I'm sick of hearing that Frank Lampard needs to learn to put out teams that can defend.
This is the same Frank Lampard who played with John Terry and a whole host of other top-class defenders.
The same Frank Lampard who was part of a Chelsea team that didn’t just win things by having good attacking players but by being uber-pragmatic under Jose Mourinho.
This is a guy who is one of the most intelligent in English football, who played in teams which won trophy after trophy after trophy because they knew exactly how to hold on to slender leads.
Yet still we cuff him and question whether he gets the importance of defending or not, and that absolutely makes my blood boil.
Lampard hasn’t even had a full summer transfer window at Stamford Bridge to be able to bring in the defenders he wants.
So we need to give him three or four windows before we start lumping him in with Arsene Wenger and Eddie Howe because I know their laissez faire attitude towards defending isn’t something we’ll be seeing from Lampard.
Give him time and we’ll see him taking one or two of the best young defenders in Europe and starting to turn them into the next JT.
He knows the template, he knows the cookie cutter, and anyone asking questions about his philosophy at this stage of his managerial career is barking up the wrong tree.
Let’s not forget, this was his first season as a Premier League manager and he still got Chelsea into the Champions League, which is the most difficult thing to do.
Especially this year, because there were two or three monster boys scratching around trying to get in, and three others in Leicester, Wolves and Sheffield United who were very good and got very close.
Had he backed up that achievement by winning the FA Cup, many people would have been calling him the reincarnation of Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and all the other greats he has played for.
But just because he lost a game that on any other day Chelsea could have won, all of a sudden we’re questioning him.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Lampard fanboy — if he has a shocker next season I will criticise him just as I would with any other manager.
But so far he has done nothing but achieve and what the lad needs now is the opportunity to fail a little bit so he knows where and how he has to build.
His philosophy is bang on — he wants to entertain, wants to promote youth and play attacking football.
But as sure as eggs are eggs, he will be out there looking for the next John Terry because he would love a clean sheet or two, or five or 10, next season.
We’re very used to hammering young British managers but this is a success story of one who has had tangible success but lost one game in six in a competition that isn’t as grand as it once was and yet still we question him for it.
And I’m just not having that.
