Chelsea: Playing the kids in the FA Cup can help reboot the Blues

Frank Lampard may look to his younger contingent this weekend for a fresh lease of life that has been missing in Chelsea for the past month.

“You can’t win anything with kids,” Words that will plague Alan Hansen until his death bed; he’d be missing a trick if they weren’t scribed onto his tombstone. Frank Lampard will be looking to reverse Hansen’s theory on Sunday, as Chelsea welcome Morecambe in the FA Cup third round.

It is apparent that the Blues boss will be making wholesale changes to his starting line-up, likely to included several members from the junior set-up. These young stars will be chomping at the heels of their senior compatriots. Lampard has promoted five from the academy to train with the first-team, including 16-year-old Jude Soonsup-Bell. The eldest out of the bunch, Henry Lawrence, hadn’t even been conceived when Hansen uttered that infamous phrase in 1995.

Lawrence and Tino Anjorin—the only member of the youth brigade to have tasted action outside the U23s—were only 17 the last time Chelsea won the FA Cup. They now have the power to be a part of the process themselves, it’s just a shame Stamford Bridge won’t be full to see the start of it. Winning the game is priority, considering Chelsea’s collapse in form. Although, the kids are also there to win back the club’s spirit that has been swirling out of control.

They are there to prove the future is bright, however grim or gloomy the atmosphere has become in recent weeks. Talk of Lampard’s ice-thin future has been inconvenient, as has the form of his major signings. This freshly baked batch of exciting talent has the opportunity to rid these dilemmas, for 90 minutes at least, and give a glimpse of where Chelsea can be a few years down the line.

Players can have a rest, a phrase almost forbidden because of the ferocious fixture schedule. Allow them to refresh, whilst the teenagers happily hunt every ball and chase every pass as if their life depended on it. It will also majorly important for Kai Havertz to rediscover what he’s lost since his move from Germany. You sometimes forget he is only 21 years of age, yet so many of the even younger team members will look up to him, perhaps even idolize him. They’ve probably played with him on FIFA, or watched him dazzle in the Bundesliga. Havertz can be their model if he has the performance to support it.

All of that said, it’s not like these are unknown prospects. Anjorin has already gained priceless minutes in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup, not to mention excelling in the PL2 where he has been nominated for December’s Player of the Month award alongside Lewis Bate. Soonsup-Bell, who celebrates his 17th birthday on Sunday, recently became the first academy player to score four goals in an FA Youth Cup game for 59 years. Lawrence and Valentino Livramento have made over 100 appearances combined before they were called up to the top pitch at Cobham. They all have pedigree, with a bite to match the bark.

Chelsea can reboot its systems, installing a new program that involves an uncomplicated code called the kids. Let them be the ones to haul the Blues out of this rut and give them a gold medal.