by Ross Mooring
“Should he stay or should he go now?”
If you haven’t been too obsessed with England’s pre-World Cup build up (why would you?) or the boxing at Wembley over the past few days, you can’t have failed to notice that Frank Lampard has been strongly linked with a shock move away from the Bridge to Man City sponsored MLS new boys New York City FC.
I say shock, because although “Super” Frank is shortly out of contract, it’s unthinkable to see him ever adorn another football kit – other than England’s in a couple of weeks – without a Chelsea’s badge on it and it was only a couple of weeks ago that the assumption was Lampard would be signing a new one year deal at the club.
It’s a shock too, given Frank’s contributions to last season’s title challenge and Champions League semi-final run too, not to mention his unquantifiable role in Chelsea’s recent history of success. Furthermore, one can’t put a value on the impact he has on Chelsea’s youngsters on the training ground and the way in which he carries himself as an ambassador for the club. Is the club bananas in letting him go, or worse still in attempting to haggle a few thousand pounds off his contract – given the massive project rise in earnings for this and future seasons – to the extent that they would allow a club legend to leave before his time is up?
Let’s take a look. My average rating for Frank last season (see here for a full explanation) was 6.53 which while towards the bottom of the pack, put him in a bunch with John Mikel Obi, Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole and well head of the bottom ranked finishers Torres, Ramires and David Luiz (whose own Season in Review piece can be found here).
While one might reasonably say it was his worst season at the club since a quiet debut season in 2001-02, that would represent an unfair comparison to an astonishing string of ten consecutive season of double digit goals, assists galore and game after game of match-winning performances. And it also doesn’t do justice to what was a decent year in scoring 8 goals in far less game time than he has played in the past and his generally calming influence on a Chelsea midfield that for large parts of the season lacked a standout performer.
In review, Frank started the season in style, bouncing back from an early penalty miss to smack a 40 yard free kick – arguably his best ever in a Chelsea shirt – past Allan McGregor in the Hull goal en route to a 2-0 opening day win. He followed that up with a string of quiet performances in the remainder of August, interspersed with an assist for Oscar’s goal in an out of the blue 2-1 defeat to Basel in the Champions League, for which I rated him a 7.
Frank in Europe
Indeed, it was mostly Lampard’s European displays which demonstrated his value to the team against less frenetic and physical opposition, which allowed his 35 year old legs more time and space on the field. After the aforementioned Bayern and Basel fixtures, super Frank netted a goal and a rating of 8 in the 4-0 demolition of Steaua Bucharest in Romania, 6s in the 3-0 win away to Schalke, defeat in Basel and in the routine return win over Steaua, before turning in a noteworthy 7 in the draw at Galatasaray and an 8 in the 2-0 return leg 
victory against old friend Didier Drogba.
Of particular note from the first leg was Frank’s dominance in a defensive role, making several well time tackles as Chelsea kept the Turkish side at arm’s length, while I had the following to say about his performance in the second leg as Chelsea won through to the quarter-finals.
“Super Frank played with an understated excellence in all phases of the game. Showed good touch with his passing and was diligently positioned defensively while managing to make a couple of trademark forward runs. He seems well suited at this point to the slightly less frenetic pace of European football.”
*On a side note: it seems like I’m quite good at plagiarising myself.
Lampard followed up his pair of round of 16 performances with an 18 minute substitute appearance in Paris before another understated, defensive display against PSG in our famous 2-0 win at the Bridge, in which he anchored the midfield with David Luiz – I even noted in my blog that his performance suggested “he’s nowhere near done in a Chelsea shirt”. Frank’s final European performance of the season came in the creditable 0-0 draw away to Atletico Madrid in which he was again diligent in defence and assured in possession, only dropping to a 6 as he ran a second yellow tightrope in the second half. Indeed, his first yellow ruled him out of the return leg defeat at the Bridge.
Back home
Domestically, Lampard’s performances only dipped below what was expected of him on two occasions all season as Manchester City out-paced and out-maneuvered him before Frank was substituted in the 65th minute in the last-gasp Fernando Torres inspired 2-1 win in October, while he played his part in an awful team performance as Chelsea lost 2-0 at Newcastle the following month.
He made up for the latter a month later with a brace in a 3-0 romp at West Ham (one goal of course from the penalty spot) as he rolled back the years dominating the game from his usual number 8 role in a three man midfield, before capping his display with a trademark finish from the edge of the box shortly before full time. The majority of his other displays in domestic competition varied between 6s and 7s as Frank’s influence was limited, naturally by his deceased athleticism – although his stamina remains – and tactically, by his use in a deeper midfield role, restricting his typical barrage of forward forays.
Can Chelsea really let him go?
Perhaps Super Frank is still in love with the game so much that he wants to play week-in week-out football – who knows? Or perhaps the club is trying to penny-pinch or worse, deems that like Ashley Cole, Lampard’s time at the club is done. All I can say is that from my evaluation of his performances this year, he still has a part to play as part of a midfield rotation, in which he can manage his fitness to feature in both big and small games and have an impact in Europe, while there is no doubting his value in terms of passing on his experience, nous and work ethic to a new generation as Chelsea finally begin to move on from post-Mourinho football to new-Mourinho football.
All things considered, it certainly doesn’t seem like time to say goodbye to one of the club’s greatest of all time.
