Chelsea’s Frank Lampard is making mistakes but is addressing them

Reasonable Chelsea fans new what they were getting when Frank Lampard became manager. He is making mistakes, but he is also addressing them as he goes.

“Frank Lampard got his tactics/substitutes wrong today!” has become a constant refrain seen any time the team failed to win this season. It does fade before the next game arrives but it has been quick to start up again as soon as anything goes bad.

And like many players are scapegoating for little reason, Lampard is also being scapegoated by some on flimsy evidence. But where there is evidence, Lampard is at least dealing with the issues as they come up. The reasonable fans knew this would happen and Lampard is dealing with it.

Probably the strangest one is the great “3-4-3 was a mistake versus Valencia” point. Mind, very few had any issues with the 3-4-3 after Wolves and the only real issue to be had against Valencia was the XI being nearly carbon copy. 3-4-3 did not cost the game against Valencia.

Even more so, the formation shift was to address the issue of getting wrecked by counters and balls between the lines. It worked perfectly with the main issue against Valencia being how it was deployed offensively.

Both wingbacks pushed up far too high while the ball was building out of the back. This allowed Valencia to easily mark out Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho with their strikers. It also forced the wingers to tuck in because they became redundant for width up top with the wingbacks up there. It made the usual lighting fast possession flat and languid not unlike what was seen at the Bridge last season.

Perhaps tied to that are Lampard’s substitutes. Admittedly, Lampard could do better with them but it is hard to find many managers in the world who nail their substitutes each time. Chelsea would have to go back to Antonio Conte’s first season to find a manager who consistently made game changing subs.

Mason Mount was the first off with injury (which more than anything else took the wind out of Chelsea’s sails). Lampard opted for Pedro due to his Champions League experience. Admittedly, that was a mistake, but it takes the hindsight of that match to say so confidently.

The second substitute is also getting plenty of stick because the goal conceded came immediately afterwards. But Chelsea did not concede because Kurt Zouma came off, they instead conceded because Tammy Abraham failed to track his man. Set pieces have been an Achilles heel for the Blues since Steve Holland left and they remain so.

Following Olivier Giroud’s introduction for Zouma, the Blues initially went into a 3-5-2 formation. But because Chelsea kept domination possession, the formation made little difference. Gradually, Lampard shifted the side into a 4-2-3-1 that was reminiscent of Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan days with Tammy Abraham going wide.

But of course the biggest “controversy” is the penalty. Ross Barkley stepped up to take it, confident in himself and also because he was the designated penalty taker. Jorginho shook his hand, Tammy Abraham offered some sort of advice, and Willian stared. Chelsea fans decided this was a fight and started blaming Lampard, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Barkley for the situation. Of course, had it gone in there would have been no further mention of it, just as there is never a mention of the exact same sort of discussion on every single free kick outside the box.

Lampard came out afterwards to say that Barkley was the penalty taker. Some raised the notion that he was protecting Barkley by saying that. Simply put, it does not matter if he was or not because that was the right way to handle the situation. Lampard will not be the type to throw an individual under the bus. It is very much an all for one and one for all situation regardless of whether or not Barkley was actually the penalty taker.

Lampard will make mistakes. Tactically, not so much against Valencia but he has shown more than a willingness to adapt. His substitutes are still lacking, but so are many other managers’. Every mistake Lampard has made thus far, he has learned from and adapted around.

That is what Chelsea asked for and what they are getting. Lampard is a young manager with the right ideas but the edges are still rough. Lampard is smoothing those edges out every single match. Sooner rather than later, it will all start to click as the last edge is ironed out and the refrain of “Lampard got his tactics/substitutes wrong!” goes the way of the Dodo.