Chelsea: Shades of Maurizio Sarri in Frank Lampard’s lack of rotation

Supporters may not like the comparison, but there is at least one way in which current Chelsea boss Frank Lampard resembles his predecessor, Maurizio Sarri.

The calls for Frank Lampard to be fired are just about as ridiculous as the calls for Maurizio Sarri to be brought back in. Even if Sarri came back, Chelsea fans would still be confronted with the same issues they have now. It was a lack of rotation that hurt Sarri and it is that same rigidity in Lampard that has greatly contributed to this recent downtrend.

Firstly, Maurizio Sarri was never the right manager for the job. He wasn’t when he was appointed, he wasn’t when he was in charge, and he is not the right man for the job now either. The prospects seemed different under Lampard in his first season in charge though. Some excellent tactical victories against the likes of Tottenham, Man City and Liverpool suggested that Lampard was well on his way to replicating his success for Chelsea from the dugout. Without any true star players, Lampard was also forced to rotate in order to get the most out the players he had at his disposal.

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Over the Blues’ 17-game unbeaten run, Lampard was being praised for transforming Chelsea into title contenders. Now all of that is forgotten with even the most ardent of Lampard fans believing that the leash is significantly shorter, and the end could be close. What hasn’t been forgotten is Roman Abramovich’s notorious patience, or lack thereof.

Where did it all go wrong for Lampard though?

Let’s clear up some obvious points first: Lampard has had injuries and player slumps hit at the worst possible time, in a tough stretch of games, over the busiest period of the season. If Timo Werner was not on a 12-game barren run in front of goal, conceivably the losses at Everton and Wolves would’ve been reversed. The same can be said of the draw at Aston Villa, while against Arsenal he would have likely scored the penalty mounting the pressure on a vulnerable team that was showing cracks. Even if Chelsea could not muster a third against Arsenal, those two losses and a draw even becoming three draws and “#LampardOut” does not have the traction is currently holds.

If Kai Havertz had hit the ground running, assisting and scoring like he was in Germany, Lampard would not have these problems either. The absence of Hakim Ziyech has been monumental—this is all obvious. If your best players are in top form, you’ll collect more wins than not. It isn’t just out of form players; Lampard needs to shoulder some of the blame and it’s the similarity he has with Sarri that has cursed him. Lampard, just like Sarri, hasn’t rotated his players enough.

Think back to Sarri’s time at the Bridge and how everyone knew that at about 60 minutes Ross Barkley would come on every time without fail. There was no imagination in his line-up or his substitutions, and the same can be said of Lampard in this recent slump. Lampard has stuck with his 4-3-3 and pretty much the same 13 players; gone are the tactical nuances and formation switches he used to counteract Spurs, City and Liverpool last year.

With the absence of Ziyech, Callum Hudson-Odoi was the only natural winger on the bench, yet Lampard repeatedly opted to play Christian Pulisic on the right and Werner on the left for the full 90 minutes, despite the former only recently coming back from injury and the latter exhausted. Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Emerson, while certainly not as good as Kurt Zouma, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell, are still more than capable, yet have been underused. Werner needed a break a month ago. N’Golo Kante is apparently the only defensive midfielder at the club, but his levels have dropped and he’s making atypical mistakes, all while Billy Gilmour is in desperate need of minutes and has shown he can play at a high level.

Furthermore, someone needs to remember that Olivier Giroud is 34. He cannot be the devastatingly effective forward he has proven he can be, if he plays significant minutes five games in a row over the space of less than 15 days. Yes, Giroud has scored in some of those games, but with Werner and Abraham, why not rotate more? Why not try Kai Havertz as a false nine—a position he excelled in for Bayer Leverkusen?

About three games into Werner’s goalless drought, he looked exhausted. He has featured in all of Chelsea’s Premier League games, every Champions League game and Chelsea’s domestic cup competitions. Where Werner would hit the ball first time previously, he now takes a touch and the opportunity fades; when he has the space, he either gets the ball caught in his feet or his body position is leaning back and very open so his shots reflect that. All very uncharacteristic of a striker of his ability and pedigree yet it screams of exhaustion. These mistakes aren’t common for Werner, but sheer exhaustion is seeping into his decision making and it contributes to his poor touches and body positions. What is a massive positive is that Werner continues to run tirelessly in games, which is a great show of determination, but the catch-22 of it all is that it tires him more, resulting in missed opportunities further denting his confidence.

Of course, Lampard wants continuity and stability in his team, but he needed to find a balance between that and overworking a small group of players. The lack of rotation is not about recent games, this is about Lampard’s refusal to rotation during Chelsea’s unbeaten run over an easier part of the schedule. It’s a short sightedness that few would expect of a manager who played for so long, perhaps due to the fact that Lampard as a player made 164 consecutive Premier League appearances.

All of that being said, the Blues are in a rough patch now and while the lack of rotation a month ago is coming back to hurt Lampard now, he certainly shouldn’t lose his job over it.