Chelsea: Assessing Frank Lampard halfway through his initial contract

3. Results

In order to understand the results, one must first take a look at the context. When viewing the numbers and league places with no context, it’d be easy to deem the Lampard experiment a failure in its first 18 months. However, when you put a bit of perspective around those figures, it paints a clearer picture and flips the script.

Things were always going to be tough for Lampard in his first season. We’ve all heard the storyline ad nauseam: the Blues were facing a transfer ban, dealing with the loss of Eden Hazard and they were in a transitional period. Add a worldwide pandemic and Premier League stoppage to the mix and things got even trickier for the then second-year manager. Regardless of all this, the English boss laced up his boots and prepared to weather the storm. Nobody truly knew what to expect from Chelsea last season, with some pundits predicting the Blues to finish middle of the pack.

While the Blues failed to win a trophy—but making it as far as the FA Cup final—they exceeded expectations by finishing inside the top four. This put Lampard’s team ahead of his three-year plan to build Chelsea up from the rubble. It also allowed the Blues to make a plethora of world class signings and replace the deadwood that was in the team previously.

Fast forward to this season though and all of that hard work seems to have been forgotten. If there was one way to describe how this season has gone for Chelsea, it’d be consistently inconsistent. The Blues have won just one of their last six after going on an unbeaten run spanning almost two calendar months. Despite the recent bad run of form, they sit fifth in the Premier League table (seven points back of the league leaders) and are through to the UCL round of 16 after winning Group E.

In spite of all of these achievements, a surprisingly large portion of the fanbase continues to call for Lampard to be sacked. After spending so much money in the summer window, many expected the Blues to challenge for the title right away. Lampard—along with rational fans—are not a part of that ‘many’ though. The gaffer made it clear before the season started that the team’s objective for the season was to reduce the gap between itself and the league leaders. Liverpool finished 33 points ahead of Chelsea last season and at the turn of the new year, the Blues sit just seven points back of the Reds.

Nearly every team in Europe’s top five leagues has struggled with consistency, so only judging Lampard based on this current run seems harsh. Further, when you take a look at his expectations according to his three-year plan, he’s actually overachieving again this season. Not to mention the fact the Blues will get into stride again soon and continue to rise in the league table.

Overall, Lampard has failed to bring silverware to Stamford Bridge. While this doesn’t sit well with the Chelsea faithful, one has to consider the long-term structure he’s putting into place. Lampard’s building a team to dominate the English top flight for the next decade and if that means sacrificing a few points here or there in the second season, he’ll pay that price. When giving context to the statistics, it’s easy to see Lampard is steering this ship in the right direction.

What do you think of the job Lampard has done thus far? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!