After a difficult start to the season for Chelsea, it’s possible to criticise Frank Lampard without betraying the entire football club.
There’s a dichotomy at the heart of Chelsea right now. On one side, you’ve got those all in on Super Frankie Lampard, or you’re a supervillain. On the other, you’re part of the ‘#LampardOut’ brigade, posting your obligatory tweet after the first concession of a corner. Neither of these positions is admirable. Both are indicative of modern fandom and therefore, yeah, Twitter. A knowledge of these sides is important, but ignorance of either extreme is essential in honorable diagnoses.
It’s been easy to chalk up Chelsea’s losses so far to individual mistakes, and to be fair, there’s plenty of players in this side capable of errors. Too many to name, in fact, beyond head honcho Kepa Arrizabalaga. But at a certain point, the magnitude of these mistakes go beyond isolated incidents of misjudgment. Besides, ensuring all individuals are up to the job is a key part of, err, being a coach.
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When a team plays as well as the Blues did inside that first half hour, and fails to win, you have to look at the coach. When the team is newly configured and therefore exempt from any real accusations of attitudinal issues, you’ve gotta look hard.
It’s not like Southampton leveled things up before halftime. Lampard had time to ward off complacency, reiterate game plans and stress the importance of composure. Perhaps his biggest indictment is that the end result flashed before every fan’s face when Danny Ings popped the first one in. Lampard either didn’t or couldn’t do anything to change it, neither of which covers him in glory.
Now of course you can’t blame him explicitly for Kurt Zouma’s poor back pass or Kai Havertz’s lax handling off the ball inside his own half or even Arrizabalaga’s inability to keep full-stop. But you can blame Lampard for the imbalanced construction of this side, its haphazard defending and the unstuck chemistry that has bred this incessant inconsistency.
You can question the decision to bring on Hakim Ziyech in such a tight game. Yes, he needs minutes; yes, fans are desperate to see him. However, chucking him on in such a tight situation when defensive shape was paramount, and the need for cohesiveness on the counter equally integral given those defensive deficiencies, was naive. When that coincides with the removal of Mason Mount, the team’s greatest presser alongside N’Golo Kante, you’re bordering on malpractice.
To be fair, it’s not like there weren’t positives to take from Saturday. Timo Werner was exceptional, as was Kante, while Jorginho was exemplary on the ball (that assist, my god) and exhausting off it. Christian Pulisic looked lively and Ben Chilwell was a breath of fresh air until he paused for breath. The third goal was everything we’ve dreamed of in this new age of attacking abundance come to delicious visual fruition.
If Lampard is to take credit for that though, he must take the fall for the failure to get the three points in the process. This is especially true given the Saints weren’t deploying the kind of low block that has foiled the Blues in their previous disappointments against middling opposition. They were going for it just as much—if not more—than the home side.
That’s cause for concern for a so-called swashbuckling team that still can’t defend. That, when it’s all said and done, is the biggest indictment of the manager. The defensive ineptitude has only grown under his tenure, with few signs of stemming the bleeding, while the attack has only intermittently met expectations. This is not a call for his head though—far from it. This is a cry to give him the respect he deserves, and instead of mollycoddling him with whataboutery, actually criticise him when he gets things wrong, as any manager will do.
Obviously he hasn’t been helped by the non-existent preseason, nor the number of niggling injuries, but neither has anyone else in these times. It’s hard to imagine there’s not a fair few tacticians out there who’d relish the chance to succeed him given the team’s potential. That pressure always exists at Stamford Bridge. While the socially-distanced feelers shouldn’t be sent out just yet, they shouldn’t be granted a sabbatical anytime soon either.
What’s required now is a sturdy performance midweek against a seriously serious Sevilla side. The Europa League champions are no mugs. In fact, they’re one of the best teams in Europe, just ask all-conquering Bayern Munich.
A strong Champions League start, and the Lampard project is back on track. Another tortuous evening of ‘woulda, shoulda couldas’ and the questions of his merit could get louder. Personally, I’d rather not be part of that group, but some reassuring answers would be nice.