Lampard’s season and future on the line

IF THERE was a honeymoon period for Frank Lampard as Chelsea manager, it felt as though it reached its natural end against Manchester United this week. Many of those who did not leave early for the trains at Fulham Broadway groaned and grumbled as the final whistle confirmed a fifth home defeat in this Premier League campaign.

Lampard’s team had been unsettled and anxious — fragile at the back, lacking punch in attack and with questions stacking up for the manager.

They always do at Chelsea when the issue of top-four status comes under threat, especially after recording annual losses of £96million last year.

Each decision is scrutinised. What’s going on with the goalkeeper? Why start Michy Batshuayi ahead of Olivier Giroud? Why start right-footed Cesar Azpilicueta on the left ahead of two orthodox left backs?

What is the best pairing in central defence? Why so vulnerable at set-pieces? Why so susceptible to the counter-attack?

Lampard’s methods are questioned. Why has N’Golo Kante struggled for fitness? How did Callum HudsonOdoi damage a hamstring during the winter break? Why did Tammy Abraham start when injured at Leicester?

Training under Lampard (right) might be more fun and less tactics-based than the monotony of life under Antonio Conte or Maurizio Sarri, but have Chelsea lost some of their organisation and discipline?

Have the promising young stars been overplayed? Were they rewarded too soon with lucrative new deals? Are they being found out? Can they overcome the tests and rise to the next stage of their careers?

Lampard can provide sensible answers. The players are ‘giving everything’ he insists, and a dip in form for the younger players was only natural.

Injuries to ‘major players’ have not helped the rhythms of team formation and Giroud spent part of the season thinking he might be leaving in January but ended up staying.

The questions will only stop when Lampard’s team start winning. When teams don’t win, the questions linger. Something must be wrong, right?

They have won only one of their last six games in the Premier League. At home, they have taken eight points from a possible 24 since the November international break.

The question which underpins all of this, of course, is whether or not Lampard is up to the job.

It is, after all, only his second season in management and his first in the Premier League.

The hardcore supporters remain firmly behind him and have even put up a new banner in the East Stand hailing the return of the club legend as manager.

They believe Lampard has restored the club’s identity since he arrived from Derby.

His trust in young players was well received, those players responded and seven wins in a row in the autumn gave the project a healthy glow.

There were no distractions in the market and expectations were relatively low. There was the usual lift from those pleased to see the back of the previous coach.

The transfer ban cast the air of ‘caretaker control’ over the months until January. Lampard took tough decisions and yet the most difficult conversations could be put off until they were through this period. The real business of managing started when the market closed in January. Lampard promised he would be leading a ‘joinedup’ transfer policy, only to sound aggrieved, just like his predecessors, when the window closed.

He wanted targets the club did not land and sounded rather like those who had gone before when the window passed without any reinforcements. Others, meanwhile, will covet his job, which is a far more attractive proposition than at this time last year, and will test Chelsea’s loyalty to Lampard.

The transfer ban is over, there is money to spend in the market and the young players have a vital year of elite football under their belts.

Mauricio Pochettino’s work at Tottenham has long been admired by the board at Stamford Bridge.

Agents for the unemployed coaches are stirring at this time of year. Max Allegri has his eyes on the Premier League.

Tottenham are today’s visitors, led by Jose Mourinho, the manager responsible for half of Chelsea’s six league titles.

Mourinho is beset by problems of his own, chiefly a shortage of strikers, but has closed the gap in the table and will not miss the opportunity to apply more pressure to Lampard.

The heat is on and the next three months could make or break the Chelsea boss.