Chelsea loss to Kawasaki was the prototypical preseason learning experience

Chelsea fell late on to Kawasaki Frontale. The usual conclusions will be drawn but it was the prototypical preseason learning experience.

It is almost a cliche that teams learn more from a loss than a win, but there is definitely some truth to it. Winning repeatedly means teams lack the desire to fix mistakes until they cause a loss. But if a team is going to lose, it is best to do so during preseason.

Chelsea’s loss to Kawasaki Frontale was just a normal preseason learning experience. Preseason results have always been a poor barometer of how a full season will eventually go. Remember when Chelsea lost to Rapid Wien and went on to collapse the following season? No because that happened the year Chelsea won the Premier League under Antonio Conte.

But a loss in preseason like the one Chelsea saw against Kawasaki only matters if the team learns from it. Frank Lampard’s preseason over three games has been more or less steady but he will have learned a few things more from this particular loss.

The most glaring thing is what to do about the striker role. Michy Batshuayi worked hard, but his service was rough to say the least. He was serviced well, but it was often balls hit to hard or too wayward despite being good ideas. With a world class striker, that service could have turned into a goal, but as it stands it needs to be cleaner.

Part of that is down to the difference in how Lampard’s side builds attacks compared to the previous two managers. Conte and Maurizio Sarri both had the sides run circuits. If A, then B; if C, then D. There was little to no creativity in the movement when the ball entered the final third.

Lampard’s tactics are different and more akin to Carlo Ancelotti’s or Jose Mourinho’s in the final third. He wants the players to make their own decisions for the situation. That makes it much harder to predict what a particular player is going to do, but that also goes for the player’s own teammates. That is something that can get better in time as players grow used to what each other will do, but in these early stages it is very rough.

Off the ball and in the buildup Chelsea is more organized. For the most part, that went pretty well though the substitutes did take all the wind out of the sails of the buildup and the pressing traps started to fall apart. That should be less of a worry than other factors because when it was closer to a “starting XI”, it looked very good. Lampard obviously will not be making more than three changes within a game so that should be an asterisk over the loss.

But perhaps what Lampard needs to see the most from the loss is the players who struggled. David Luiz made several errors that could have been more costly than they were and he played his role in the goal (as he often does). Emerson could have done better on the cross the led to the goal but his fault is as minor as it could be in the situation. Kenedy looked unsettled on the left but did show up a little better on the right, though there should still be question marks about him. Kasey Palmer failed to make any particular impact after coming on.

There were good performances too of course. Christian Pulisic looked lively on his preseason debut. Kurt Zouma did not put a foot wrong. Cesar Azpilicueta showed he can do the duties of a modern fullback (though not necessarily exceptionally yet). The connection between Ross Barkley and Mason Mount was impressive. The pivot of Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic also looked solid though it will probably not be seen much more.

But at the end of the day, a loss is a loss and even though it was preseason Lampard did not look too pleased about it. He will know more than anyone that it really does not matter what any score line in preseason is but he will be looking for the side to grow from the loss. It was a standard preseason learning experience, provided lessons are learned from it at the end of the day.