The week Chelsea’s Frank Lampard embraced his inner Jose Mourinho

Back to back nil nil draws against top opposition revealed a new side of Frank Lampard. This is the week Chelsea’s manager embraced his inner Jose Mourinho.

Up until this point, if one manager Frank Lampard played under had to be chosen as his biggest tactical influence, it would probably be Carlo Ancelotti. A fluid and often changing pressing formation that relies on the individuals flowing in perfect unison to confuse and cripple the opponent.

That is, until this week. With defense being a clear issue behind an impressive attack, Frank Lampard closed up shop. At the expense of attack, he reeled things in, shelled up, and said “no more”. If Ancelotti was the angel on one shoulder prevailing up until now, Jose Mourinho was the devil on the other shoulder that won this past week.

Perhaps the most classic case of this idea for Mourinho came after Lampard was already gone. The Blues were an amazing, free flowing attacking side during the first half of 2014/2015. Not entirely unlike his current Tottenham side. Ironically, it was a crushing 5-3 loss to Spurs on New Years day that caused Mourinho to go into full clean sheet mode. The remainder of that season was a completely different team than the one before, with wins coming through individual moments of brilliance rather than anything free flowing.

That is what Lampard has done after an embarrassing 3-3 draw to West Brom and a collapse late on against Southampton for another 3-3. Forgotten in the narrative of Southampton is how beautiful the attack was in the first half. Lampard has now shut that down. Against Sevilla and Manchester United, Lampard’s set up was about not conceding. It would be patently false to say he set up to not lose, but he certainly set up not to concede.

This is also another classic Mourinho idea. Mourinho always believed that his sides could dictate proceedings against “smaller” teams and get the points they should. Against the bigger teams, his focus shifted away from outscoring to conceding less. In his second Chelsea stint, he often brought Ramires in from the cold exclusively for matches against bigger opponents. His 4-2-3-1 became a 4-3-3 with a focus on defense first. It wasn’t about playing not to lose, but it was certainly about playing not to concede.

Mourinho built his title on 0-0’s or narrow wins against their direct rivals. It would be incorrect to say Lampard’s Chelsea should consider themselves in a title race or in contention for the Champions League, but against Sevilla and Manchester United, he opted for Mourinho’s defense first set up. It worked on the back end at the expense of that free flowing attack seen against Southampton.

Lampard isn’t wrong to have shelled up against Sevilla and United after the Southampton collapse. The new found defensive solidarity will go a long way towards emboldening the attack in future games and it was far more important not to lose either game than it is to outright win them at this point. Both the Premier League and Champions League are in such early stages that those two lost points can be picked up later, but dropping three to direct rivals would be crushing.

That being said, Lampard has to find a way to keep the stability while opening up the goal scoring floodgates against Krasnodar, Burnley, Rennes, and Sheffield United. This is where Mourinho often stumbled. He was able to recognize when to shell up and grind things out, but he always struggled to get his sides to come back out of that shell when needed.

To borrow from another former Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte was spot on when he said the game is about balance. It is a back and forth between being defensive enough to avoid mishaps while being attacking enough to win games and do so in an entertaining way. Lampard made the right decisions this week to have what we hold, but for the next run he’s got to build on that foundation with wins.