When Frank Lampard took over chelsea last season, there was a general consensus that his chelsea side was going to struggle that year. With rivals spending big and looking like contenders, Lampard and Chelsea watched on as they were serving a transfer ban for breaching transfer rules. Selling Hazard for big money to Real Madrid deepen their woes as Hazard contributed to over 30% of chelsea’s goals the previous season.
Frank Lampard however proved everybody wrong just as he had in his playing career and led chelsea to a 4th place finish and an Fa Cup final.
He did this by playing an exciting brand of football and placing faith in academy graduates like Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham who took the chance and made most of it.
A new season is upon us and after spending close to £200m, Lampard knows the pressure is on to deliver trophies or join a long list of managers who were sent packing.
One of the major problems he has to fix is his defense. Had Chelsea not conceded 54 goals last season, they might as well finished higher than 4th. The manner in which certain goals were conceded suggests a lot of work needs to be done. The addition of only Thiago Silva seems to suggest Lampard doesn’t see it as a lack of quality defenders. It is therefore going to be interesting to see how he tweaks his defensive side of the game.
Chelsea have got to be a lot fitter this year. There was a lot of injuries to Kovacic and Pulisic last season and this really affected them since those two were very key to the success of the team. Both Pulisic and Azpilicueta got injured in the final of the Fa Cup and Lampard might perhaps feel he could have won with them on the pitch that evening.
With 5 new players added, Chelsea are going to be one of the most exciting teams to watch this year . It will be interesting to watch how the likes of Werner and Havertz adapt after moving from the Bundesliga. Thiago Silva undoubtedly the brings experience the defense lacked and Ziyech also brings a sort of creative spark the team needed. Should all things go well, Chelsea will be very potent upfront and are going to score loads of goals .
I however do not see Chelsea lifting the Premier League in May. There are still so many issues with that defense and might need to buy another quality defender to actually contend for the title. I however expect them to win one of the domestic trophies and finish in the top 3 for this season to be a success.
Frank Lampard has proven everybody wrong time and time again and therefore I wont be surprised if he does it again.
All images are property of Pinterest