Hit or Miss: Unfolding Frank Lampard’s Chelsea Tactics

After three gameweeks, Chelsea haven’t had the best of the league starts under Frank Lampard.

His tenure at Chelsea has begun with a clear footballing philosophy but while achieving less success. 4-2-3-1 produced high scoring pre-season games but provided lesser pedigree at the competitive stage. Let’s find out what is going on with Chelsea, from the tactical point of view.

General Philosophy:

Most of Lampard’s on-field ideas are absorbed and translated from his former mentor, Jose Mourinho. 4-2-3-1 and the energetic pressing system was the setup, which made Jose the “Special One”. Lampard imbibed the same tactical nous, which paved the way for a hard-working center forward, Tammy Abraham, and a number 10 in Mason Mount.

Mount is especially crucial to this system, as his dedicated and energetic nature, settled him up as the number 10 or an 8-10 hybrid at a 4-3-3 system.

Off the pitch, he wants to promote a culture at the club, where young players are given first-team opportunities (Mason Mount, Reece James, Hudson Odoi, and Loftus Cheek). This would differentiate himself from his predecessors who massively neglected the young guns bred by the club.

Attacking Phase:

Chelsea’s attacking tactics are pretty clear and the players are executing it with precision. Like Sarri, Jorginho is again a crucial piece of Lampard’s set up. He drops deep to create an extra passing option from the back. Subsequently, he lays it over to the dropping center forward or to the tucked in wingers in the half-spaces of the opposition’s territory.

The inside forwards (Pedro and Pulisic) make way for the rampaging full-backs. The overlapping fullbacks progress the ball to the opposition 18-yards box. Then they tend to whip low crosses inside the box or passed to the nearest midfielder if the chance is not created at the same speed.

Like Sarri’s system, Kante’s is again employed as a box to box Midfielder. He will offer an extra option to receive the ball from the fullbacks and the forwards, or push up to overload at the opposition box to press and profit from the mistakes. All these options make Chelsea’s attacking route more direct and quicker under Lampard, a stark contrast from his predecessor Sarri.

Defensive Phase:

The defense is where Chelsea has issues, as Lampard’s attacking, energetic pressing approach often leaves them wide open at the back. The defensive system is challenging, both physically and mentally. This explains Chelsea’s conceding more in the latter half of the games, where oppositions are introducing energetic players.

Chelsea has a defensive structure of 4-4-2, where their first line of the press is the number 10 and the center forward. If this line is bypassed, the wide-players (Pulisic and Pedro) and the central midfielders (Kante, Barkley and Jorginho, Kovacic) drop and form a mid-to-low block system and look to break them at the counter.

The problem arises when wide players (wingers and fullbacks) are following opposition wide players in the central areas, leaving wide channels vulnerable.

Oppositions look to exploit these spaces while Chelsea press and attack aggressively, or bypassing their press effectively. Azpilicueta’s lack of pace and Jorginho/Kovacic’s lack of physicality is exploited by the opposition regularly. Lampard needs to address this issue quickly to resolve defensive woes.

Summary:

The complexity and the demanding nature of Chelsea’s tactics will take some time to adjust. However good cover Kante can offer, Jorginho/Kovacic (despite his brilliant performance against Norwich) aren’t suited for the intense pressing approach and show flaws in the defensive phase of the plan.

The Blues boss needs to meet a balanced strategy in his attack and defense as his players are struggling to adapt to the demanding nature of the tactics. If all the players are available from injury (Loftus Cheek, Reece James, and Hudson-Odoi), then Lampard can use substitutions effectively, to keep up the physical and mental conditions at the later stages of the game.