There is a new guy on the block at Hammersmith and Fulham´s districts, London. His CV shows that he has coached 1. FSV Mainz 05, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain: no doubt he is someone peculiar. Thomas Tuchel is the last man to continue on the endless coaches´ loop. Frank Lampard, his predecessor, has had to leave the club of his life in order to allow Chelsea to explore new horizons.
It is not easy to be a manager. It is just the reality, despite being a cliche: Today´s football primes immediate outcomes rather than long term succeed. As a result, it is pretty common to read news on coaching shacks and hiring constantly. This time, Lampard has been the ‘victim’ and Tuchel his substitution. But, has this sack been fair? This is what Carlo Ancelotti had to say about it:
“At the end, it’s not sad for Frank. Another door will open for him. Look at me. I was sacked everywhere! Chelsea are no different to other clubs. Every club has its expectations and when things don’t go the way they want, they can’t change 20 players. So they change the manager”
Carlo Ancelotti on Lampard´s sack
Carletto added that it is not unusual for a manager to be fired: “It is part of the job, we all have to understand this”. The experience from the Italian coach allows him to talk about this with authority. The truth is that the Englishman coach did a meritorious job in his first season, despite Chelsea being suspended to sign new players. This way, he reached the 4th spot in the Premier League -tied up with the third position, which was for Manchester United– he made it to the round of 16 in the Champions League and to the FA Cup final.
We must remind you that Lampard used several young players such as Tammy Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount, Reece James o Fikayo Tomori in order to obtain these outcomes. It is also true that the team was too weak defensively, but Kepa´s poor performing added up to this issue. Marina Granovskaia carried out multiple signs last summer to fix last season´s struggles: Édouard Mendy, Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech (Malang Sarr was loaned to Porto).
Being a coach is not easy, and even less when you have to lead a roster with these characteristics. The English man coach did not find the formula to neither fit in all his stars and, specially, get the most out of the Germans (Havertz and Werner). Some of the reasons that we can point out are on one side their lack of adaptation and on the other the short preseason. In general, coaches do not have to much time to develop a team. However, the pandemic has even shortened up more the schedule and so decreased this crucial time.
In the end, the addition of all these facts have resulted in an irregular Chelsea, too far away from the battle for the top of the table. Today´s football demands outcomes right away and the ‘Blues’ goal for this season is, as we talked at ELXIIDEAL, to at least make it to the Champions League. This way, Lampard´s sack seemed to just be a matter of time.
It is ironic that seven years ago Frank himself had this to say about André Villas-Boas´s sack as Chelsea´s coach: “Players had nothing to do with him being fired, he played his cards and it did not work. Maybe he was too young and it might have been too early for him to take the job”. This statement could perfectly be applied to Frank Lampard now.
Mason Mount represents Lampard´s legacy. He is the best out of an academy players generation that had to lift up the entire Chelsea squad on his back. However, at his first game, Tuchel showed a system and a playing style idea that more than likely put him on a secondary role. On the other hand, we still have to see Werner´s function and, all in all, the way he puts in such a wide group of good players. This is the new horizon that the ‘Blues’ are looking to, but this time without one of their legends in charge.
Translated by Guillermo Bermejo.
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