Suara.com – Frank Lampard was immediately faced with a tough test after being appointed by Chelsea as interim manager until the end of the season following the sacking of Graham Potter. What’s the response?
Chelsea made use of Lampard as a void filler before appointing a new permanent manager after the season ended.
“I want to do the best I can and after that we’ll see what happens,” Frank Lampard was quoted as saying by the BBC, Friday (7/4/2023).
Lampard, who has been out of work since being sacked by Everton in January, will have his first match with Chelsea against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday (8/4/2023).
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Five days later, Lampard will lead Chelsea to visit Real Madrid headquarters in the first leg of the 2022-2023 Champions League quarter-finals.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard’s gesture in the 2019/2020 Premier League match against Wolves at Stamford Bridge, London, Sunday (26/7/2020) evening WIB. (DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / POOL / AFP)
The match against Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu is clearly a tough challenge for Lampard considering Chelsea’s performance is still erratic and temporarily stranded in 11th place in the Premier League standings.
On the other hand, Lampard’s appointment as interim manager reopened the discussion regarding Chelsea’s luck when appointing a coach in the middle of the season.
In the 2011/2012 season, Chelsea won the Champions League under interim manager Roberto Di Matteo following the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas.
Meanwhile, in the 2020/2021 season, Chelsea won the Champions League again after sacking the coach, namely Frank Lampard in the middle of the season to be replaced by Thomas Tuchel.
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Lampard is aware of this myth but insists he only wants to focus on preparing the team to perform as well as possible.
“I understand I’m going to be asked that question a lot. My eyes are wide open. The important thing for me is to park it and focus on the job at hand,” said Lampard.
