3 mistakes Frank Lampard made in Chelsea’s 4-0 loss at Manchester United
Chelsea‘s season has gotten off to a bad start with a 4-0 loss at Manchester United on Sunday. The Blues dominated the start of the game but a penalty conceded by Kurt Zouma shifted the momentum in United’s favour.
The 2nd half debacle saw The Blues leave Old Trafford with a 4-0 loss but the scoreline did not reflect the game one bit. Frank Lampard named the perfect starting XI but he did make a few mistakes during the game.
Here are 3 mistakes Lampard made in the 4-0 defeat at United:
#3 – Taking Barkley off for Pulisic
Ross Barkley did not have a great game last night but was not the worst Chelsea player on the pitch. He was playing out of position but still managed to do way better than Pedro who was playing in his favourite right-wing position.
Lampard’s decision to take Barkley off for Pulisic was a surprising one as it should have been Pedro leaving the pitch. Switching Barkley to the right-wing or letting Pulisic operate from that side would have been way better.
#2 – Not going with Giroud and Tammy upfront
Trailing 1-0 in the 63rd minute, Lampard decided to bring on Olivier Giroud. But before the Frenchman could even come on, Anthony Martial scored and it became 2-0.
Once again, instead of taking Pedro off, Lampard decided to take off Tammy Abraham and continue with the same formation. Play a 4-4-2 diamond at that time could have put United under pressure as Maguire and Lindelof would have had to mark one each instead of teaming up on one Chelsea forward.
#1 – Keeping Pedro on for 90 minutes
Pedro was having a nightmare of a game at Old Trafford last night and there was nothing he could do for 60+ minutes. The first 20-25 minutes saw his best spell when he was linking up well with the teammates but after United took the lead, he was just not getting anything right.
The Spaniard was cutting back on the counter-attacks and his passing was way off the mark in the second half. As mentioned before, Pedro should have been the one coming off for Pulisic or Giroud but Lampard kept him on, maybe just for the experience needed upfront.
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