Ruthless edge helps Lampard thrive in first year

Chelsea manager has shown he is not afraid to make brave calls and has been rewarded with an excellent debut season

It was Carlo Ancelotti who wanted to break “the untouchable” culture first fostered by Jose Mourinho at Chelsea that Frank Lampard was very much a part of.

When Ancelotti arrived in the summer of 2009, his plan was to rotate the squad and break up Mourinho’s group of players who could be guaranteed places.

Legend has it that when news filtered through to the dressing room that Lampard was going to be rested for one of Ancelotti’s early games, Ray Wilkins was dispatched to inform the Italian that the midfielder should start.

Ancelotti relented and Lampard responded by enjoying his best goalscoring season for Chelsea, netting 27 times in a total of 51 appearances, as the team won a league and FA Cup Double.

Lampard had indeed proved himself “untouchable” and yet it appears the term does not enter his coaching vocabulary, having displayed a ruthless streak that has helped to shape a first season in charge of Chelsea that has exceeded expectations.

With Champions League qualification secured, Lampard can claim his first trophy since moving into management by leading Chelsea to victory in today’s FA Cup final against Arsenal, but he has not chosen the easy path during his opening 12 months in charge.

“To try to set out to be ruthless is the wrong path. What I try to do is take an honest approach with how I see we can best win a game of football, or what is the right path to be taken with the team,” Lampard said.

Perhaps it helped that Roman Abramovich had been there, but it is exactly a year since Lampard first signalled his ruthless streak as head coach. Chelsea were in Salzburg, where owner Abramovich was a surprise spectator for their penultimate pre-season friendly.

Lampard’s team won 5-3, but it proved to be David Luiz’s final appearance for the club. Following an error-strewn display, Luiz was relegated to the bench for a friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach on Aug 3 and five days later the centre-back was sold to Arsenal.

The fact Luiz had signed a twoyear contract extension with Chelsea three months earlier, before Lampard had returned, did not matter. He was not going to be part of the 42-year-old’s plans and there was no room for any distractions. Luiz will no doubt have added motivation to try to make a point at Wembley, but he is not the only player to have experienced Lampard’s refusal to offer guarantees.

Kepa Arrizabalaga, still the world’s most expensive goalkeeper following his £72 million move in 2018, was dropped for Chelsea’s biggest game of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, in which Champions League qualification was clinched, and cannot be hopeful of a recall today.

The timing of Kepa’s demotion proves that Lampard does not trust the Spaniard as his No1.

Were Lampard worried how his actions may be received in the corridors of power then he would not have dropped Kepa at such a crucial time, just as he would not have first replaced the 25-year-old with Willy Caballero in January if he feared the consequences.

It was after Chelsea’s last game against Arsenal, a 2-2 draw, that Lampard first dropped Kepa. With 10 days to go in a transfer window in which he was trying to sign a new striker, the head coach could have been forgiven for thinking twice over relegating the club’s most expensive signing.

And yet he maintained the message that nobody can count themselves as “untouchable” at Chelsea under him. Lampard runs the dressing room, not the players.

“I have to treat every player the same, whether their price tag, whether their wage packet, whatever it is about them,” he said.

“I’m sure they don’t like me some weekends, in fact I know they don’t because I was that player sometimes. But I like to think at the end of the season, or in time, players can look back and say: ‘OK, maybe in that period I felt slightly wronged but when I was working hard, training hard and delivering, he was a manager who would stick with me and in the tough periods would stick with me.’ I’m fine with that. I

won’t get it right every time, but that’s all I try to do.”

Mason Mount has been identified as a favourite of Lampard, who also managed the midfielder at Derby County last season, and yet the 21-year-old was handed a harsh lesson in the FA Cup quarter-final victory over Leicester City.

Unhappy with his team’s performance at half-time, Lampard made a triple substitution, taking off three of his youngsters: Mount, Billy Gilmour and Reece James.

Mount, who responded by scoring in the semi-final victory over Manchester United and netting a brilliant free-kick against Wolves, said: “You’ve seen that one minute the manager can put his arm around you and tell you that you’ve been doing well and then if he doesn’t feel you’ve done that well, he’s going to take you off and let you know about it.

“I don’t think I’d ever been subbed at half-time before, so it taught me a lesson. It was a big game and the manager was focused on the win. He made the right decision and changed a few positions. Afterwards, you have a chat and understand where he was coming from, and we move on.”

Just as Mount was quickly offered the chance to put the Leicester game behind him, Gilmour later started ahead of Jorginho against Crystal Palace and James has since won a place as a right-wing back.

Gilmour’s injury offered Jorginho, Chelsea’s vice-captain, a route back into the team over the closing games, but he will be looking over his shoulder ahead of the final, with N’golo Kante fit again.

Just as he did under Ancelotti, Lampard the player would have raised his game to protect himself from the threat of rotation.

But Lampard the coach is ruthless enough to ignore the political warnings and stick to the courage of his convictions. It has served him well so far.