Chelsea: Danny Drinkwater deserves a look and no promises from Lampard

Danny Drinkwater could be back in the picture for Chelsea FC next season. That is as it should be, as Frank Lampard should give him as much consideration as any other first-team player in preseason.

This should be a dog-bites-man story: Incoming manager to give a player in his squad a fair shake. Wow. Stop the presses. Or, to really grab some attention, do one of those tweets where you use the clap emoji after every word. People love that. Add in the facts that the player in question is a Premier League winner and full international, has been at Chelsea FC for two seasons and his position – midfield – has a lot of room for rotation and variation, particularly since the incoming manager is something of a midfield specialist.

But even people who recognize the sheer buffoonery of “N’Golo Kante is not technical enough to play at the base of midfield” and “Eden Hazard is too selfish” worry that the man who thinks 150 touches per game is the mark of a top midfielder may have had things right about Danny Drinkwater.

A Leicester newspaper floated the idea that Danny Drinkwater could make his way back into Chelsea’s squad under Frank Lampard. The story had no sourcing or substance whatsoever, but of course that did nothing to tamp down the adverse reactions.

As I wrote here earlier in the week, Chelsea cannot entertain any offers for players in their squad (and a fair number of returning loanees) until the new manager has a chance to see who he has, decide what he can do with them and then selects who he needs. A player’s minutes under Maurizio Sarri should be a minor consideration for what Lampard projects for their 2019/20 season with him.

Part of the appeal of Frank Lampard as manager is resetting Chelsea after last season. Part of that, in turn, is returning some level of meritocracy to the squad and actual coaching to the coach. Sarri’s statement that there was nothing he could do for Danny Drinkwater should have been grounds for immediate dismissal, seeing as how it was a public admission of his inability to fulfill not just the role but the literal definition of the words “head coach.”

While Drinkwater’s ghosting was total, his treatment was still not as egregious as Gary Cahill’s, given the latter’s status and stature at the club. Even so, there is no justification for his treatment, and Lampard is intelligent enough – book smart, street smart and human smart – to not do anything similar.

Drinkwater’s passing could hardly have been worse than some of Jorginho’s, yet he was never even a substitute. Drinkwater at least has a range of passing rhythm and distance, which could have served Chelsea well when they were in the depths of predictability.

Danny Drinkwater’s issue last year was not that he could only play in a two-man midfield, but that Chelsea had a coach who saw tactics and players in such as way that a statement like that was possible.

As a member of Chelsea FC’s first team squad, one with several trophies to his name, Danny Drinkwater deserves a chance to earn his way into the starting XI, or the matchday squad, or the full squad or a loan next season. Like every other Blue, the full range of options should be on the table, and it should be down to his efforts and Frank Lampard’s coach’s eye to determine the best place.

That is all. Drinkwater, like everyone else, is entitled to a studied, considered, individual assessment for the good of the team, and nothing more. Sadly, after last season, this sounds like a radical opportunity.

Anyone who fears Drinkwater’s inclusion in the squad is revealing their estimation of Frank Lampard as much as their opinion of Drinkwater.