Three things Everton (and Chelsea) fans can expect from Frank Lampard

It finally happened. After over a year in the wilderness waiting for the right third act, and spending time with his new born, Chelsea legend Frank Lampard has reentered management. After being linked to Celtic, Rangers, Crystal Palace, Norwich, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Watford to varying degrees, Lampard has finally settled on what is perhaps the boldest choice of all: Everton.

Everton has resources and a squad much better than their 16th position shows, but under poor backroom management and Rafa Benitez they have sunk and sunk. Still, Carlo Ancelotti showed they had potential and Lampard will be hoping to be closer to his former Italian boss than his former Spanish one. Chelsea fans will be watching Everton closely so long as Lampard is there, so what things can fans of both clubs look for?

1. Aggressive (sometimes crazy) tactics

Lampard mostly prefers the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 with dual eights. Both shapes usually incorporate overlapping fullbacks, wingers that tuck in tightly, at least one midfielder staying back to sweep loose balls, and a high press with a high line. He wasn’t able to quite convince Chelsea of it in the same way as Derby, but he wants the ball moved quickly forward and the shots to fall like rain.

It’s aggressive in pretty much every way. The press and highline are there to force the opponent back. The fast play is there to ensure the opponent can never reset into a defensive shape after losing the ball. Shooting on sight is there because A: you need to shoot to score and B: because Lampard made a career out of the unexpected goals.

All of this relies on the team playing with aggression in every phase of play and making their own decisions (rather than using circuits) to catch the opponent off guard. At a team like Derby County, it worked very well. At Chelsea, a team that just came off Maurizio Sarri’s overall conservative, possession based approach, it had some hiccups. When done right, a Lampard side can blast an opponent away like they did to Everton in a 4-0 victory right before the Covid delay. When done wrong, things can be disastrous.

The aggression of the tactics requires total commitment from all 11 players for 90 full minutes. Anything less from anyone and it can fall apart rapidly. Because the line is high and the fullbacks often push up, the two centerbacks can easily be countered and often with poor results. Relying so much on speed of passing, shooting frequently, and decisions can make losing possession a constant battle which is less than ideal for a team that is so weak to counters. And if the speed is lowered and the shots fewer to compensate, then the attack falls apart and goes blunt.

This is not going to look anything like Rafa Benitez’s Everton. It’ll look closer to Carlo Ancelotti’s but with the strengths, and weaknesses, turned up to 11. When it works, it works well. When it doesn’t, it is usually a disaster.