State of the Chelsea youth revolution: The leader behind it all

Chelsea’s Frank Lampard is not just the man he started the youth revolution; he is part of it. What has been the young manager’s trajectory?

Every revolution needs a leader. Often times, that person is just as young or inexperienced in their role as some of those they bring in to it. Frank Lampard is no different.

It is easy to get caught up in Mason Mount’s, Tammy Abraham’s, or Reece James’ story but it is often forgotten that the hiring of Lampard himself is somewhat of a youth revolution. It is exceedingly rare (well, not as much as it used to be) for massive clubs to hire one of their own with very little management experience. Pep Guardiola started the trend, Zinedine Zidane justified it, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s early Manchester United success made Chelsea and others all consider it a good idea.

Lampard had only had one solid year in management at Derby County prior to Chelsea giving him the call. Truth be told, once a manager has gone through all their badges the main thing that separates the successful from the unsuccessful is the management of resources. Some, like Guardiola and Zidane, have always had them. Others, like Solskjaer, suddenly saw a jump up in talent and ability that he didn’t have before. That is where Lampard finds himself.

Generally, young managers get the benefit of a gradual rise in club resources over time. The jump from Derby County to Chelsea is certainly not gradual. While Lampard in his second year of management would likely have been as tactically astute as Lampard in his fifth, tenth, or 15th year, in a different world he would have had the time to adjust to bigger personalities and a stronger ability to lure in talent.

Luckily, Chelsea has never really been the club where big personalities steer the conversation, at least not since the old guard left. Lampard also had the help of bringing in several players he had worked with the season before or played with during his career. He also had to wait for the transfer ban to end. All of these things have caused a divergence from Solskjaer’s path at United.

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Lampard had to work with the side he had so the jump in resources was solely in player quality for the first season. This gave him an unnatural amount of time to work with the players he had on hand, learning their strengths and weaknesses. By the time the summer window of 2020 finally came around, he knew exactly how to deploy his resources in the most effective way. He did not have to adapt to that sudden jump because he had time to adjust.

Furthermore, the quality of the players has only made Lampard more tactically astute, though again, managers will likely change little over time overall. The main difference between Derby County and Chelsea is Lampard’s willingness to change the shape before matches. He would often chance during matches at Derby as he does with Chelsea, but only in Blue has he really gone with sweeping changes from the start.

Beyond that, players of Chelsea’s caliber are much better suited for the style he wants than Derby County’s relative to the players around them. It is one thing for a club of Championship level players to attempt to press and control possession while playing direct, and another for a side full of the best players in the world to do so. Lampard’s tactics really haven’t changed and they won’t, they have just become more refined around the quality he has available to him.

None of this is to say that Lampard is already as good as he’ll get as a manager. He can adapt with new trends and adopt new ideas, but he won’t suddenly turn Chelsea into 2008-2012 Barcelona. Look at Jurgen Klopp and how he had to build the right team at Liverpool to succeed. He didn’t become a better manager in the last five years, he simply got better resources. Lampard, given the time, can be much the same and recent signs prove just that.