Chelsea have turned back the clock to try to salvage their season by reappointing Frank Lampard. And it is the past that offers something to cling to ahead of a daunting Champions League trip to Real Madrid.
With defeat at Wolves on Lampard’s return continuing a deflating season, it is not easy to make a case for Chelsea knocking out holders Madrid. Even though they were also beaten on Saturday, at home by Villarreal, and are well off the pace set by La Liga leaders Barcelona. So it is to years gone by that Chelsea must look for inspiration.
Their 2012 triumph, one they were led to in Munich by stand-in skipper Lampard, came in a league season when they finished sixth.
Two years ago, after Lampard was replaced by Thomas Tuchel mid-season, they were similarly poor on the domestic front.
Some of their better outings this season — the bar is not high — have come in Europe against AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund. To stand any chance of continuing their journey towards Istanbul, repeats will be required.
Chelea lost against Wolves in Frank Lampard’s first game as caretaker manager on Saturday
Chelsea have struggled for goals all season and could not find a way through at Molineux
They won the 2012 Champions League with an interim boss, and need history to repeat itself if they are to get past defending champions Real Madrid in this year’s quarter-finals
Caretaker Lampard was reluctant to make comparisons to his time 11 years ago. But in discussing how they did it there were lessons from Lampard. After seeing a disjointed, goal-shy and at times squabbling side overpowered and deservedly defeated by Wolves, Lampard highlighted the missing ‘baseline’ qualities such as aggression, speed, desire to win competitive duels, and warned that talent alone is not enough.
The side he was part of dug in and ‘parked the bus at the Nou Camp to hang on for our dear lives,’ en route to glory.
Fate was on their side, Lampard admitted, ‘but we did have a huge desire and a big character’ to go with the drive of a squad pursuing a trophy that had become their Holy Grail. While Chelsea’s 2012 team was packed with leaders at their peak, the current crop appear low on the sort of standard-raising, responsibility-taking types required right now.
That is something Lampard cannot change overnight and an issue that was there for all to see at Wolves, with N’Golo Kante missing again and Thiago Silva still out injured.
Kante will at least be fit for Madrid. He undoubtedly makes Chelsea better, but enough to transform the team seen at Molineux into one that can overcome Madrid? That will be a test even for someone with his at-times superhuman capabilities.
What will be needed as a bare minimum is a rediscovery of the spirit that inspired Chelsea’s Champions League sides of old.
‘We have an opportunity against a fantastic team and we have to attempt to make the most of the opportunity,’ Lampard said.
‘Go there with confidence, with a belief, because otherwise, as I said, if you’re worried, don’t come.
‘I don’t think the history has a big effect on it, but I understand the romantic idea.
‘Wouldn’t we all love to see it again? We have to work towards that.’
Chelsea paid former directors £49.75m for services in the club’s sale to the Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital consortium last summer.
The club’s accounts reveal that £35m went to Marina Granovskaia, with the rest split between former chairman Bruce Buck, CEO Guy Laurence and director Eugene Tenenbaum, who all departed with Granovskaia after the takeover.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
