2019 has been a year of change for Chelsea. Bringing in Frank Lampard in the managerial role has changed everything at Stamford Bridge, and a lot of lessons have been learned along the way. Here are five lessons that Chelsea has learned in 2019.
Trust the youth
Chelsea fans had been begging for the youth players to be trusted for several years, and they finally got their wish this year. Lampard has come in and trusted the youth, and they have repaid that trust.
The current Blues side is full of young talent that is taking the Premier League by storm. The infamous Chelsea academy has finally seen graduates make waves in the first-team, and this is only the beginning.
Losing Hazard wasn’t so bad
Chelsea were rightly concerned when star-man Eden Hazard made the move to Real Madrid in the summer. He was crucial to the club’s success last year and without him, life could have been tough.
But it hasn’t been. This young, hungry Chelsea side has made fans forget about the Belgian winger. There are times when the Blues could do with him, but overall, life after Hazard has been just fine.
If you’re good enough, you’re old enough
This lesson applies to managers and players alike. Lampard has come in off the back of one year’s management experience but most recently outsmarted one of the world’s greatest ever managers.
Age is just a number if you are making improvements to your team. Just like Lampard, the young players in the Chelsea side are proving that their relative inexperience does not make a difference to how much they can impact results.
Never organise a friendly before a major final
This one is enough to make any Chelsea fan angry. The bizarre friendly against New England took place after the 2018/19 league season, but before the Europa League final.
It seemed a strange thing to do at the time, and it was even worse when Ruben Loftus-Cheek suffered a serious injury. The midfielder was becoming one of the club’s most important players before he was cruelly sidelined. He has not featured since, and will no doubt have provided an important lesson to those at Chelsea.
A transfer ban can be a good thing
Chelsea fans were right to be worried when all of those around them were making signings in the summer. It is easy to get left behind if you do not constantly improve your squad in modern-day football, and the Blues were prevented from doing this in the summer.
The only signing the club could make was a permanent deal for Mateo Kovacic. The Croatian has been brilliant for Chelsea this season, and along with the emergence of the youth talent, proves that a transfer ban can prove to be a positive thing.
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