Lampard's young blood Blues

Lampard went into this season, as a inexperienced manager who had only one season in the championship under his managerial belt, a transfer ban and losing his best player at the club to Real Madrid, expectations weren't huge for the Chelsea legend. At Derby the Chelsea man opted to play a number of young players, two of which are with him at Chelsea now, and he has continued this at Chelsea, maybe due to the transfer ban but part of it must be because he believes in this philosophy of bringing youth through the ranks. Many experts and pundits predicted a hard season ahead for Chelsea and Lampard, however his young squad have significantly proved many people wrong, the youth players Lampard has played have all excelled and really grabbed this chance to kick start their careers with both hands.

If we look at the most notable of the youth players, you've got Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori, three players who were on loan last season and are now living their dreams of playing for their boyhood club. The three have made 44 appearances for Chelsea this season over all competitions, which shows the trust that Lampard has in these three players who have come from their youth team, a real testimony to Chelsea's academy. Reece James is another name for the academy who has managed to break into the first team this year, loaned out to Wigan last season and managed to come back to break into the first team and push Azpilceuta for that right back spot. Reece hasn't reached the heights of the other three i mentioned before but he is certainly on his way.

Chelsea's season got off to a rocky start, losing to United 4-0 and then the Super Cup to Liverpool on penalties, but as the season has progressed they have gradually found their feet, winning their last 5 games on the bounce in the Premier league. As we said before Chelsea were predicted to really struggle this season, but if you look at where they are now and how teams around them are performing, you could suggest that the have a real chance of getting into the top 4 this season, which would be a great start for Lampard at Chelsea. For me, what is so impressive about Lampard's short tenure at Chelsea is that he's already established a philosophy in his players, they play fast tempo, energetic attacking football. If you look at their rivals such as Man United and Arsenal who are similar situations with transitioning between managers, both these managers have had longer in their job but have both failed to install their ideals and tactics for their teams game. Frank has seemed to get his players playing exactly how he wants, and one important thing about this is, the players seem to enjoy it, they enjoy playing Lampard's way and that transitions into their performances and the teams results.

This Chelsea side has a great balance of youth and experience to it, players like Azpilicueta, Jorgihno, Kante, Willian to bring the experience and knowledge of the game, with the youth bringing the energy and determination. The standout player this season for Chelsea for me, has been Mason Mount, he was at Derby with Frank last season and has pushed on from his impressive season at Derby, scoring 4 goals & assisting 2 so far in that number 10 role that gives him the freedom to play his game. You can see aspects of Lampard in Mason Mount's game, attacking minded midfielder who arrives late in the box, scoring goals and driving forward with the ball; under this manager I can see Mount flourishing into a terrific player for Chelsea. Then you have the extremely talented Tammy Abraham who has scored 10 Premier league goals this season already in only 12 appearances, goal tally any striker would be proud of at this point in the season. Many people doubted that Tammy was the one to lead the line for Chelsea this season, spending last season at Aston Villa, helping them to secure their place in the Premier league again, but there was caution about the step up and whether he could cope with the pressure of playing for his boyhood club; however the big man has proved everyone wrong, fighting for the golden boot, only 22 so plenty of time to improve and get even better, he is proving to be a prolific striker so far this season. Lastly with have Tomori, Canadian born but English citizenship, joining Chelsea in 2005 at the under 8's level, another youngster who was with Lampard at Derby, now established himself as a main centre back at Chelsea, making 9 appearances for Chelsea in the league this year and producing one hell of a goal against Wolves in their 5-2 victory over the midland side.This young centre back has gone from strength to strength, he's quick, agile, good on the ball and seems to read the game very well, I was particularly impressed with him in the Liverpool game where I think he handled himself very well, in a game Chelsea could of won on another day. Under Lampard, I'm sure this young centre back will keep his place and only grow into a quality Centre-half and it must be only a matter of time before he gets his first call-up to the Senior England squad.

Special mention to Callum Hudson Odoi & Christain Pulisic as well, both young wingers who have taken it upon themselves to fill the void left by Eden Hazard. Hudson Odoi being a academy graduate who burst onto the scene last season before suffering a nasty injury which kept him out of the squad for a number of months, the young winger now looks to take advantage of the position Hazard has left unoccupied and reassert himself as one of the rising English hopes. He also faces competition from the young American, Pulisic, who was bought from Dortmund in January for this summer just past before Chelsea had their transfer ban. The American started off slow, finding it hard to find a place in Lampard's squad but has had a reassurance of late, scoring 5 goals and providing two assists, most notably in the game against Burnley where the young American secured his first Hat-trick for the club.

Lampard has instilled a hunger in this young squad, a hunger to strive for improvement and climb up the table, finding themselves in 3rd place at the moment, sitting above last season champions which must be a quite a shock to many people; but for Lampard's team it must seem as only what they deserve, winning their last 5 games on the trot. This Chelsea team are showing they believe in Lampard and are going to be a real contender for the top 4 battle.