Frank Lampard has retired from football.
The three times Premier League winner and one
time Champions League winner, who also notched up FA Cups, two Football League Cups,
and a Europa League, is one of the greatest all-round midfielders ever to grace the English game.
Alongside the trophies, he was runner-up FIFA Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or runner-up
in 2005, as well as winning the FWA Footballer of the Year and the PFA Fan’s Player of the Year, also both in 2005.
His other personal achievements are too numerous to list.
Lampard was a dynamic box-to-box midfielder for much of his career, but could play as a deep-lying playmaker, an advanced playmaker,
and even a second striker.
His discipline and versatility made him the sort of player around which to build a team.
Lampard’s numbers are remarkable.
[609 Premier League appearances, the third most in the PL era; 546 starts, also the third most] [177 Premier League goals, 4 th overall and
the only midfielder in top 15] [Nine direct free-kicks, joint 8 th in the
Premier League] Lampard was especially lethal from deep, scoring
41 goals from outside the box, the most in the Premier League by seven, ahead of David Beckham’s 34.
Lampard was also creative, and his 102 Premier League assists are second only to Ryan
Giggs’ 162, and only Cesc Fabregas (101) and Wayne Rooney (101) are even close to him.
Lampard also scored 43 more PL goals for Chelsea than any other player, and 45 more assists
(147/90), as well as being Chelsea’s all time top scorer in all competitions with 211.
While Lampard went goalless and scoreless in 15 games for West Ham in his first two
seasons, from then on, the midfielder scored five or more in every other season.
In five seasons, Lampard scored 0.4 goals per game or more. He also had six seasons of averaging 0.2 assists per game or more.
Perhaps more remarkably, his total attackin output of goals plus assists was phenomenal,
peaking in 2009/10 when he was scoring or assisting once every game (22 goals and 14 assists in 36 appearances).
Indeed, in nine seasons between 2004/05 and 2012/13 Lampard
scored or assisted at a rate of at least 0.5 per game; to put it another way, once every
two games for nine full Premier League seasons,
Lampard was guaranteed to either score or assist.
His two finest seasons were 2004/05, Jose Mourinho’s first in charge, during which
the club won the Premier League, and 2009/10 under
Carlo Ancelotti, when the club won the Premier League and FA Cup.
Under Mourinho, Chelsea played a 4-3-3, with Lampard the midfielder with most licence to get forward. He scored 13 goals and managed 18 assists
in 31 games in 2004/05.
The system used full backs with a licence to push up and wingers,
usually Robben on the left and Duf on the right, who would swap over as well to drift
inside on their ‘wrong’ foot.
Lampard was part of a midfield triangle, which Mourinho saw as key to his approach.
Makelele would drop back between the lines, creating a triangle even if Lampard and the
other midfielder, mostly Essien or Tiago, stayed level.
When Lampard pushed up, as he was encouraged to do, that midfield triangle would
stretch and create other passing opportunities, especially against the then popular 4-4-2.
Crucially, if a midfielder pressed Makelele, that would create a 2 on 1 in the
centre, which Lampard could exploit to find space to shoot or look for a killer pass.
If Makelele were not pressed, Lampard and Essien
would drag the opposition midfielders around, while the anchorman could distribute without pressure.
And if the opposition wingers drifted in, then Robben or Duf would be
free, or the attacking full backs would create an overlap.
Lampard was crucial to the system, roving forwards to ensure that Drogba or Guojohnsen
were not isolated, especially when Chelsea broke at break-neck pace, a feature of their play that season.
Under Ancelotti, Chelsea changed between a
narrow 4-1-2-1-2 and a 4-3-2-1, while also using 4-3-3 that was like Mourinho’s. Lampard played in the midfield two of the
diamond, which restricted his attacking instincts, but when he was in a midfield three in the
Christmas tree or the 4-3-3, his contribution soared.
Perhaps more crucial was that Ancelotti’s flexible approach showed how Lampard
could adapt to various roles in various formation, and still have an impact.
Lampard is one of an elite group of 17 Premier League players who
during a season in which they played 10 or more games, contributed a goal or assist once per match.
He is truly one of the finest players of the Premier League era and in England, quite possibly, ever.