Frank Lampard is approaching the midway point of his initial three-year Chelsea contract, but how has he performed thus far?
Frank Lampard joined Chelsea in the summer of 2019, signing an initial three-year contract with the Premier League giant. The appointment of the club legend was a breath of fresh air to Blues fans everywhere. After Maurizio Sarri departed west London—leaving Chelsea as battered and broken as ever—Lampard was left to pick up the pieces. He attacked the challenge head on, never backing down from what many others would view as a daunting task. Lampard was already a beloved figure amongst Blues faithful, which is why his appointment made a whole lot of sense. The Chelsea board needed to mend the relationship between the club and its fans; the 41-year-old was the perfect man for the job.
However, as this year drags on, the jury is still out on the gaffer. Many believe that after spending so much money this window, the Blues should undoubtedly be better. On the other hand, it’s easy to look around Europe and see the impact COVID-19 has on the continent’s top leagues. Consistency is seemingly non-existent with some of the world’s biggest clubs this season, as they fail to top their respective league tables at the turn of the year.
We’re now at the halfway point of Lampard’s managerial contract, so it’s time to assess his performance thus far. In order to evaluate the job he’s done, I’m going to be taking a look at three categories: team management, results and relationship with the club and its fans. Here is how Lampard has performed in the first half of his stay as manager of the Blues:
1. Relationship with the club and its fans
Sarri took the fragile relationship between club and fans into his hands and crumpled it up into a ball before throwing it away during his tenure. Not since Rafa Benitez’s interim stint had Chelsea been led by someone as controversial and hated as the Italian. This meant Lampard had a lot of mending to do to fix this broken partnership that is vital to the long-term success of any football club.
As expected, Lampard’s appointment roped all ostracized fans back into the club. Chelsea supporters were ecstatic when one the Blues’ best players ever took the reins and chose to lead his beloved club into battle. A very vocal minority on social media continues to cry “#LampardOut” in memory of their cherished Sarri—who many don’t understand left Chelsea, not the other way around. The Blues social media support is incredibly reactionary, but make no mistake about it, a majority of proper Chelsea fans think Lampard is the man to usher in a new era at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard’s relationship with the club should speak for itself, just take a look at the Blues’ summer transfer window. The board backed the manager heavily, unlike those who came before him. Lampard was given a war-chest of cash to splurge on some world class talent. While the spending spree saw the expectations and pressure rise, it showed the commitment from both the club and manager. Further, Lampard’s close ties to owner Roman Abramovich, director Marina Granovskaia and technical/performance advisor Petr Cech represent the first healthy club-coach relationship in a long, long time.
2. Team management
We’re a year and a half into Lampard’s tenure with the team and no player has cropped him out using emojis, so that’s a start. All jokes aside, Lampard has handled his team extremely well. Being a former superstar himself, there weren’t many doubts he’d be able to do so, but his man management has been superb.
Throughout his 18-month spell in charge, he’s only had two questionable relationships with players. The first being David Luiz, who he promptly shipped out to Arsenal on deadline day back in the summer of 2019. Luiz and Lampard are likely still mates off the pitch, regardless of what happened behind closed doors, which means this contentious connection is likely anything but. The young manager was extremely clear as to what the veteran defender’s role was in the upcoming season and when he wasn’t satisfied or willing to take a lesser spot in the squad, Lampard kicked him to the curb.
The third-year coach has built a culture around the club centered around giving one’s all for the badge. He tolerates nothing less—and it shows. The other broken link in the chain is between the manager and Marcos Alonso. Alonso attempted to watch the second half of a brutal bout at West Brom from the bus after being pulled off at halftime. This didn’t sit well with the man in charge, especially considering Mateo Kovacic displayed perfect behavior after also taking an early shower on the day. Lampard has seldom even given Alonso a place in the matchday squad since, proving that he believes no individual is bigger than the club.
Lampard has also given more minutes to young players than any of his predecessors. Fans have watched countless young talents walk out the door—you know the names: Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah, etc.—in recent years due to lack of first team opportunities. The Blues have also seen players like Jeremie Boga, Bertrand Traore, Declan Rice and Jamal Musiala depart the academy for numerous reasons and go on to ball out for another club. Something had to change or Cobham would become a graveyard for young talent.
Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Billy Gilmour and Fikayo Tomori have all found their way into the first team with multiple developmental side players making debuts in the last two seasons, as well. Lampard has opened the door for academy stars to make their way into the senior side and that’s something will continue to benefit the Blues, even long after Lampard has departed. Not to mention, multiple of the aforementioned academy graduates now have a pathway to becoming world class players in Lampard’s Chelsea side.
Another impressive part of Lampard’s man management is his pull power. Players like Timo Werner and Kai Havertz cited the desire to be a part of something special under Lampard as one of the main reasons for choosing Chelsea. The midfield legend relates to the budding talent and they want to play under a middle of the park maestro. Lampard knows what it means to win and he’ll stop at nothing to get the best out of his players, help them develop and most importantly, capture titles.
Lastly, he’s handled the PR side of things to perfection. There is the occasional media “rant”—for lack of a better term—but Lampard has remained composed and largely kept the headlines away from himself. He handles things behind closed doors and doesn’t make a fool of himself in the public eye, which is much more than other managers can say. Lampard will seldom throw his players under the bus or even go as far as to criticize them in the media. Instead, he attempts to boost their confidence and maintain good relationships with the men he leads. The best example of this is his handling of the Kepa Arrizabalaga situation. Despite being one of the world’s worst goalkeepers last season and being frozen out of the side this year, Lampard won’t speak ill of his former No. 1; instead electing to praise the work ethic of the Spaniard.
Nobody is perfect—not even Lampard. Although there is the occasional blip where the manager will slip up and make a mistake, be it tactically or socially, he’s done a superb job playing peacemaker in one of the most stressful jobs in world football.
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!