CHELSEA have announced the sacking of head coach Frank Lampard, with the club legend departing with immediate affect.
The writing has been on the wall for Lampard for some weeks now, but the conclusive sacking is down to a number of things.
Lampard departs Chelsea with just a 52 per cent winning recordCredit: EPA
It was just too soon
Lampard joined as Chelsea boss having only had one-years experience in the Championship, he was vastly inexperienced for such a big job and many Chelsea fans had big concerns, as did I.
His inexperience has shown and it has been kind of like he has been learning on the job, learning from mistakes and at this level, you simply cannot do that.
He has been naive in some tactical decisions, and lacks the pragmatic approach that you see from many experienced coaches.
His disciplined approach earned him close enemies
Lampard stamped his authority down at Chelsea as soon as he joined the club, selling David Luiz to Arsenal after disagreements between the pair.
There has also clearly been issues with the attitudes of a host of other players, such as Fikayo Tomori, with Lampard going from having him as a regular starter to not playing him at all.
These types of fall-outs have caused dressing room unrest and divide amongst some of the players, and this means that subconsciously those players are not going to play for you, which brings me to my next point.
Chelsea have won just one of their last five Premier League gamesCredit: Rex Features
Players downing tools/squad too big
It has been very evident to me that over the last handful of matches during Chelsea’s poor run of form, there has been a real lack of effort from some players, not sprinting to get to the ball or cover the space, not fighting for the second ball, and simply just doing their job to the bare minimum.
It has been obvious to see the players who care and the ones who are still on Lampard’s side, ironically the academy lads who he has given their first-team breaks to. But too many players have downed tools and pushed for Lampard to be sacked.
Victim of a cut-throat business-driven board
Well, it goes without saying; football is a results-based business especially at a club like Chelsea.
The minute you slide down to mid-table, it does not matter whether you are a club legend, the best manager in the world, or a total rookie, your job is automatically under immense pressure and you can expect Roman Abramovich to be sharpening his axe.
Lampard’s Chelsea simply fell too far down the league, and his time to turn things around was up.
An inability to get the best out of/play the board’s expensive new signings.
Werner and Havertz have disappointed since signing for Chelsea in the summer
After downing tools, this is perhaps the most significant issue.
Lampard failed to get the best out of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner. Yes you can say that patience is needed for both, and both will come good. However, when you revisit my point above it becomes clear that the board do not have that time when the club sit in mid-table position.
The board became unhappy with Lampard not picking Havertz in recent matches, and reportedly mentioned this to him.
But Lampard might well have been wiser to build a formation and team around the expensive new German internationals in order to get the best out of them, which is ironically what I think Lampard had started to do, but it has been too little too late.
Havertz needs to be playing advanced and close to the striker, and Werner needs to be playing as part of a two up top to get the very best out of them, but it wasn’t to be.
As a final note, Lampard is and will always remain a club legend, but my concerns from the start of his reign of it being too soon have unfortunately been proven to be right.
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Next Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel is fashion model, former barman, has business degree and refused Bayern Munich
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
