Chelsea legend claims Frank Lampard knew how to prevent collapse vs Man City – “he’s not daft”

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Chelsea legend turned pundit Pat Nevin has explained what Frank Lampard needed to do to turn the Blues’ fortunes around against Manchester City.

City picked Chelsea apart in what was their best performance of the season so far, and one of Chelsea’s worst. The final score, 3-1 to the visitors, perhaps flattered Frank Lampard’s men.

The game was over by half-time, with City holding a three-goal lead and Chelsea not even threatening to create anything like a legitimate opportunity.

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Lampard will have sensed Chelsea’s collapse before it happened, but did nothing to prevent it. Pat Nevin has offered some insight into why that might be.

Speaking in an interview with TalkChelsea, Nevin explained his belief that Lampard knew what he needed to do to prevent a total capitulation, but was too proud to do what was necessary:

“When you go 1-0 down, do you then chase it? Or do you sit back? The Frank way, at home, is ‘we’re going to try and get this back’, but by the time it gets to three, you think maybe it’s time to be sensible now.”

“All he had to do was change it to a 4-2-3-1 and it would have killed that space there. He’s not daft, he knew that, but he wanted to go and attack it and try and get it back. It’s one of those ones that backfired.”

You could accuse Lampard of naivety here, but perhaps that’s a lesson that needs to be learned, one that may not previously have been in his short managerial career to date.

He wanted to go out and play against Man City, rather than park the bus. You can hardly criticise him for that, even if it did cost Chelsea the points in the end.

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