The Ever-Controversial Ones #1, Frank Lampard

By: Rob | March 25th, 2008

Some players, like let us say, Maldini, never get any critisism, quite rightly. Its become such a cliché about his legendary status that its hardly worth going over again. Not all of the top-level players are treated in the same way though, as this hopefully ongoing theme will explore. Every now and then, I’ll take a player, who while loved by some, is loathed by others and we can debate whether he is indeed, a world class player. The first in this series, for your interest is Chelsea’s ever-unpopular second in command, Frank Lampard. Lampard celebrates for England

Assuming this is a popular idea, keep your eyes peeled, for Steven Gerrard, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Totti, Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham and any other player who you might have heard called World Class who you disagreed with. I’m open to suggestions; the only pre-requisite is that they do, or have, played in the Champions League - that is why we’re here after all.

Frank Lampard really is one of those players, you just like or not. His sucsess can’t be argued with - he’s been nominated several times for European and World Footballer of the Year, won 60 England caps to date and has a massive haul of trophies. But, he isn’t as respected as those stats might suggest. Labelled ‘Fat Frank’ by (harsh - the fella isn’t fat whatever his faults) non-Chelsea supporters, Lampard is often mocked for his shooting. He is however the only midfield player to get 4 goals in a Premier League game(this was against Derby however), and has hit double figures in goals from midfield in every one of the last 4 seasons. He has also been practically ever-present in a Chelsea side that has moved to dominate the EPL, as well as being one of the only survining members of the pre-Roman era.

Lampard started his carrer at West Ham, captaining thier youth side in the 1995/6 season, and began to knock on the door of the first team a year later, untill a broken leg put an end to that season for him. He came back strongly however, and was a part of the superemly talented West Ham side that climbed to 5th in the Premier League along with Micheal Carrick, Joe Cole and Lampard’s close friend, Rio Ferdinand. Guided by his uncle Harry Redknapp, Lampard became the focal point of the team, ever present in that sucsessful season. Redknapp however soon left the club, Rio followed him out of the Upton Park door, and Lampard would be next - presumably feeling he would have to move to loose the ‘Junior’ tag that was always attached to his name while he was at a club where his dad was (and still is) such a legend.

He signed for Chelsea, for £11m and was in his first two seasons, pretty much ever-present, though the young midfielder often failed to live up to his pricetag and was outshone in a side built around Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola. His second season was more of a sucsess, he netted 8 goals from midfield and Chelsea siezed an impressive fourth (on the last day of the season) and a Champions League spot.

He was moved into the attacking midfield spot when Zola retired and despite the threat of Roman’s millions meaning that seemingly anyone could be bought in to replace anyone else, Lampard kept his place, and in fact the team was built entirely around him (some will argue of course, this is exactly what Lampard needs). He seemed to thrive, Chelsea, reached the Semi-Final of that seasons Champions League, and Lampard notched double figures in the goal steaks. They lost to French Side Monaco in the CL semi. Chelsea finished second in the Premier League, behind Arsenal.

The 2004-5 season was massive for Chelsea. They made it to another Champions League semi-final, and won the Premier League by 12 points. Lampard played every single one of the league games for the club, and scored 13 goals from midfield. Dutch Legend Johan Cruyff called him “The best midfield player in Europe”, and Brazil legend Carlos Alberto agreed. He came second in the World Footballer of the Year stakes, behind Ronaldinho. This was also the case in the European Footballer of the Year contest. He also won fans player of the year.
He has also been labeled by Mattius Sammer and Jose Mourinho as The Best Player in the World.

Lampard scored 21 goals in all competetions last season including a wonderful chipped goal against Barca. But doubts began to creep in around the 2006 World Cup, where despite infinate efforts on goal, Lampard failed to find the net once. In fact, this is the main critisim of Lampard, that though he does get 20 goals a season, he only finds the net with a small percentage of the shots his has on goal. He has also been booed in an England shirt frequently, seemingly taking the blame for the percieved lack of cohesion between himself and Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard.

He has also been accused of scoring from deflections, although I remember a report in the Guardian awhile ago that showed that only Six of his goals have come this way.
He is Seventh on Chelsea’s all time goalscorer’s list, incredible for a midfield player. He also holds the record for consecutive premiership appearences, showing his importance to the Chelsea team.

He currently has 14 England goals to his name, in over 60 appearences, which is less impressive, but not bad. That equates to roughly 1 goal in every 4 appearances, which for a midfield player is not bad at all.

So Lampard. Love him? Loathe him. Lets debate him. And suggest some more for me to mull over.