Frank Lampard gave five players their Chelsea FC first-team debut against Grimsby Town in the League Cup. Some of not been seen since, but that small but significant experience may be valuable tonight.
Unless a team is stripped of all other options and the manager is executing a multi-pronged strategy that includes a scarcely imaginable stroke of motivational genius, managers don’t usually give players their first-team debut with a start, in a league game or against a traditional powerhouse rival. Other than what Jose Mourinho did with Tomas Kalas when Chelsea faced Liverpool in 2014, most managers – Mourinho included – debut players in the late stages of a game, perhaps even in stoppage time, with little at stake. The first start will come after a progression of substitute appearances, and will often come in a domestic cup game.
Frank Lampard jumped over a few of the usual steps when Chelsea opened their Carabao Cup campaign against Grimsby Town in August.
Reece James, Billy Gilmour and Marc Guehi all made their first Chelsea senior start. It was Gilmour’s and Guehi’s senior debut, neither having any loan experience, and they went 90 minutes. Ian Maatsen and Faustino Anjorin also made their career first-team debuts that night, coming on in the 66′ and 67′, respectively.
Lampard had other options that night. He kept Fikayo Tomori, Jorginho and Mason Mount on the bench. He left Cesar Azpilicueta, Mateo Kovacic, Andreas Christensen and Willian out of the squad.
Like everything else about Chelsea’s youth revolution, Lampard’s starting XI and debutant substitutes were his choice. Neither the transfer ban nor injuries nor instructions from the boardroom forced his hand. There was no inevitability or fait accompli – Frank Lampard made it happen.
By doing so, Lampard made things a bit easier for nights like tonight.
The pressure on Chelsea will be greater now than it was in late August. The Blues are on a seven game win streak. Expectations are rising around and within the club. And the opponent this time is Manchester United. A discordant, struggling and somewhat amusing Manchester United, but Manchester United just the same.
The pressure, nerves and settling-in aspects of a first-team debut will be one less thing for Chelsea’s management staff and squad to factor in to their planning for tonight’s game. Those young players who have seen few, if any, first-team minutes since the last round will still need to grow into the moment and find their footing at Stamford Bridge with teammates they have not played with in two months, facing the Red Devils’ own heavily youth-laden first-team. But at least one very significant box has already been checked.
Marc Guehi’s debut against Grimsby Town could allow Fikayo Tomori or Kurt Zouma a night off. Billy Gilmour’s could do the same for Jorginho. Reece James could spare Cesar Azpilicueta another start, and Ian Maatsen could give Marcos Alonso at least another half hour reprieve.
Those opportunities to rest are invaluable for some of Chelsea’s most-used players. And since these young Blues would, at the conclusion of tonight’s game, have the experience of a start or extended minutes against Manchester United, it’s not outside the realm of the possible that Frank Lampard would let them further relieve his stalwarts by giving some of these youths their Premier League debut off the bench against bottom-feeder Watford this weekend.
A start or sub against a League Two side. A start or sub against Manchester United in the lower of the domestic cups. A sub (start would be unlikely) in the Premier League against a team struggling to maintain their place in the top flight.
After that, Lampard would have more options at his disposal for more challenging Premier League games or in the Champions League, especially if Chelsea can make their last game or two a dead rubber.
That’s progress. That’s development. That’s a process.
As we said over the weekend on a similar topic, it’s much easier to trust a process when the mechanisms and results play out transparently in real-time.