Did Lampard’s Chelsea dodge a bullet during the Champions League draw?

The Champions League draw is renowned for heavily favouring Europe’s elite in the hope that the bigger teams can make it to the knockout rounds. However, despite UEFA’s best efforts, there will always be one group of death. This time around it is Group F, which comprises of Barcelona, Dortmund, Inter Milan and Slavia Prague. It’s a tough pill to swallow for the Czech side, but the delegates of the club were able to see the funny side during the draw.

Sometimes, all you can do is laugh 😂

The reaction of the Slavia Prague delegates when drawn in a group with Barcelona, Dortmund and Inter Milan…

Priceless! 👏 pic.twitter.com/cJU4iEPMa7

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) August 29, 2019

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the likes of Manchester City, who look set to sail through the group stage, where they’ll come up against Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb, and Shakhtar Donetsk. Of course, City didn’t necessarily need such an easy draw to progress given they have one of the most expensive squads in Europe. While they could pretty much hold their own against whoever came their way, the same can’t be said for Chelsea, who have been drawn in an intriguing group.

Making the trip to Stamford Bridge will be Ajax, Lille and Valencia. Apart from Ajax, neither Lille or Valencia proved to be the best team in their respective leagues and that could be telling given that the standard of the Premier League is generally accepted to be higher than that of La Liga or Ligue 1. Chelsea, of course, finished third last season, but look a very different outfit to the one under Maurizio Sarri.

New Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is without Eden Hazard after the Belgian moved to the Bernabeu and instead will have to rely on the likes of Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham for goals when travelling the continent over the next few months. Lampard is giving youth a chance for the first time in a long while at Chelsea, but can his young charges stand up and be counted in Europe?

It’s probably a bit more complicated than that, and the question should be: Does Frank Lampard have the tactical nous to succeed in Europe? For all of Lampard’s constant reminders of transfer bans and how his hands are tied with only youth to call on, the truth is that he has one of the most expensive squads in the Premier League still and the third highest wage bill in the EPL. For further proof of how good this side on paper actually is, they are the fourth-favourites to win the title in Premier League betting. Some would think they were headed for a relegation battle after some of Lampard’s press conferences.

So far in the Premier League, Chelsea have looked chaotic at the back, having conceded seven goals in three games. You get the feeling that Lampard has tried to adopt a Pep Guardiola-style press without understanding why his team should do it, which results in his troops frantically trying to win the ball in the first half an hour before they run of out of gas and ideas. Chelsea’s midfield then parts like the Red Sea and teams who have weathered the storm can then go to work on a naive outfit, just like Leicester did during an entertaining 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, a game that the Foxes should have won easily.

3 – Frank Lampard is the first Chelsea manager to fail to win any of his first three games in charge of the club since Rafael Benitez in the 2012-13 campaign. Introduction. pic.twitter.com/8nZwwsL6Hq

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 18, 2019

For these reasons, it doesn’t feel like Chelsea have dodged a bullet because they will be coming up against seasoned Champions League teams that will be more than aware of how to outfox the Blues. Ajax, in particular, will lurk and stalk Chelsea for however long it takes, waiting patiently for the ball and their panic-stricken style of play to subside before unleashing a red and white wave of devastating execution. Valencia and Lille will be taking notes and should give Chelsea the game of their lives when they meet.

The Champions League is a different animal from the Premier League which makes it worlds away from the Championship, the league where Lampard cut his teeth.

During his time as Derby County manager, Lampard famously said ‘we do analysis too’ as he took a dig at Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa after the Argentine went to painstaking efforts in a press conference to show that he didn’t have any need to spy on the Rams. Chelsea’s Group H opponents will be doing their analysis now and you feel, will be licking their lips at the thought of facing the South West London side.