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Football London
Football London
Sport
Oliver Harbord

The five key things on Frank Lampard's to-do list at Chelsea as his tenure as head coach begins

Frank Lampard is back at Chelsea and is already getting to work as the Blues' new head coach.

The Blues legend has held his first press conference since being appointed as the new Chelsea head coach today (Thursday), with the 41-year-old speaking of his ambitions and how he plans to try and guide the club to success.

But the hard work starts now for Lampard, with plenty of issues on and off the pitch to sort out.

So what will be first on the agenda for the new head coach? We take a look below.

Evaluate the squad

Over the past couple of seasons the Blues have accumulated some strange transfers as they have looked to fill gaps that have really added little to the overall squad.

While Lampard would have no doubt kept a close eye on the Blues from a distance, this will now be the first time that he will get a good look at the players by working with them.

Several players, including Danny Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta, have taken up places in the squad on decent money and featured little over the past couple of seasons.

That is something that the Blues will need to look at this summer, with Lampard potentially set to get rid of players who are not adding to the side.

Bring in the loanees

When the 'Loan Army' comes back in the summer, they are normally kept together in a training session and will even play their own matches.

But with the transfer ban still looming over the Blues and their plans for the summer, it means that many of the loan players set to return to the club this summer could be given opportunities in the first team.

It will be important for Lampard to speak to Eddie Newton, who looks after the loan players, to really see who are going to be the players with the quality.

Of course, Lampard knows Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori from Derby County, but there are a lot of players that need to be having a look at.

Find a winning formula

Any manager or head coach coming into a new club will have their own idea of playing and the ideas that they want to have in the style of their image.

However, that isn't always the case of the reality, depending on the players available and the money at their disposal when it comes to building the squad.

Of course, Chelsea aren't able to buy anyone so Lampard will have to mould the players he has into the way that brings out the best in them.

In terms of formation, Lampard will need to work out what suits the Chelsea players best, with a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 among the likely options.

Recover from Eden Hazard's exit

He was asked about it in his press conference, and there is no doubt that the fact that Eden Hazard moved to Real Madrid means the Blues have a big problem to solve ahead of the new season.

Hazard was the match winner for the Blues on several occasions and that is going to be a massive hole to fill in the squad.

(Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

Christian Pulisic has come in this summer, after spending the second half of last season on loan at Borussia Dortmund, but to expect him to be the man to fill Hazard's shoes is a lot to ask straight away, so Lampard is going to have to find a way that the team can replace their star man.

Players like Willian and Pedro are going to be key to step up for Lampard as the veteran wingers, while Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek could be key when they return from injury.

Convince key players to stay

With the transfer ban, of course that means that new players aren't going to be registered this summer, but Chelsea can renew some contracts.

That is likely to be key over the course of the next weeks and there are players who are currently in discussions over the extension of a new deal.

Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian need new contracts, while other players are being tipped to leave, with Marcos Alonso being tipped to make the switch to Atletico Madrid.

However, keeping key players is going to be an important factor for the Blues legend in the early stages of his tenure.

   
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