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Chelsea have had a mixed start to life under Frank Lampard. The Blues started the season really well but have lost momentum in recent weeks with a few losses and draws ruining the new-manager bounce they had till November.
However, Chelsea still find themselves in a strong position in the league, sitting in fourth place. They have a five-point lead over Tottenham Hotspur in fifth place, are into the last sixteen of the Champions League and progressed in the FA Cup. Their transfer ban has also been lifted, enabling them to strengthen their squad to reflect their ambitions.
Tactically, Chelsea have largely been energetic with their press and played positive football. However, certain underlying issues have come to the fore in recent weeks during losses to the likes of West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton.
Here are the three tactical issues Lampard must address to arrest Chelsea's string of inconsistent displays.
#1 Defending set-pieces
Chelsea have conceded 29 goals so far this season. In the initial stages, their defence looked quite solid, especially with youngster Fikayo Tomori forming a strong partnership with Kurt Zouma. However, the general inexperience in the defence has shown as the season has heated up with Tomori losing form and his place.
Zouma and Rudiger have also made several high-profile errors and struggle to marshall the defence like how Gary Cahill and John Terry would. Chelsea's defending of set-pieces is nervous and they face a disadvantage because of the lack of physicality they have in the squad.
Apart from the centre-backs, few Chelsea players are particularly tall or physical in defending set-pieces.
This means that opposition sides can have a 3v2 or 4v2 situational advantage against the Chelsea defence. With just two players capable of defending aerial balls, Chelsea are powerless to defend near-post headers or flicks as seen in the game against Arsenal when the opening goal came from a set-piece.
Since the physical situation is not something that can be addressed immediately, Lampard needs to instruct his players to defend the central zones better and remain more compact rather than contesting balls they cannot win.
#2 Increasing the output from the full-backs
This issue is more pertinent to the players than tactics as such but Lampard needs to push his full-backs to contribute more to the attack. Cesar Azpilicueta is not known for his attacking contributions but could be more positive in his position and open up spaces ahead of him for the wingers to play from.
He also ought to cross the ball a lot more considering Tammy Abraham's aerial prowess. If Azpilicueta is eased out by the exciting Reece James, we could maybe see more attacking intent from the Englishman.
Azpilicueta has one goal and two assists in the league so far which is not sufficient considering that Chelsea's wingers are struggling with their attacking output too. Until Pulisic settles into the side completely and Willian and Pedro are replaced, Chelsea need their full-backs to contribute more.
The same issue arises on the left flank as Emerson and Marcos Alonso have been sub-par and struggled with injuries. Alonso sacrifices any defensive contribution for his attacking instincts which has cost Chelsea at times.
The Spaniard still has one goal and two assists in just six appearances. Emerson is very tentative to get forward and this shows in his statistics which read zero goals and zero assists in 12 appearances.
Once Pulisic finds his feet in England, he could become an explosive winger. The American already has five goals and two assists this season in 12 appearances but expectations should be realistic at the moment.
Willian, Pedro and Callum Hudson-Odoi combined have just four goals and seven assists, indicating Chelsea's urgent need to create more from the wings.
#3 Controlling games better
As the above image indicates, Chelsea struggle to take meaningful control of games at times. This is largely down to their structure in midfield. When Jorginho is absent, Chelsea have no midfielder on the pitch purely just to recycle possession and hold the ball.
Holding possession is vital to dictate the tempo of games, especially when the opposition is playing with intensity. It is no coincidence that Chelsea are dominant when Jorginho and Kovacic start together, although it slightly compromises on runners from midfield.
In games against the big sides, Chelsea must make the most of their possession by playing midfielders adept at holding the ball. Furthermore, given their struggles to hold onto leads, a calming influence is necessary to keep them compact and organised.
If Lampard insists on the three in midfield, the first choices should be Jorginho and Kante to shield the defence. The third midfielder could see Mount and Kovacic play in rotation and be tasked with progressing the ball more.
