Frank Lampard's tactics are working – it's the underperforming attackers who are letting Chelsea down

Having lost 4-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on the opening day of the Premier League season, Frank Lampard knew all about the challenges Chelsea faced at Stamford Bridge on Monday night.

“We have to be aware that they’re very strong on the counter,” he said before the match. “We found that out at the start of the season.”

A change in strategy was clear from the starting lineup. Rather than the super-attacking 4-2-3-1 that gifted United space to punish Chelsea on the counterattack in the first match, Lampard named a 4-3-3 with a midfield trio of Matteo Kovacic, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante - a more cautious approach.

The plan was to protect against United’s counterattacks in midfield, build patiently and not commit so many players forward in attack, to better control the game. It worked well; Chelsea had more possession (60 per cent) than in the 4-0 defeat (54 per cent) and United were limited to occasional attacks, with Lampard’s side creating the better chances by far.

Just as in the 4-0 defeat, however, Chelsea failed to take these chances and were punished at the other end from the match's first shot on target. At Premier League level, one tiny error in positioning or a single player failing to do their individual job effectively has drastic knock on effects on the rest of the team. United took advantage.

The lapses that allowed United to score

With Andreas Christensen running back on the pitch following a wasted free-kick — from which Batshuayi was caught offside from a simple forward pass taken at halfway —Jorginho dropped into a back four as United carried the ball forward.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka has the ball below, and because Jorginho is in the centre of a back five he isn't in his defensive midfield position (the red circle), which Fred spots and runs into (yellow arrow). Wan-Bissaka plays the pass into space (blue arrow) and sprints for the return.

Cesar Azpilicueta has been drawn inside to defend against Daniel James, who is in a right-forward position as part of United's 3-4-1-2 formation, which means Willian has to track the opposition wing-back when he advances. Fred spots the through-ball and Wan-Bissaka is quicker to it than the Chelsea winger.

Wan-Bissaka does really well one-on-one to win space to cross. In the meantime, Christensen has taken his place in the back four as Jorginho moves to midfield but is, unsurprisingly, clearly still feeling the effects of breaking his nose moments earlier.

Christensen positions himself a few yards deeper than the rest of the Chelsea line, who stay level with Willian, which gives Anthony Martial the perfect space to run and attack for the header.

Wan-Bissaka wins the battle, the cross is excellent and Martial, who “has been told X amount of times to get in those positions in the box,” according to Solskjaer in his post-match assessment of the game, flicks a header into the bottom corner. Goal.

The second goal, a header from a corner, was the result of a brilliant cross from Bruno Fernandes evading Chelsea’s mixed zonal and man-marking setup in the box, allowing Harry Maguire to power his shot into the bottom corner away from the goalkeeper. A few small mistakes and a moment of quality and Chelsea had lost.

How Lampard's strikers are letting him down

Lampard said he felt the match wasn’t a 2-0 sort of game, something Roy Keane was critical of in his post-match analysis on Sky Sports, but the expected goals stats back him up, with Chelsea’s 0.92 to Man Utd’s 0.63 implying that Chelsea had the edge.

“If you’re not gonna have productivity in the 18 yard box, if we’re not finishing chances it’s difficult to win games,” Lampard lamented after the match, referencing Michy Batshuayi’s wasted opportunities inside the area.

A more clinical striker than Batshuayi should have taken at least one of the chances Chelsea did create but this is a problem the manager has had all season. Chelsea’s Premier League xG total of 46.5 goals compared to 43 actually scored suggests they are underperforming in front of goal this season. And conversely, without the overperforming Tammy Abraham's 13 league goals from an expected amount of 11.7, they'd be even worse off.

Chelsea started the season as an exciting attacking team but found out quickly that this led to them shipping a large amount of goals. They have kept only five clean sheets — the second-worst record in the league — and the natural reaction was to adapt to address this, something usually done by withdrawing the ‘10’ and adding another ‘eight’ in midfield, particularly against strong opponents.

This makes Chelsea slightly less threatening going forward and changes the way they press, which allows opponents to get slightly higher up the pitch and attack more. It also leaves Abraham isolated, which is one possible reason he is so heavily relied upon and why Lampard was so desperate to sign a reliable striker in the January window.

If the opposition can get up the pitch they are more likely to score and the most worrying underlying statistic of all is that Chelsea’s "expected goals against" is 26.3 while their actual goals against tally is 36. Something's not right, and the manager must hope dropping Kepa Arrizabalaga for Willy Caballero helps correct it.

The 2-0 defeat to United was Chelsea’s ninth league defeat of the season and their fifth at home, meaning they have lost as many Premier League home games this season as they did between February 2004 and November 2010, and have lost more league games than they did all of last season. Is it the fault of strikers failing to find the net, the goalkeeper making errors, or are Lampard’s tactical choices harming the team? Eden Hazard's game-winning effect during Maurizio Sarri's year in charge looks to have been seriously downplayed.

As a player, Lampard knew exactly when to time runs into the box, understood when was right to abandon the midfield to join the attack, and was intuitively aware of his defensive duties. His team is well balanced, entertaining to watch and plays in his image, taking plenty of shots from distance with late runners from midfield helping in attacking moves. Without clinical forwards and reliable defenders though, there is only so much a coach can do and the statistics show that Chelsea are doing almost everything right except the final action.

“Their first goal we had a free-kick, play it long, caught offside and that’s ridiculous,” said Lampard. “Second goal is a set piece. Other than that they had a couple of counter-attacks. We had a feeling of Groundhog Day. If we don’t have the input of goals in attacking areas we don’t win.”