Chelsea: Frank Lampard won’t give up on players, so they don’t give up on him

Frank Lampard’s behind-closed-doors management is coming to the forefront, as players who were on the Chelsea bench for most of the season come back motivated and at the necessary level.

We don’t know what Frank Lampard said to Olivier Giroud and Pedro in September, to Marcos Alonso in November or to Kepa Arrizabalaga in February, but we know what he didn’t say: “You don’t fit into my system and therefore my plans. I have no place for you in my team.” Every one of the players that he sidelined for an extended period of time returned to play as if they had only missed a game or two through regular rotation.

Only part of this can be explained by a baseline level of professionalism that sees a player do his job – train and play – despite whatever animus or apathy he feels towards his manager and club.

First, they come back playing with passion and joy. Compare Olivier Giroud’s goal celebration against Tottenham to some of late-stage Alvaro Morata’s: the latter looked like he had just watched Schindler’s List rather than scoring in European competition. Giroud, Pedro, Alonso and Arrizabalaga are not going through the motions of footballing. Second, they are coming back better than before. This is particularly true of Arrizabalaga, who against Liverpool not only had the proper mix of fire and humility but showed elements of his game that were not previously there. But it’s also the case for Alonso and Pedro, who took on different roles in a new set-up and used that for an unusually strong defensive game.

Frank Lampard has tossed only one player out of his squad: David Luiz. Luiz was not willing to do what Lampard wanted from him, and so Luiz was in north London by the end of the week.

Lampard is obviously not afraid to remove somebody from the team if that player does not want to be at Lampard’s Chelsea. The fact that it was a senior player and Lampard’s Champions League-winning teammate makes the point that much stronger: if Lampard will get rid of Luiz, he’ll get rid of anybody.

This frames the reverse: if Lampard keeps a player who may be less than satisfied with how things are going at Chelsea, it’s because both manager and player believe in each other. Lampard believes that player can play a part in the season and wants to be there, and the player believes he is still valuable to the team and can work his way off the bench.

That understanding can only come with clear communication. A player can only go beyond the baseline level of professionalism when he knows that he still has a chance to play. He can only improve when he knows what it is he’s supposed to be improving and has the coaching staff working with him.

Ghosting a player or writing off a player in the first few weeks of a season are incompatible with player improvement and motivation.

Olivier Giroud and Pedro are consummate professionals. They are also both World Cup winners, and Pedro has won at least one of everything for club and country. Both wanted to leave in January given their minimal playing time in the first half of the season and some personal issues in Pedro’s case. Chelsea’s inactive January window kept them at the club. Watching them play over the last few games you would never think they were recently “wantaways,” or that they had spent most of the first five months off the pitch.

Kepa Arrizabalaga, well, let’s just say his youthful indiscretion may someday be drowned out by subsequent professionalism, a la John Terry. But as a £72 million goalkeeper, he could easily have spent February on his phone with his agent clamoring for a summer transfer, whinging to his friends and on social media and in other forms living up to the “Carabao Cup Kepa” persona.

Instead, he obviously spent a lot of time with Willy Caballero and the goalkeeping staff over the last month. His control of the box on crosses, his directions to his defenders (including on goal kicks), his reaction saves and his reaction to his triple-reaction save were a long way from some of his performances in January.

If he spent February moping, he did it at home and he kept it private. He came back into the side better than when he left it. Professionalism or not, the managers got involved.

Frank Lampard knew that over the course of the season he would need his entire squad, even if he may not have dreamed the injury situation would be so severe. Like every coach, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep everyone happy all the time, but he had to keep everyone ready to come in what the team needed him.

Imagine if he had told Giroud and Pedro “You’re old and slow and can’t play my style of football. You won’t be playing this season.” Or if he had told them nothing at all. And then the injuries to Tammy Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic happened.” What if he had said to Alonso, “I’m going with Emerson or Azpilicueta. That’s all.” And then desperately needed a wing-back; or what if the other options were clearly falling flat. Would he have eaten that much crow, or would he try to walk back his earlier dismissal and coax any level of performance out of Alonso? Or what if he had told them nothing at all?

The reaction from those players who have come back to the XI, whether by Lampard’s choice or through injuries to the starters, show how well Lampard is, oh what’re the words… coaching and managing!

Gary Cahill could not be reached for comment.