My thoughts on Lampard sacking (THREAD):

Obviously Lampard has been sacked by Chelsea yesterday and Tuchel will be the new manager at Chelsea. After having experienced the 1 and 1/2 years of Lampard time here I wanted to give a few honest thoughts on it and explain what I thought the problem was.

I highly recommend you read this thread as well because it goes through all the inside news that the Athletic has been told leading up to his sacking. I will mention it a lot here. https://twitter.com/cfcrole/status/1353737411252121601

Let’s start with his appointment. People said we shouldn’t have got him and it was too early for him but although I thought the same, I can say that not many manager would have used our youth and also got us T4 that season.

What he did in the first season was a massive overachievement. Not only did he get us T4 when many predicted us to not even get in the T6 but he also bought in a lot of players through that mostly likely wouldn’t have got a chance under a different manager.

He showed he could perform in big games too. He showed he was tactical equipped, more so than people thought. He did all this in his first season. Even I was surprised. He beat the likes of Pep, Jose, Arteta and was unlucky not to beat Klopp a few times.

He obviously wasn’t at the next level tactically and his man management defo needed improving but the 1st season was enough to back him with the player HE WANTED. In conclusion, Lampard came off a great first season given the context.

Now comes the summer. Chelsea are planning to spend big and they did but I was the very few accounts to talk about the profiles they bought. This is where my problems began. Yes the board bought players sure but only one of the 6 was Lampard’s signings.

Funny enough that 1 signing has been T2 out the lot. People won’t look at the context because it doesn’t favour their argument but the board didn’t back Frank, they backed a manager that would have come in after Frank. Let me explain because it might sound mad.

From the beginning the board clearly didn’t have belief in him. Which sure, it’s understandable due to his CV and he was a manager that had the board split. Now he proved them wrong after the 1st season.

But even after his very good first season there were leaks from the Athletic that Lampard would get the sack if he goes in a bad 4-5 game run. He was given 5 players that weren’t in his radar and the board expected them to gel and get results?

The lack of belief in Lampard is the main reason for his sacking. The board wanted him to fail. Let’s talk about the signings a bit more. Silva, Mendy and Chilwell were all very understandable signings that I know Lampard wouldn’t have minded.

As for Werner, Havertz and Ziyech it doesn’t make too much sense. Why did we sign two SS? Why would we sign Ziyech when we want to play Havertz in the 8 role because both would occupy the same position. All three are very very good players.

They are don’t get me wrong but all three of them together aren’t profiles Lampard would have gone for. Especially together. We should have got Rice because it was CLEAR we needed a DM to suit Lampard’s needs. I’m not here blaming the players we bought at all btw.

Now I’ve addressed the summer and how the lack of belief in Lampard affected the players he wanted let’s move on to the season and how that turned out. Obviously the main criticism of Lampard was his crossing and his style of play.

Lampard actually showed a functional system in that 17 unbeaten run. Yes it was vs small teams but there was a clear way of football we were playing even though we had profiles he didn’t want. Then 3 bad performances (after Arsenal) come...

... and Marina is talking to her contacts about a new replacement. 3 BAD RESULTS. This just furthermore shows that there was a serious serious lack of belief in Lampard and was hung out to dry. A month later he is sacked.

Now, I’m not defending Lampard here because he could have handled situations better and he should have definitely improved his man management skills and obviously he wasn’t tactically as good as other PL managers but he knew the basics but he was set up to fail.

The board tried to do it in a way where fans would purely look at the signings we made and because we spent big, they would blame it on Lampard when they didn’t sign the right profiles he wanted.

It’s a sad ending. Especially as it’s Frank Lampard but this is yet another example of the board’s incapabilities. How many more times should we accept this?

With Tuchel, if theirs no change then expect a similar ending.

End of thread.