When Frank Lampard stands in front of the home dugout at Goodison Park for the first time as Everton manager on Saturday afternoon he is unlikely to spend too much time thinking about the two previous occasions he found himself trying to affect a game from that touchline.
But even now those meek defeats offer a precise portrait of where it went wrong for him at Chelsea and, more importantly, what needs to change this time around if he is to turn around a club flirting with disaster and prove his worth as a manager.
Criticising his players for “ridiculous” goals conceded in December 2019 after a performance in which they were grossly unprepared to handle the physicality of a team revved up by Duncan Ferguson and referring to a “work in progress” 12 months later in what turned out to be the start of his demise, and the same squad’s rapid rise to champions of Europe, only solidify the conceptions around his flaws.
Of course, what happened immediately after his dismissal at Chelsea offers more than enough evidence. The jettisoned players he appeared to throw under the bus in more than one post-match interview returned and played important roles in a Champions League win based on a sturdy brand of defending that never looked possible during his year and a half in charge at Stamford Bridge.
But a new chapter is here and while it looks like a risk considering the demise of numerous predecessors, it is equally easy to see why this job was so tempting for Lampard. It should also provide a more accurate picture of his management ability considering the emotional layer attached to his time at Stamford Bridge.
There are three significant questions that he will need to answer if this reign is to become a success. A pair of those involve correcting the mistakes that led to his downfall at Chelsea; the other a continuation of his biggest success in west London.
Can he promote and develop another raft of young players? For Chelsea supporters who had seen close to two decades of previous academy talents sacrificed for expensive acquisitions who did not always work out, there were numerous pinch-me moments during that first campaign. Remember the pure joy of Wolves away? The excitement at seeing Tammy Abraham scoring away to Lille? The fun and chaos of games against Ajax and Valencia?
Lampard inherited a tricky situation, a squad unable to be strengthened because of a transfer ban that had effectively swapped injury-prone Christian Pulisic with club legend Eden Hazard, and he did an undoubtedly fine job clearing the obstructed path from underage football to the show that exceeded expectations.
But if there appeared to be an unbreakable bond with academy graduates (though not all of them), the same could not be said for some of the senior players who inexplicably found themselves out of the picture during his later months.
Antonio Rudiger could not get a look in but ended the campaign lauded as one of Europe’s best defenders. Marcos Alonso thought his time at the club was running out. Olivier Giroud found himself in a footballing hokey-cokey. Following a series of mistakes, Kepa Arrizabalaga’s confidence was shattered further by his head coach’s lack of public backing. And several of those signed for £220million in the summer of 2020 were never quite sure what was expected of them.
Tactical incoherence was a common theme, particularly an apparent inability to organise the defence and a susceptibility to being counterattacked that was present throughout his tenure. Chelsea went from conceding 23 times in the 19 league games he took charge of last season (and 54 in total the year before) to 13 in the second half of the campaign under Tuchel. The same group of players went on to concede just twice in seven games on the way to the Champions League.
Everton’s defensive personnel has far less natural ability and they have conceded 35 in their first 20 games. If that record is to improve, if Jordan Pickford is to keep a run of clean sheets, then Lampard will already be a long way to proving he has learned and adapted during his year away.
Supporters will be buoyed by hopes he can maximise the potential of a healthy homegrown core and there should be some optimism around him potentially getting a tune out of Dele Alli. Yet there will be immediate pressure to perform and stave off relegation fears in an environment that has been poisonous for months.
A fed-up fanbase, desperate to find some hope, may welcome him with open arms this weekend but it could rapidly turn ugly to an extent that was never going to happen at the Bridge. By the time he welcomes Tuchel to Goodison Park in late April, a clear picture will have formed both of Everton’s trajectory and Lampard’s real potential as a manager.
