On Sunday morning I sat and watched Chelsea play Luton Town, a middle table Championship team and saw all of the things that made Frank Lampard’s tenure as Chelsea’s manager both frustrating and enriching. Lampard, a club legend as a player, was let go on Monday with Chelsea far off track for European qualification in the Premier League and generally looking listless. It’s a harsh reality that I’m learning in soccer, with managers given less time than NFL coaches to turn things around. Patience, as I’ve learned, has never been a strong suit for this club, however even as Chelsea glided through the first part of this season in all competitions, it wasn’t too difficult to see why. I want to take a look back through the on-field issues that precipitated Lampard’s departure, especially as they seemed ever present in this seemingly unimportant FA Cup game against inferior competition that many believe Lampard knew would be his last game in charge.
When Lampard took over Chelsea, the club had been issued a transfer ban that, while eventually overturned, only provided one new player in Christian Pulisic, who’d been signed in January 2019, to be loaned back to Borussia Dortmund to finish out the 2018-2019 season. Lampard came in with a few players from the club he’d spent a year coaching at Derby County, along with some Chelsea academy prospects and a slew of young players who’d spend much of their time on loan at various lower level clubs. He also inherited some young, talented defenders, an expensive goalkeeper and quality experienced players who had shined at bigger clubs, but many of whom were getting older. In the 2019-2020 season, as Chelsea fought bravely to stay in Champions League contention, his expensive young goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, completely lost his confidence and brought the confidence of his defense down with him. When Chelsea played Liverpool late in the season, experienced defender Antonio Rudiger had to scream at Kepa to get the ball, as he capped off a disastrous restart with constant mistakes. Frank had to deal with his defense that was porous during his first year, most sharply evident by Kepa’s lack of poise and performance. The defenders suffered and the communication became so bad, as evidenced by early outings this season, that Chelsea clamored to sign Edouard Mendy, an older, experienced goalkeeper who’d been somewhat of a late bloomer, playing mid-table soccer in France. So with a new keeper early ths season, along with free transfer Thiago Silva, a stalwart, though older central defender, Chelsea should have had the confidence going forward that their defense could handle a possible change in the tactics, brought on by the immense wad of cash spent on offensive talent. Chelsea even bought Ben Chilwell, a young and very talented left back, with strong Premier League experience, to handle that side of the field, where Emerson and Marcos Alonso, with their more offensively focused game clashed with Lampard’s defensive demands for his wing backs.
As the season progressed with Mendy in goal, this defense proved formidable, rattling off one clean sheet after another, though almost always against poor competition, save draws at Tottenham and Manchester United. Oft loanee, Kurt Zouma, nailed down his backline role after proving his prowess during Project Restart, Chilwell flourished and Reece James started to give Garreth Southgate a headache with who to start at right back for the England national team. Silva was as advertised, a calming presence, bringing valuable experience to a troubled back line. Lost in this mess was Antonio Rudiger, the man who’d done a lot of recruiting of the German wonder boys brought in from the Bundesliga, along with the forgotten Andreas Christensen, always a hard worker and the intriguing Fikayo Tomori. The problem became evident as Frank’s inability to adjust his attack for the new found competence he had in the back, where all of these goal scoring droughts from Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner started. His inconsistent depth at the backline still gave him worry to truly empower his offense. Even starting Kepa against Luton Town, still brought the lack of confidence into focus as Kepa made another, albeit not all his fault, mistake to let in a goal against quite inferior opposition. Despite this game necessitating stat padding for the forwards, Lampard refused to press the ball upfield because even though Kepa was more than capable of handling himself against Luton town, Frank hadn’t empowered his defenders through both playing time and tactics to support pressing play. Emerson, a fixture for team Italy, couldn’t get any spells to help Chilwell get healthy as Chilwell dealt with a variety of nagging injuries, even as he’s admittedly done well at Chelsea so far. His failure at maintaining a healthy competition in the backline, settling on Silva and Zouma, even as the fixture cramming caught up with Silva at times, set the stage for the true lack of confidence in the Chelsea game plan.
