Background
As Chelsea lost the FA Cup final, a picture captured the ghost like look of Frank Lampard as he watched Arsenal lift the trophy. In his first season as Chelsea manager, he has done well to get them into the top four and into a FA Cup final. Add to that the blooding a lot of young players and some great performances along the way. However, there have also been some harrowing defeats and reality checks along the way. At other clubs, this may have been ok but at Chelsea, this may not be enough. In this article, we go through a brief review of the managerial performance, how Chelsea have treated managers before and how important the Bayern Munich match could be.
Article
2019-2020 Premier League Performance
Position 4th, Won 20, Drawn 6, Lost 12, GF +69 GA -54 GD +15
Chelsea are the third highest goal scorers in the league but have conceded the most goals out of all the top ten teams. They share top spot of the “lost more matches” than all but one of the top ten teams. This however hides some of the performance levels where they have at times produced exhilarating attacking football. This doesn’t however hide their defensive deficiencies which almost led to a finish outside the top four. If they are to progress next year, they will need to resolve this.
FA Cup Final Performance
Defeat to an Arsenal team that finished outside of the european places will not reflect well when reviewing the manager’s performance. Granted, there were a number of injuries, a sending off and the strange decision making in general from the referee which may have led to the defeat. Of course, Arsenal’s recent results against Liverpool and Manchester City are showing a team on an upward trend. However, it was clear that Arsenal were targeting Chelsea’s right side with long balls and tactically, there was no response from the Chelsea bench. This will alarm Chelsea’s management more than anything. At the highest level when going for the top prizes, it is this tactical nouse which is required to get over the finishing line. On Saturday, they will be facing a Bayern Munich team who have been immense since their management change late last year. The result of this may determine how much patience is granted to Frank Lampard next season.
Historical Treatment of Managers
Ok, let’s be frank. This part is not about getting the violins out to feel empathy for these managers, for they will have all got significant payoffs from their short periods in charge. However, the brutality of the sackings based on their achievements is not fun reading for any Chelsea manager. Frank Lampard of course will know all this as he was a player at Chelsea during many of these times.
We will start late in the 1990’s to see the that this is a general culture of the club long before Roman Abrahmovich took over Chelsea:
1996-1998 Ruud Guillet (1 FA Cup)
1998-2000 Gianluca Vialli (FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners Cup)
2000-2004 Claudio Ranieri (UCL spot – 2004)
2004-2007 Jose Mourinho (2 Premier Leagues, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups)
2007-2008 Avram Grant (Champions League Final)
2008-2009 Luiz Felipe Scolari
2009 Guus Hiddink (FA Cup)
2009-2011 Carlo Ancelotti (Premier League, FA Cup)
2011-2012 Andre Villas Boas
2012 Roberto Di Matteo (Champions League, FA Cup)
2012-2013 Rafael Benitez (Europa League)
2013-2015 Jose Mourinho (Premier League, League Cup)
2016-2018 Antonio Conte (Premier League, FA Cup)
2018-2019 Maurizzo Sarri (Europa League)
2019 – Current Frank Lampard
What we see is a who’s who of managerial talent and where winning a trophy helps but not that much. Most of the managers won big prizes but there was no hesitation in replacing them if things were not right for even a short period of time. This is where we can see pressure growing on Frank Lampard. With the expensive shiny new players coming in, the expectancy will be to challenge Liverpool and Manchester City for the big titles. Losing matches will not work. Hence, he needs to tell the board what types of players he needs to achieve this. Otherwise, six months down the line, complaining that you do not have the players needed to win is not something that can be used as an excuse in this regime.
Bayern Munich
The next four days will be nerve racking as a heavy defeat to an opponent who was performing below par until their internally promoted manager Han-Dieter Flick – ex assistant coach to the sacked manager Niko Kovac – who has led the team to a Klopp busting 29 wins from 32 matches. Chelsea may not have much hope to overturn the result of the tie against Bayern Munich but Lampard will be hoping that his players perform for him on the day. Otherwise, there remains the long shadow of Pochettino looming on his so far by Chelsea’s standards, long career as their manager. Of course, Pochettino knows about what it means to get thrashed by Bayern Munich. He lost 7-2 to them on the 1st October 2019 and was sacked seven weeks later, five months after he walked out with the team in their first and only champions league final. This really could be another example of the managerial merry go round in action again.
Football Features 