Chelsea’s Frank Lampard has not changed style so much as substance

With Chelsea having settled down from their rough start, many are mentioning how Frank Lampard changed the style. It was not style so much as substance.

The most recent era of Chelsea began after Jose Mourinho’s downfall. After accounting for Guus Hiddink’s time as interim, there is a pretty clear line between Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, and ultimately Frank Lampard.

The fallout with the board and the less than appealing style led the Blues to Sarri; a man who rarely fought his board and who advocated “beautiful” football. The lack of connection with fans, the dogmatic tactics, the transfer ban, and Juventus calling saw the Blues turn to Lampard’s history, flexibility, and trust in the youth.

After a rough start to the season, Lampard’s Chelsea has settled into their grove. Many are pointing towards how efficiently Lampard has changed the style of Chelsea with a young group of players. But it is not necessarily the style that Lampard has changed; it is the substance.

Conte and Sarri may be on opposite ends of one tactical scale, but on another they are exactly the same. They both love circuits. Player A passes to Player B so Player C can make this run for a third pass. It is rehearsed over and over until the players can do it with as little thought as possible.

That type of football is easy to get off the ground but there is little that can be done to improve it without better players or new routines that opponents have not yet deduced. The opposite of this is what Lampard does; decision based football. The players are not being asked to perform a routine; instead they are looking at every situation and making their own decisions. This is harder to implement because it requires players to get used to each other, but it is much harder for the opponent to stop and allows for a much greater variance in attacks.

But the actual, bare bones style of things is not all that different from what Sarri advocated. Chelsea cares less this season than last if they have possession, but their numbers remain quite high. The fullbacks are still asked to attack and provide width to “wingers” who rarely stay on the wing. The side, not unlike Conte’s, looks to overload one side of the pitch to release a player on the other.

If everything is tactically similar to the last three years, then how is the substance different? Well the allowance of decision making has given the players a great deal of trust. And unlike recent seasons where there was a clear XI and a clear bench, this season that line is blurred. Almost every player that has been called upon has turned up in some way. And despite the switch from circuits to decisions causing an initial lurch, the Blues are not cruising like a Chelsea side can be expected to.

Even beyond that, the Blues have now set a record for away wins in a row. There remains a question as to how the Blues would handle a top six side (they have never been outplayed by them this season, but losses are losses). Last season top six was less of an issue than the bottom half and Lampard has fixed that for the Blues. That is a mentality thing; especially away from home.

Lampard’s Blues take nothing for granted. They are not assuming wins against the bottom teams. Because of that, their focus has been much improved and the wins have been coming in games that were previously banana skins.

When the season is all over then maybe there will be enough to say Lampard changed the style. But right now the style is taking notes from previous years as the substance is something altogether different. The Blues are believing in a way that has not been seen in years. With the winter slog coming and a squad full of trusted players, that may just mean something as other teams begin to struggle with the fixture congestion.