Chelsea Tactics and Transfers: Lampard knows what preseason is really for

Frank Lampard’s early time in charge at Chelsea has been strong. Those results should be taken with a pinch of salt, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t note the positives.

Set aside all the valid concerns and criticisms of Frank Lampard’s experience and readiness to be Chelsea’s manager. He has already done the most important things in his mandate: he has united the fan base and brought a sense of positivity back to the side.

For too long Chelsea have been a divided and indecisive club. That manifested in the peculiar results over the past few years: titles, embarrassingly low finishes and European cups all appear with equal frequency, and almost regularity. United, decisive and character-driven clubs don’t have that.

Chelsea were one of those sides, though mired in debt, when I began supporting the club under Ken Bates. The potential under Roman Abramovich has always been higher than it was before him. The only thing that has ever held Chelsea back was the managerial merry-go-round that stopped all the other wonderful natural things about the club from taking precedence. Their place in London, their support, the character and history of the side were forgotten.

Frank Lampard unites the eras and solidifies the club. It is exactly what Chelsea needed and it appears to be exactly what they have now.

Lampard started off the preseason the way one is supposed to. He had the confidence in himself, his players and his standing within the club to know that early preseason matches in Ireland aren’t about results. Managers should not even be thinking about wins and losses in July.

That said, Chelsea managers as far back as Andre Villas-Boas have toiled away in preseason trying to make sure that every single match, even the ridiculously meaningless ones, could be used as statements about their style or their pedigree. In doing so, they added a ridiculous and completely unnecessary level of pressure.

Preseason matches are about seeing something from the fringe and youth players, and getting the other players fit.

Frank Lampard has even tried out different tactics and lineups in each half of football so far this preseason. It’s a lovely thing to see. Having been bogged down in the stubbornness of Maurizio Sarri for an entire year and his refusal to choose a suitable set of tactics that matched his squad, one could be excused for forgetting there are options other than 4-3-3 to win a football match.

Equally interesting is how Lampard appears to have taken something from each of the managers he has played under. Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink and Sven-Goran Eriksson are all wonderful managers who Chelsea supporters would be lucky if Lampard chose to emulate.

From Mourinho, he seems to have taken the early organization and charismatic approach to management. People in recent years have forgotten just how good Jose Mourinho was. He was a tidal wave of a man. He took over the Premier League with immediate effect and only one single poor Champions League group result and a younger version of Roman Abramovich’s impatience took that away from the club.

There will perhaps never be a more pure Chelsea feeling than those early years when Mourinho had the Kings of the King’s Road feeling back at Stamford Bridge. Lampard could be close, though it is early.

From Ancelotti and Hiddink, Lampard has absorbed some of the player management and adaptability. He has already brought isolated players back into the squad while still integrating youth players.

Chelsea’s squad is much too large and yet, somehow, the harmony coming from it is remarkable. Eventually Lampard will have to trim the squad, but it is hard to imagine any of the players being upset or turning their locker into their personal soap box on which to cry and make a scene.

From Eriksson, Lampard has learned some tactics. People write Eriksson off because of his uncharacteristically fantastic personal life, but he was a marvelous manager. His times at Lazio, Roma and Benfica were some of the brightest seen in Europe for a many years.

Eriksson was the person originally tasked with fitting Steve Gerrard and Frank Lampard into the same side, and he was the first major name in the British game for a long time to try the 4-4-2 diamond. It’s one of the best tactics in football when done properly (and a personal favorite of mine). To see Lampard moving in that direction is fantastic.

Of course, everything needs to be kept in perspective. Lampard hasn’t had a full squad and he has only managed Chelsea against Irish sides, who both featured young teenagers (and, in one case, the same teenager).

But that doesn’t mean Chelsea supporters shouldn’t be allowed to dream. For too long that simple marvel has been taken from us. The ability to dream the club has a bright future and a good present. The idea that perhaps one of the stars of that side may be one of us. A homegrown, Chelsea supporting young player who understands just what Chelsea means to all of us.

For my money, that player is Ethan Ampadu, who looks like a young Sevilla-playing Sergio Ramos. But it could also be Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Callum Hudson-Odoi, injury permitting. Even better, it could be Tammy Abraham, a homegrown perfect center forward.

Chelsea finally appear to be melding their potential with their present. They are a long way from being the English version of Athletic Bilbao, but to have even a similar level of pride in who they are, what they stand for and what they’re going to do is a wonderful thing.

Chelsea have a lot to take pride in.  That has been lost in recent years while they struggled for a true identity.

If Frank Lampard brings only that back, it will be better than anything else they can win anyway.