Can Frank Lampard match his legendary playing career as a manager?

Over a glittering career that lasted all of 21 years, Frank Lampard played his way into being considered as one of the best midfielders of his generation.

The former England international begun his professional career with West Ham in 1995 and after six years with The Hammers (which included a one-year loan spell with Swansea), Frank Lampard was signed by Chelsea for the sum of £11 million in June 2001.

With the West London side, he went on to achieve global prominence and left Stamford Bridge 13 years later as the club's record goalscorer and won virtually everything there was to win at the club level.

Between 2004 and 2010, Chelsea were arguably the most dominant club in the world and you would be hard-pressed to find any player who contributed more to the side's success in this period than the Romford native.

Lampard was also established on the international scene and won 106 caps for the Three Lions of England, although he was unable to match his club success with his nation.

The three-time Premier League winner was the definition of a complete midfielder and had a wide array of skillset which included shooting accuracy, vision, and passing range which saw him deployed in all areas of the midfield and as a supporting striker on occasion.

Upon retirement, the 41-year-old immediately started working on getting his coaching licenses rather than remain in the comfort of armchair analysis and his first spell in the dugout when he was appointed as the manager of Derby County in 2018.

It is a well-established fact that great players do not always become great coaches, but Frank Lampard has started life in the dugout pretty impressively.

His first spell with Derby County went better than many would have predicted, with The Rams making it to the playoff spot after finishing sixth in the regular season of the notoriously demanding Championship but lost out on promotion Aston Villa who defeated his side in the playoff final at Wembley.

There were also some notable results posted in Lampard's sole season at Pride Park, including eliminating his former mentor Jose Mourinho's Manchester United from the League Cup at Old Trafford, while his side also impressed after narrowly losing 3-2 to Chelsea in the next round of the competition.

With Derby, Lampard implemented a high-pressing system, with center-backs Fikayo Tomori and Richard Keogh acting as the first line of attack, while Mason Mount played in between the lines and was the supply line for Jack Marriott and Martyn Waghorn.

However, his Derby side were not entirely gung ho in front of goal, evidenced by the fact that they scored just 69 goals (which was the lowest among the top six teams in the division last season).

Their defense was, however, more assured and they conceded the rather respectable total of 54 goals from 46 matches, which was the second-lowest among the aforementioned sample of clubs.

Frank Lampard places a lot of emphasis on midfielders making late runs into the box to finish moves off, which is perfectly logical, seeing as he was the prime proponent of this during his playing days.

Mason Mount was a goal threat at Derby County

Under his tutelage, Harry Wilson thrived as Derby's chief goal threat, scoring a club-high of 18 goals in all competitions, while Mason Mount also weighed in with 11 of his own.

Despite his shortcoming in the Championship playoff, Chelsea were still seemingly convinced enough by Lampard's performance to announce him as Maurizio Sarri's permanent replacement after the Italian departed for Juventus even though the former England international had just one year under his belt as a manager.

The transfer ban handed to Chelsea meant that Lampard came into the club very much on a handicap which was exacerbated by Eden Hazard's record-breaking sale to Real Madrid.

Given the circumstances in which he arrived, coupled with his relative inexperience on the bench, many predicted a tough season of transition for Lampard and Chelsea and their fears were seemingly justified when the England legend opened his spell with a 4-0 loss away to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Things hardly improved in the coming weeks, with the Blues picking up just one win from their first five matches in all competitions.

They, however, turned a corner after the narrow 2-1 defeat to league-leaders Liverpool at Stamford Bridge and they won their next seven matches in all competitions before another 2-1 reversal to Manchester United at home halted their momentum.

Lampard came under fire for Chelsea's porous defense early in the campaign, with his side conceding a whopping 13 goals and failing to keep a clean sheet in any of their first six Premier League matches.

However, Fikayo Tomori has grown in stature since his return to Stamford Bridge and alongside another returnee in Kurt Zouma, Chelsea have tightened things at the back and conceded just six goals in their next seven league fixtures.

Another criticism that has been leveled against the West Londoners has been their inability to get the job done against the bigger sides, with both Manchester United and Liverpool getting the better of Chelsea on two occasions, while they also failed to beat a high-flying Leicester City side.

On the continent, they, however, showed great determination to claw back from a two-goal deficit to level matters with Ajax in addition to their 1-0 first-leg win in Amsterdam and a cursory look at the defeats to the bigger sides does not tell the full story.

In both games against Liverpool, it could be argued that Chelsea were the better side on the overall balance of play and were unlucky not to get anything from either fixture, while Manchester United sat back and absorbed the pressure and got all six of their goals either through quick breakaways or setpieces.

Even in defeat, Chelsea showed that they are capable of going toe-to-toe with the bigger sides in the league and this is made the more impressive by the fact that the squad is full of relatively inexperienced players who are allowed to fully express themselves by their manager.

Their most recent high-profile fixture came at The Etihad against Manchester City and once again, they lost, but it cannot be denied that Chelsea have taken several steps forward in such a short amount of time.

Lampard was the first manager to have more possession than Guardiola in a league game in over 11 years

The last time The Blues visited the blue half of Manchester, they were walloped in a one-sided 6-0 victory, but in Lampard's first clash as a manager with Pep Guardiola, he became the first coach in over 11 years and 381 matches to have more possession than the Catalan in a league fixture.

Lampard won high praise for his developmental strides in his sole season at Derby and under his watch, youngsters like Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, and Harry Wilson flourished in their loan spells, consequently earning returns back to their parent clubs.

It is undeniable that Chelsea's transfer ban forced Lampard's hand into utilizing the array of players on loan at various clubs but the club is expected to dip into the transfer market following the uplifting of the ban especially in light of the fact that the club's rivals are continuously spending big to augment their squads.

Regardless of whether he augments his squad with marquee players or not, some things are already clear about his managerial skills.

For starters, he discarded the rather static and toothless 'sarriball' philosophy that saw Chelsea chalk up a lot of meaningless possession, with most of their passes being sideways and non-penetrative.

These days, the West Londoners are encouraged to go forward as quickly as possible and while they remain an expressive and possession-based team, it is very evident that they are more direct in their play.

Recent setbacks against some poor sides like Everton and Bournemouth were poor o say the least but the fact of the matter is that they are 4th on the table and successfully navigated a tricky group also containing Ajax, Valencia, and Lille.

These are impressive feats considering the season of doom many predicted and with some marquee players expected in January, it can only get better for Lampard's Chelsea.

So far, Frank Lampard has managed 83 matches across his spell with Derby County and Chelsea, winning 37 of those at a ratio of 44.6% and while this sample might be too small to effectively gauge his managerial acumen, it cannot be denied that he is on the right trajectory to become an all-time great on the dugout.

Across the British Isle, his midfield contemporary Steven Gerrard is also making waves with his giant strides at Rangers and with England not particularly famed for having produced legendary managers in the past, Frank Lampard might lead the charge to change this narrative in the future.