Confident players know that if they make a mistake, it will be because of world class effort by their opposition or the natural lighting in a bottle play captured by an opposing player as Luton Town managed on Sunday with a goal. Chelsea defenders, even when they played well, always knew that Frank didn’t trust them enough to let them push the ball upfield. I clapped in glee whenever Kurt Zouma or Thiago Silva was allowed to hit a long ball to a winger to get something going if the offense stagnated, but those opportunities faded in the last month. Ben Chilwell, as an announcer astutely pointed out, seemed hampered by programming that forced him to play horizontally. His partner on the other side, Reece James, after spending a few weeks at the top of the English right back world, needed a confidence boost to take the next step towards Trent Alexander-Arnoldom, but clearly wasn’t empowered by Frank to be more of an offensive presence. All the while, apparently Rudiger stewed and as reported, may have contributed to the organizational turn against Lampard, spurned by a manager who didn’t believe in his talent, stuck with a goalkeeper who Lampard mismanaged, wilting on the bench in a prime year of his career.
I won’t pretend I know too much about Lampard’s career as a player, I only started following soccer seriously a few years ago. I know he was creative, a goal-scorer and generally embodied the prototype of a box to box midfielder, jack of all trades that provides so much value to a team in any given situation. Frank’s protege Mason Mount took a step this year, finally embracing his role in the midfield after flirty salaciously with being a forward and becoming the rock of this team at the moment. Mount held the captain’s armband on Sunday against Luton Town and as surprised as I was, it wasn’t undeserved. In all of this mess of a season, Mount’s development can’t be overlooked, despite his reputation and devotion to Lampard’s gameplan. Lampard loved ball control, to the extent of creating minimal chances and allowed the defense to sit in their defensive area as Chelsea tried in vain to score. I knew as soon as a break was on, I could count on Mount to slow it down, neutering any sort of risk taking that makes teams like Liverpool and Bayern Munich so dynamic. I also counted on Mount fighting like hell in defense, controlling the flow of the game in the midfield and trying his damndest every time he steps on the pitch, knowing the prototype is watching.
It’s not entirely surprising that the player who made the most strides under Lampard was Mount, but right there with him was Chelsea’s best player, who was last season injured often, but this year was unbelievable. That player, N’Golo Kante stands a talisman to gritty, unrecognized skill that central, defensively minded midfields often face. Kante’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed by Lampard, however for his best player, load management might have been prudent as Kante faces another stretch of injury after giving everything the first half of the season. Again, Lampard failed to properly develop an area and give direction to a skill group. I know he was working with an injured Billy Gilmour, a very young player, who looked both brilliant and stupefied at times last season. But you know who wasn’t stupefied? Mateo Kovacic. The vastly experienced, three time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, whose skills are acute, but were under managed by Lampard. I believe I’ve watched every minute of Kovacic this season and he never has any idea where he’s supposed to be or what he’s supposed to be doing. When I think he’s supposed to play deep and defend, I see him trying to spring an attack down the right wing, only to fly back with his over eager athleticism to commit a costly foul near the box in the defensive end of the field. A gifted passer and creator, Kovacic is never allowed to cook in the midfield to make use of his skills, promptly playing horizontally like everyone else, part of the muted attack. He and the similarly skilled, though highly defensively deficient Jorginho, formed the third wheel of this midfield lacking in direction. Mount knew his role as Lampard’s muse, a constant in the midst who did everything well except say no to Lampard’s possession based offense. Kante just worked and worked, but Kovaginho were left at a loss for their creative skill sets, put in a place to fail with their shortcomings as defenders.
