With Willian and Pedro’s contract situations up in the air at Chelsea, Lampard faces a huge selection dilemma for this last stretch of the season.
Will Frank Lampard tweak his tactics or deploy other players in unfamiliar positions due to the uncertainty of Willian and Pedro’s futures?
The forced football break was a huge blessing in disguise for Chelsea as multiple players who were struggling with injuries have now returned to full fitness. But, just as it seemed like Lampard would finally have a full squad to choose from, contractual complexities pertaining to Willian and Pedro created a new problem.
With strong rumours that the veteran wingers are set to leave the club after June 30, having refused a short-term extension to finish the season, Lampard will only be left with Christian Pulisic and Callum Hudson-Odoi as the team’s natural wingers for July.
This leaves the club with a lot of moving parts; team selections and tactics in June, July and after.
Willian and Pedro involvement
Before their contracts run out, Willian and Pedro will be available for three games—Aston Villa, Manchester City and Leicester City in the FA Cup. That brings up the first question; should they be involved in these games?
The answer to that would be a resounding no.
While the veterans would certainly be useful, if Lampard needs to experiment with a new system, he needs to begin doing that against Villa. In this compact, revised schedule, the club will be practically playing a game every third day. With the race for top four hotter than ever, Lampard will have no breathing room to work on new tactics post-June.
He needs to lay down the law at the earliest, even if it means that two players who have served the club commendably don’t get their last hoorah.
Loftus-Cheek and Mount as wingers
If Lampard is to retain the 4-3-3 system, he needs to find players who can be deployed as wingers. With the hectic period that is upon us, Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi cannot possibly start every game (assuming Hudson-Odoi is picked at all after his antics and injuries).
With a wealth of central midfield options at his disposal, Lampard can afford to convert Mount and Loftus-Cheek into makeshift wingers. Lampard has already utilised Mount out wide as the situation called for this season, with the young Englishman particularly putting in a magnificent performance against Spurs in December.
Loftus-Cheek is no stranger to playing out wide either. He has shown at Palace and Chelsea in the past that he can be threatening—even from an unconventional role. There have been murmurs that Loftus-Cheek has played on the right during the recent friendlies, which complements Mount’s ability to play on the left.
The duo could be secret weapons that Lampard uses against Villa and after.
Alonso and James as wingbacks
How do you overcome the lack of wingers? Eliminate the necessity for them all together.
With a 3-5-2, Lampard can give Alonso and James the license to drive forward and actively contribute to attacks while being shielded from their defensive duties. Alonso has proved time and again that while playing as a wing-back, he is truly one of the best in the world. He can create and score goals at will and has the knack to do so at the most crucial times for the team.
James, on the other hand, is a sublime crosser of the ball, possibly the best in the team. He could lay balls out for the likes of Abraham and Olivier Giroud on a platter or pick out Alonso with his late runs from the opposite flank. The wing-back combination would not effectively replace the roles that wingers usually have, but carry a new threat of their own.
This would also allow Pulisic, Mount and Loftus-Cheek to play the role of inside forwards rather than wingers, which the latter two would find easier to adapt to.
The 4-4-2 diamond
Should all of them remain fit, Lampard will have eight central midfielders (including Tino Anjorin) at his disposal for the last leg of the season, while having only four fit forwards.
With the upcoming period primed to be the most hectic the club has ever seen; Lampard will have to ensure that he has two players in every position to maintain an effective rotation routine. The only way to do that would be to switch up his tactics to suit his personnel; enter the 4-4-2 diamond.
The diamond distributes the current crop of midfielders perfectly with the roles it brings; one deep-lying midfielder, two wide box-to-box midfielders and one attacking midfielder. The players fit in each role quite seamlessly too, beginning with Gilmour and Jorginho rotating at the base of the diamond as the deep-lying midfielder.
Kovacic, Kante, Loftus-Cheek and Anjorin would occupy the wide box-to-box midfield roles, with each bringing his own set of unique skills to the fold, perfectly striking the balance between defensive grit, elusive link-up play and driving forward with marauding runs.
Mount and Barkley would operate as the attacking midfielders. They would be tasked with relentless pressing the opposition while having the freedom to move around the final third to create chances. When the front two are stretched wide, they would also be tasked with playing the role of a shadow striker, which they are well capable of. This role accentuates their best traits and could help add a new, unconventional threat to the side.
The formation also allows Abraham, Pulisic, Giroud and Hudson-Odoi to rotate freely in the front two, ensuring that none of them are overexposed or overplayed.
Unlike most of the other Premier League teams, Chelsea has not released the highlights of the recent friendly victories. Could Lampard be withholding the footage to spring forth a new-look, tactically revitalized Chelsea side on Sunday?