So after reading the piece in @TheAthletic , it looks to me like simply what it is. A young manager without a lot of experience that couldn’t pass up his dream job but really wasn’t quite ready for it either. Seems like most of the issues were ones that stem from not having enough of that experience:
- Man-management — tough, especially for a young manager that’s near-age to the older players. And especially at Chelsea, where it’s been an issue for a LONG time.
- Tactics — Most don’t have them dialed in early, and at Chelsea, there’s no room for error or learning-on-the-job, and most managers get to develop their tactics either with youth sides (Pep) or at lower level clubs, for longer than just a year. I think if Frank had 3–4 years in the Championship he’d have been a lot better off. He’d learn what works and what doesn’t better, and have multiple seasons to vet ideas.
- Training — Especially for a former top-level player, this tends to be one of those things that’s often a clash, as expectations can become a bit unrealistic. Word that he worked them too hard sounds similar to what high level players in this sport and others have done as young managers, an expectation that the team work as hard as I did as a player. I think the constant reference to Mount’s energy is a key to this insight.
- Board — As I often tell my kids, “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”. Obviously it’s a LOT more complicated, but he knew what he was signing up for, right? He was a club legend here, and first hand experienced the board from the other side. He saw enough managers leave that his eyes should have been wide open upon signing that contract.
Add all of that up, and last season the expectations were manageable because they were minimal. Basically play the kids since you don’t get a window and try not to screw it up and then the kids played well, the season overall for the PL was middling, and we backed into a CL spot.
I honestly think Frank might have been better off if that hadn’t happened, personally. Because this year the expectations were through the roof. Here’s a bunch of new players, make them fit, and sort things out. And the league is a LOT harder this year than last meaning nearly every match is a tough one.
Things haven’t been this competitive in a LONG time. And unlike last year where everyone played badly, this year everyone’s playing really well, that’s the difference. So the bar at the club was raised and the difficulty level raised too. He’s still learning, including learning how to deal with the bumps in the road. Not saying older managers necessarily deal with them better, but at least they’ve already experienced those bumps at some point.
Lampard could still become a great manager. I struggle to really believe folks thought it would happen here, though. It’s nearly impossible to keep managers long term in the PL. That Pep and Klopp have lasted as long as they have is as much due to luck with player performance as it is with money AND their CVs. Expecting Frank to do the same at Chelsea was always unrealistic.
He’ll bounce back, and manage somewhere else. It’s not like he got us relegated or something. He just needs more experience. Always has. And I still think if we weren’t now 11 points back from first, and not sitting in 9th place that he probably would have had the rest of the season. Because it also would have meant we weren’t sliding like we are now.
And I’ll continue to point out that Frank hasn’t yet figured out how to both score goals and stop goals at the same time consistently, and this might sound simple but it’s what every manager struggles with tactically. He simply needs more experience and it will now just be happening somewhere else. Hopefully he has a long and successful career, if that’s what he wants. And who knows, Jose came back twice, maybe Frank can come back too.