Lets Talk About Lampard

What a job he's doing huh

I was skeptical of his appointment initially, I've never doubted his intelligence, both football related or in general, but with the transfer ban I felt it was too big a punt to go with someone so inexperienced & potentially could've ruined the chance of a fantastic, unifying successful appointment down the road after he'd gained said experience (however long it took). But f@ck me how wrong I was.

A lot of Chelsea fans will point to many different reasons why he's been a success so far - the integration of the youth, his likable media persona cultivating a positive club image, a committed effort to imprint a progressive tactical philosophy, etc... but the big one for me, almost contradictory to the reasons for my initial skepticism, has been his willingness to experiment, but more importantly a consistent pattern of learning from that approach. The number of times this season I've failed to predict the lineup compared to last is incredible, there's been times where he's tried things I hadn't thought of but knew he was onto something (e.g. Spurs away), there's been times I've looked at it & instantly knew that's not going to work (Southampton home) but was quickly corrected even if the result was done, and there's been times I dunno what the hell he's doing (Thursday's match) yet it worked . And this goes right back to match day one playing an aggressive 4231 vs. a United with pace in behind everywhere in their attack, and yet on another day we'd have won that game or drawn it 4-4

But the beauty of this is a season going through many of the same ebbs and flows of the last but the feeling of progression that we're heading in the intended direction faster is SO much more profound. I was & am no Sarri hater but one thing that was frustrating about him at times was his reluctance to experiment - not with style, cos that's his thing, but with system & personnel.

And I post this article now because on Thursday we saw something that hasn't happened since the early days of Conte & Sarri got chastised for not doing - Kante was playing defensive midfield. This has been discussed ad nauseam and I personally have never seen the value of playing Kante in this position, consistently at least, but Lampard did it. Now if another manager did this, particularly early on, I'd be wary of them instantly & I like to think I see the value in 99% of managers (the only one of ours I disliked in my Chelsea fandom was Avram Grant), it would've shown me either tactical naivety or a weak willed individual bowing to outside pressure. But because of Lampard's liberal tactical profile this season I see that and believe (a) he has a unique plan for that particular match, and (b) if it doesn't work he'll quickly ditch it. And the fact he's managed to instill that belief in me, a massive tactics nerd, with a decision I find boneheaded to be completely honest is remarkable

Super Frank