Chelsea have appointed legend Frank Lampard as the interim manager until the end of the season. The Blues face Wolves in Lampard’s first game in charge and changes are expected from the English manager. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could be given a run after months of exile.
Lampard’s arrival should soothe the fans and give the CFC board enough time to conduct the exhaustive process to announce the next manager. Julian Nagelsmann, Antonio Conte, Luis Enrique, Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino are being considered for the role.
Initial talks and meetings have taken place with Nagelsmann and Enrique but Chelsea are determined to not make a hasty decision. With Lampard arriving at the helm, he promised that the slate for all players has been wiped clean and all will have an equal opportunity to impress the gaffer in the training.
Frank Lampard must use Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Wolves
"“Everyone can have a clean slate as such right now. In terms of the goalscoring, there is no genius answer. You can set up the structure, we saw that against Liverpool with chances. I’ll be here to work with repetition, to get the mindset to score goals.” (via Twitter)"
Under Graham Potter, Aubameyang’s role had been reduced to that of a benchwarmer and sometimes just a viewer from the stands. The Gabonese international was signed last summer by then manager Thomas Tuchel for €12 million. Just days after signing Aubameyang, Tuchel was sacked and the incoming manager Potter wasn’t a big fan of Aubameyang.
The player has played a total of 17 games for Potter, netting just three goals. Although it is not an impressive return, he was largely overlooked by Potter. Not featuring in Potter’s plans, Aubameyang was free to leave in the January transfer window but as per the FIFA transfer rules, a player can only be registered twice in a season and he was already registered with Barcelona and Chelsea.
This meant that he could only secure a move to Barcelona who were not in the position to sign the forward. Aubameyang has just started four Premier League games with his last start coming back in January.
With Potter now gone and Lampard promising a clean slate, the Gabonese international has a chance to return to the starting lineup. Chelsea’s goalscoring struggles have been imminent and highlighted under Potter. The former Brighton boss continued to prefer Kai Havertz in the forward role in place of Aubameyang.
Havertz doesn’t feel at ease in the central role and the arrival of Lampard could see Havertz playing as an inside right forward or an inside right No.8. Using Havertz up top has not been yielding positive results so ringing a change and bringing in Aubameyang should be worth a shot.
Will Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang start against Wolves?