A new manager’s first team is always hotly anticipated as it gives you a direct insight into their thinking, and there will be great expectations for Saturday’s setup from Frank Lampard.
Players who have been frozen out or not favoured under Graham Potter may get a fresh chance, we may see evidence of board pressure in certain aspects if Lampard continues with some of the stranger decisions that Potter was making, or we may see a new shape altogether.
There’s a strong chance that the interim coach is briefed to use some of the young players who arrived in January to help them bed in, and to avoid using the older players likely to leave in the summer.
His overall focus, however, will be on getting the team scoring goals without losing the solid defensive structure we’ve seen developed under Thomas Tuchel. Don’t expect a revolution, but expect changes.
Lampard’s quotes picked up by Football.London show that he’s already thinking about his selection, and will be relying on the work done by Graham Potter and Bruno Salter to a great extent:
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot this morning, speaking to people who are going to be helping me to do this job so I have my idea about where I want to go. I watched the team, so credit to Bruno who took the team, credit to Graham Potter who I don’t know that well but everything I see about him, he’s a good man and a very good coach and sometimes for whatever reason things don’t align, don’t work, whatever, I’ve been in that situation personally. There’s nothing that I will do that will look backwards other than with a view to how we move forward. I obviously have my own ideas.”