The lack of depth didn’t help anything, but low and behold, early in the season through the success, Kai Havertz appeared to be adjusting to underwhelming Premier League competition, providing the opposite presence in the offensive end to Mount’s tenacity and Kante resolve. Kai and Kante at their best, were the spokes on which the bike wheels of the flow of the team depended upon. He wasn’t scoring goals, yes, a hallmark of his time at Bayer Leverkusen, however as his profile indicated, his understanding of the flow of midfield play made him invaluable as a bridge for the midfield to the offense. Then he got COVID, spent a few weeks away from the team and now looks unplayable most of the time. Even against Luton Town, Kai looked overwhelmed. He’s either still feeling the effects of COVID, something that needs to be taken more seriously or he’s hit a wall in a league he declared as much more difficult than the Bundesliga where the current best team just won the Champions League. I sincerely disagree with Kai by the way, but will admit the league in England is more physical. Kai’s timing is off. Passes he could make in Germany are being cut out by defenders on 14th place teams. He can’t just sit with that ball at his feet, he’s attacked and recently seems to have lost all function in his first touch, without the use of his size to shield the ball from pressure. Where Kai previously made things easier for Timo Werner and other forwards, he now looks bewildered most of the time, clearly unaware of his slate of responsibilities, something his manager is responsible for. Lampard definitely does not know what to do with a player like Havertz, a player he buckled under the financial pressure of incorporating with minimal understanding of fit. I just watched a Juventus game from this past weekend. Interestingly enough, Weston McKennie, a player asked to do everything by Schalke is thriving in his role as a scrappy defender, who can get forward, attacking the center of the defense as he hadn’t before and scoring goals consistently for one of Europe’s best teams. Juventus empowers his skills as an offensive player while providing a nurturing environment for him to succeed in his defensive responsibilities, something Lampard was under qualified to do with Kai. I don’t know if Kai will start scoring goals; it depends entirely on new manager Thomas Tuchel’s risk profile, but I believe Tuchel’s experience will at least inform him of the nuance of Kai Havertz’ #10 player profile. Ultimately, Frank was in over his head on integrating a player like Kai and it’s likely the stake that drove his tenure into the ground.
Well, onto the attack. Oh it’s so easy to look at this in terms of fit, motivation, hubris and age. Chelsea’s most prolific goal scorers this season are Tammy Abraham, the guy Timo Werner was brought in to replace and Olivier Giroud, the old man who just can’t stop being a mother fucking sniper. Lighting quick, Christian Pulisic, the young American who shined in project restart, struggled with health early on this season, only coming into form as the team around him crumbled. It’s hard to start with this area because as I indicated earlier, the lack of punch in Chelsea’s attack started with Lampard’s traumatic lack of confidence in his defense. But here it goes. The offense as I saw it was predicated on patient build-up through possession in the midfield with Mount and Kante, as Jorginho or Kovacic would try in vain to possess, but mostly look for deft forward passes (probably why they didn’t mesh with Lampard’s system). Offensively skilled backs in Ben Chilwell and Reece James were allowed to get forward enough, only if they could get off a perfect cross, something that happened less and less as the season went on. Pressure clearly built on them to not make mistakes, preventing counters by the opposing team. Reece and Ben could not count on Kovaginho or the backline to cover them, so any push forward had to yield a goal, a corner or a goal kick to allow them to get back in position. This is why Marcos Alonso failed because he’s a purely offensive left back, Emerson mostly the same. When the ball was able to be possessed around the box, Lampard depended on Pulisic, Werner, Hudson-Odoi lately and Hakim Ziyech to create magic out of thin air, while the forward of Giroud and Abraham or Werner in rare instances got central, looking for a ball in the air or pass on the ground. Abraham and Giroud were relatively successful in converting these attempts, with Giroud particularly thriving as he did against all forms of competition. When the ball came into full possession and Chelsea faced a strong defense, the opposing team needed only to really hold tight because the offense, like spectators, stared into the middle waiting for Pulisic or Werner to beat defenders off the dribble. The buildup created such a house of cards or deep Jenga game that any errant pass completely derailed the entire picture. If Chelsea were able to create, whether off a brilliant move from Ziyech, Pulisic or Hudson-Odoi, the central attackers had such little space as players clamored towards the middle that no space existed for a tight brilliant move to get a shot away or a quick pass for a goal. I can’t tell you how many times I saw Christian Pulisic take a defender off the dribble, on his preferred left side, create a shot, only to see it blocked because the defensive units knew that if they packed in tight Chelsea would become laser focused on completing passes and not much else.
