Lampard puts youth revolution on hold to rely on senior heads
Emerging Chelsea talent earn ‘leeway’ as tough season begins to take its toll, writes Sam Dean
The promise of youth is an invigorating force at a football club, especially one such as Chelsea, but the revolution can be draining for the players involved. For obvious reasons, plenty has been made of Frank Lampard’s freewheeling youngsters this season, from Mason Mount to Reece James and top-scorer Tammy Abraham, yet as the campaign draws on and their legs grow heavy, it is hard to avoid the sense that it is all beginning to take a toll.
Certainly, Chelsea’s recent performances have largely fallen short of those thrilling days in September and October, when Lampard’s side cruised to seven consecutive victories and the kids looked ready to lead a serious charge up the table. Fikayo Tomori and Callum Hudson-odoi were heavily involved and, for a time, Chelsea were perhaps the most exciting side in the Premier League.
In recent games, though, Lampard has turned to more senior figures. In part, this is because injuries to Abraham, Hudson-odoi and Christian Pulisic have forced his hand. In other positions, Lampard has actively pivoted away from youthful promise in favour of steadier heads.
Lampard’s past four teams have been Chelsea’s four oldest line-ups of the season, which is indicative of the shift in emphasis since the festive period. The caveat is that the presence of 38-year-old Willy Caballero has skewed the average age statistics, although his inclusion over Kepa Arrizabalaga, 25, is noteworthy in itself.
The same can be said for the sidelining of defender Tomori, the 22-year-old who was so impressive in the first half of the season that he was given his first England cap in November. Tomori has not played in the Premier League since December, and has been restricted to two FA Cup games in 2020.
Lampard said yesterday that it was natural for there to be “dips” with his youngsters. For most of them this is their first full campaign in the Premier League, which presents its own physical and mental demands. For example the injury to Abraham, who is struggling to get over a nagging ankle problem and will miss today’s trip to Bournemouth, was presumably not helped by the way he played through pain in matches this year.
“It has been a frustrating one,” Lampard said. “We have seen him come back and then go away again. Sometimes things are like that. If he is not comfortable he probably has to come out for a few days at least and see where it is going.”
Elsewhere, there have been dips in form. Mount had scored six goals by Dec 4, but has not found the net since. James has been a revelation at right-back, yet he was made to look his age on Tuesday night, when Bayern Munich’s Serge Gnabry and Alphonso Davies put on an exhibition of speed and skill down Chelsea’s right flank.
“For a full season, it’s understandable there can be dips, there can be times when they [the young players] come out,” Lampard said. Therefore there must be some “leeway”, as Lampard says. Not a lessening of expectations in the long term, but an acceptance that it is challenging in the extreme for players of this age to remain consistent across an entire season.
“I actually don’t think of them as young,” Lampard said. “I know they are young and I have to have that as a bit of a consideration. But if they train at a level and play at a level, I am not too concerned about that. I don’t look at a game and think the young lads did well in that one and the old ones not so. Sometimes it’s been the young lads earlier this season who have stepped up and that was great. And sometimes they have had it difficult.
“Maturity will come, that’s why we have to give them some leeway this year, without a doubt. For Mason and Reece on Tuesday it was a huge game for them in terms of their learning curve.
“I didn’t play my first Champions League game until my midtwenties and for me it was an uplift at that level, let alone at their age. Reece was playing at Wigan in the Championship last season and Mason was at Derby. Now they are going up against Thiago and the flying machine Davies from Bayern, and Gnabry as well. It was a huge test. Make no bones about it. It was a difficult night for them for sure.”
With Chelsea on a run of two wins in seven matches, there may be more difficult nights ahead. Adversity will make the youngsters stronger in the long run, but the worry will be what it might do to Chelsea in the short term.