Frank Lampard’s appointment as Chelsea manager led to praise in the English media from the moment he was given the job. It felt like Lampard could do no wrong in his new position.
Then, Chelsea were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United on Sunday at Old Trafford. Lampard looked like a wounded duck with few ideas on how to improve things as bad went to worse.
In his defence, Chelsea went into the match with injuries to Willian and Antonio Rudiger, two players who would have been in the starting XI if fit. Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek also missed out due to injury giving the manager few options off the bench.
But like all managers, Lampard must overcome injuries. Perhaps the biggest problem that Lampard has been hamstrung with is the sales of players over the summer. The transfer of Eden Hazard was a long time coming, but the Blues did not have to sell veteran centre-back David Luiz nor did they need to release defender Gary Cahill.
Sure, both are on the wrong side of 30, but Chelsea’s defence was completely torn apart by a weak Manchester United counter-attack time and again on Sunday. Manchester United should be given credit for putting away their chances. However, to say it was vintage Manchester United would be stupid. Chelsea’s poor defending was just as much to blame as Manchester United’s attack was to be praised for the final score.
It wasn’t just the bad defending by Chelsea that caused such a lopsided result. The Blues outshot Manchester United 18-11 and kept more possession with 53.8%. The Blues hit the woodwork twice and had more shots on target at 7-5.
But there was little in the way of a cutting edge. Lampard chose to start Tammy Abraham over the Premier League’s most underrated striker Oliver Giroud. Although Abraham was a revelation at Aston Villa last season with 25 EFL Championship goals, starting a veteran like Giroud would have made more sense at Old Trafford.
Mason Mount was also included in the attack as was Ross Barkley on the right wing. Lampard chose not to start £58 million transfer signing Christian Pulisic. The American started on the bench and came on for Barkley in the second half. Why pay so much money and start the forward on the bench?
Pulisic wasn’t outstanding when he came on, but he did complete 12 of 12 passes. Unfortunately, many of those passes were short moves that did little to advance Chelsea’s attack. However, Pulisic to complete one key pass, according to WhoScored.com. It was the same total as Barkley in terms of key passes.
If Chelsea supporters and the media expected the Blues to be successful simply due to Lampard’s past with the club, they were foolish. He can exceed as a manager, but having had a transfer ban and an imbalanced team at his disposal is likely to doom his time at Stamford Bridge.
I can picture the headlines now in newspapers around England, “Lampard sacked for giving young players a chance”. The truth is, he did give young players a chance against Manchester United mixing them with veteran personnel. However, they didn’t gel at Old Trafford.
Chelsea are not the type of club to give managers long periods to get their houses in order. If the Blues struggle in the Premier League, Lampard will just be another managerial casualty. Lampard may be a promising English manager, but the worst career move he made could turn out to be going back to Stamford Bridge.
