Lampard: I know there are doubters but they just drive me on
FRANK LAMPARD is used to being underestimated: he learned to live with the jibe that he was only in the West Ham team because his dad was a coach and his uncle was the manager. He endured the derisory chortles when Chelsea paid £14million for him. But Lampard has a habit of defying sceptical predictions.
‘When I look back on my career, the early days, the West Ham days, when I came to Chelsea, and some of my England career, it was difficult at times,’ he says. ‘That’s not just me. I think that’s part of a career in football. At the top where you want to be it is tough and you have to prove people wrong. Even more in the modern day, with social media, where everyone has a comment and strong opinions. It’s normal you will have to break down barriers.’
Today at Old Trafford, however, he takes on a task even more challenging than the one he faced as a young player aspiring to be great. As Lampard himself pointed out on Friday, as a player you can afford to be selfish. Management is a multi-dimensional grid of competing and complex demands.
After just one year in the
managerial business, a good one at Derby but not a complete success, he is being asked to take on one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League, ensure they maintain their spot in the top four and do so while a transfer ban is in place.
He won’t fail for lack of application. His father, Frank Lampard senior, famously bought athletics spikes for extra running sessions in the Seventies and passed the habit on to his son. Fellow trainees laughed at Lampard junior for doing extra ‘spikes’ sessions, as he christened them.
‘The only way I ever knew was to get my head down and work,’ says Lampard. ‘It feels sweeter if you prove someone wrong or get to where you want to be. I’m happy with the career I had because I felt I gave everything. I’ll try and do the same as a manager.’
Yet he has just a year behind him. That may not be so much of an issue today against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has eight months at Cardiff and eight at Manchester United in terms of Premier League experience (though he does have seven years at Molde). But against Jurgen Klopp (17 years of management), Pep Guardiola (10) and Mauricio Pochettino (10), it will surely show.
What Lampard has going for him is enormous goodwill. He is a fine communicator, which helps in the dressing room but also in public and setting the mood at the club. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s imminent signing of his new five-year deal is a tangible result of Lampard’s charisma: he knows young players often need a sensitive, human touch, a trait he says he learned from his late mother, Pat. He also will know when to bring them into line and demand more, which was perhaps more his father’s remit.
Tactically it will be intriguing to see how he copes. He looks likely to start 4-2-3-1 today but may still be without N’Golo Kante, so it will be hard to make an immediate judgment on the team’s defensive structure. His teams look to press, as is the modern trend, on the front foot and have done so well at times in pre-season. But it is not just about throwing players forwards: Guardiola, Klopp and Pochettino all have systematic positional grids so players know exactly where they should retreat to when they lose the ball.
Chelsea seemed to lack that sort of plan in the first half against Borussia Monchengladbach last weekend, but in Lampard’s favour he changed the system at half-time and they improved. He learns fast.
‘I’m not stupid. I understand why [there are doubts],’ he says. ‘I use it as motivation. All that stuff. We have a transfer ban. There were two teams very clear out in front last time. The league is more competitive at the top than ever.
‘I don’t think you can walk around with your eyes closed. [But] they make me determined to the job as well as I can. And I don’t mind it. I like to be considered maybe not quite a favourite. In your career there will be many moments like that. The sweet ones are when you believe in what you can do and then go and achieve it.’
This challenge will take more than hard work and a few extra ‘spikes’ sessions to succeed. But Lampard’s resilience may yet see him through. It has so far.