I can’t begin this without talking about Timo Werner, the experienced, worldly-worn striker with a penchant for goals, challenging the great Robert Lewandowski for the German Golden Boot last season. Timo doesn’t really have any problems in his game right now, other than the fact that he knows his space is so limited and every opportunity matters. He can’t score goals because he’s clearly so nervous he won’t get another chance for about ten minutes given how long the build up takes. He’s not going to take someone on a break; his teammates have been instructed to go to the box and wait for further instruction and he knows if he can’t score, he might not get another chance. I watched a lot of Timo at RB Leipzig; he can play the left wing. His attacks were often from that area and he’d clearly been given the freedom to fail, something I believe Chelsea haven’t afforded him. His recent slump hasn’t been for lack of opportunity, but like an anti-Erling Haaland he gets everything but the goal. He’d recently been benched more or less by Lampard as Giroud emerged like he always does, scoring goals at will to keep Chelsea in games, with Pulisic fully healthy and maintaining Timo’s other position on the left side. Lampard made a mistake benching his most dangerous player because Timo makes things happen despite the restrictive system he played in. I know watching him when he had to pass the ball backwards hurt because no one made a parallel run for him to interplay with because they were too scared of Frank’s ire on the counter. It’s not his fault that things ended up this way and I know his skill will emerge, it’s just a matter of pace and space.
Speaking of pace and space, Christian Pulisic, Captain America, the Bearded Eagle, once (or twice) in the doldrums of Lampard’s team looks at times like Chelsea’s best player. He definitely was in Project Restart, making a legitimate claim to be among the world’s best left wingers for his performances in those few months to go along with some productive play earlier in the season. Pulisic is the definition of pace and space as he’s blessed with speed and dribbling ability, but needs space around him to properly interplay with teammates. Recently, Frank’s played him more than he ever has, starting and playing him 90 minutes more than any time while at Chelsea. Frank knew Pulisic had the creativity to make magic, but gave him nothing in terms of a game plan to make those dreams come to fruition. Pulisic banged his against the wall while playing a lot this season, only managing two goals with no assists (though at least 4 hockey assists which should absolutely be a thing in soccer) despite his playing time increasing dramatically. Against Luton Town, it was clear Pulisic knew he needed a goal and as he’d previously done during the team’s skid forced shots, runs at goal, passes, anything to make something happen. There was no method to his attack, just sheer pace and well not space, where his only aim was to score goals, regardless the flow of offense (which to be fair was stagnant). He looked to his teammates to provide support, but where none was given, took too long to make a decision before being stamped out by opposing defenses on his creative efforts. He’s the player I look most forward to seeing Tuchel’s system. He’ll be relied upon as a creator again, not only for himself as Lampard made him, but for others. You started to see him branch out more in the passing attack, getting crosses in, chipping balls forward, but now with his old coach, I expect he’ll flourish.
Hakim Ziyech will eat under Tuchel. He’s absolutely awesome and I have nothing else to say about him. Good luck to anyone who has to stand in the way of this man if this team gets on their feet. Terrifying.
I’m happy for the time I got to know this legend of the club I support. I’m a coach of sports myself and I know how hard it is and can’t imagine going back to the place where I was a legend as a player (I’m not a legend anywhere). Frank needed more experience before taking this on and I’d say should spend the next few years developing his skills. He clearly showed a skill by incorporating young players he didn’t choose into his game plan so the flexibility mindset is there. I don’t think he’s the guy who has a system and all players must fit that system, we know that doesn’t work in sports. He just needs the experience with different types of players to understand what they do best and put them in the best place to succeed, letting go of any fears he might have. It was a good run and I’m sorry to see him go, but this clearly wasn’t the best way for him to get his feet wet and who knows, he might be back in ten years, we’ll see.
Bo's Gamut 