Frank Lampard - a forward thinker who must stop Chelsea from going backwards

Lampard's ability to arrive in the box at the right moment accounted for many of his 303 Chelsea goals, but the timing of his accepting the manager's job seems awry

Frank Lampard returns to Chelsea with the club appealing a transfer ban and with their star player, Eden Hazard, having departed for Real Madrid. Reuters

After the romance, the reality. Frank Lampard’s is an undeniably sentimental homecoming. Possibly Chelsea’s greatest player is their latest manager. He is equipped with the popular backing in a way Maurizio Sarri was not. He could be that rare thing: a Chelsea manager granted time by both owner and supporters.

And yet he may need it. Because, while Chelsea finished third and won the Europa League last season, in some respects Lampard’s inheritance is the weakest of any Chelsea manager since Ruud Gullit took charge of a team that had finished 11th in 1996.

Yet then Chelsea were able to make stylish statements with the signings of Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Di Matteo and Frank Leboeuf. Now they have the worst of both worlds: burdened by a transfer embargo, they were nonetheless allowed to spend £40 million on Mateo Kovacic. For all the Croatian’s gifts, the fact he has not scored since January 2017 renders him the anti-Lampard. As they are getting the manager, Chelsea could also do with Lampard the player.

Their record scorer has returned to Stamford Bridge at a point where there is a desperate need for an injection of goals. Eden Hazard was directly involved in 49 per cent of Chelsea's comparatively meagre tally of 63 in the league, but he has gone to Real Madrid and Lampard cannot spend the proceeds of his sale. Shorn of the Belgian's brilliance, Chelsea's attack looks blunt. The departure of Gonzalo Higuain, after his underwhelming short-term spell, should not be mourned, but the Londoners' threat to recall Alvaro Morata from loan unless Atletico Madrid sign the Spaniard permanently was an attempt at brinkmanship that will surely fail. Chelsea probably do not want the unhappy forward back.

Lampard took over an ageing Derby County team last summer. History has repeated itself in a forward line where Willian, Pedro and Olivier Giroud are all the wrong side of 30. Lampard brought a refreshing faith in youth to the Championship club and promises to give more opportunities to the oft-overlooked graduates of Chelsea’s fine academy. Yet while an ability to arrive at the right moment accounted for many of the 303 goals he scored in an astonishingly productive career, in one respect his timing is awry now.

Two potential poster boys for the new regime, the exciting, homegrown duo of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi, are long-term absentees. Reece James, too, is set to miss the start of the season. There is still scope for symbolic selections, whether Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Ethan Ampadu or Fikayo Tomori, but they are more likely to be fringe figures.

Lampard has shown himself to be a less dogmatic thinker than Sarri, but they have a shared preference for 4-3-3. If "Sarriball" will cease to exist, its purposeless excesses removed, it still raises the question of how Lampard accommodates N'Golo Kante, crowbarred into a role that did not really suit him last season, and Jorginho. Sarri's legacy comes part in in the form of the regista, the deep-lying playmaker.

It comes, too, in an extended slump. Chelsea have procured fewer points than Crystal Palace in 2019. There is a pattern of decline, alleviated by Hazard’s heroics, camouflaged by Champions League qualification and cup runs. The initial task is a complicated one: to be the salesman or unifier who can restore a bond with supporters, the progressive who can integrate youngsters, the pragmatist who has to adapt to the players he has because he cannot sign any more.

It is for Chelsea’s Champions League-winning captain to hold off the challenge of Manchester United and Arsenal by keeping them in the top four. A forward thinker has to stop them going backwards.