At 35, Lampard is reaching the final few years of career and must be handled with care.
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Jose Mourinho has told Frank Lampard that he will only be used for the games that matter next season as the Portuguese coach tries to prolong the England internationals career, the Daily Mirror reports.
During Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, Lampard was one of the first names on the team sheet for nearly every match and missed just six of Mourinho’s 120 league matches in charge.
However, now that the player is 35, Mourinho will have to handle the midfielder with care in order to stop him picking up niggling injuries and will only pick him for the big games, a tactic he used for Claude Makelele during the Frenchman’s final years.
During a press conference, Mourinho said that he will have to analyse when best to use Lampard.
“With Frank, the role doesn’t have to change,” said the Chelsea boss.
“What has to change is the way we analyse every competition. With Frank, before, we didn’t have to analyse – it was simple: ‘every match: he plays’.
“He can’t play 60 matches like he did before, but the quality of the player and what he represents for the way I like to play football is exactly the same”.
“And he knows what I did, for example, with Makelele here in the last two years of his spell at the club”.