respected by players, and importantly established at the Premier League level, these arguably are contrasting qualities of that of Lampard.

Lampard got it wrong with the 4-2-3-1 / fluid 4-3-3, experimenting with Mateo Kovacic as a defensive midfielder and Mason Mount dropping deeper to help with build-up play, subsequently then transforming into a central midfielder when the ball progressed forward.

I discussed with a few people before the game how important the midfield battle in today’s game was, which heightened with the fact Lampard took a risk in this particular department. We lost this battle, and it wasn’t even close.

Today was the first time I sincerely worried for Lampard’s future as Chelsea’s head coach. Despite being confidently told by credible sources Lampard would not be sacked around this fixture, result aside, the manner of the defeat was alarming, especially in coherence with recent reports from other outlets on this.

I stuck by my recent tweet on this issue, and at the time of writing, this is still the case. I have spoken to a few connected personnel since the game, and am still told Frank Lampard has time to turn this around, however, the pressure is certainly on.

Image - @AlfieNewmanGD

Those on Twitter will know I fully support Frank Lampard, legend or not. For those who have followed my work for a little while, you would’ve known I also supported Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri to the end. I never wanted them to leave either, despite their obvious downfalls.

Call me a hopeless romantic or naïve, but due to being on the coaching ladder myself, I subsequently lean-to supporting the head coach as much as possible. I still believe Lampard deserves time to turn this around, for reasons I have spoken on before, despite this result. However, I can also admit to understanding further those who believe that Frank Lampard isn’t the man who can lead Chelsea back to domestic and continental titles.

Many argue Lampard has done a great job in re-introducing the youth, he has been a key component in signing the players we have, and he has somewhat brought the love back for Chelsea Football Club for many, due to his legendary status as a player, another hotly debated topic on Twitter.

However, those same individuals also argue that’s as far as Frank Lampard can take Chelsea Football Club, and those voices are getting louder.

In clarification, as a fan, I will never be Lampard out. I admit to a slight bias with it being arguably the greatest player in our club’s history and desperation for him to succeed. However, it’s more for the pride of sticking by a fellow coach no matter what, as I did with Lampard’s predecessors.

I sincerely hope and believe we can turn this around, albeit with a lot of changes needed in the way starting teams are selected and tactical changes, nevertheless whilst I haven’t lost hope yet, I am first and foremost a fan of Chelsea Football Club and have been as long as I could breathe, the club must come first, always.

Dan McCarthy - @MaccaSport