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Frank Lampard was the biggest spender in the recently-concluded transfer market, spending in excess of £200m to bring six new players to the club.
Despite concluding his transfer activity early in the window, the Chelsea manager has been criticised for his indecisiveness in picking his first team.
The 42-year-old has shown a penchant for constantly chopping and changing his team, particularly in defence, with three different goalkeepers having played between the sticks in just seven matches this season. Meanwhile, marquee signings like Kai Havertz and Timo Werner have also been deployed in several different positions.
Frank Lampard has overseen a mixed start to the season that has seen the Blues pick up seven points from their opening four matches. They were also knocked out by Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup Round of 16.
According to former Arsenal midfielder and current ESPN pundit Stewart Robson, this is not good enough and is a sign that Frank Lampard does not have a clear-cut plan.
Stewart Robson's assessment of Chelsea's season so far
According to Robson, Lampard still has a lot of issues to iron out, especially in defence while he also has to sort out what his best team is.
''Everyone talks about buying loads of players and making sure your squad is big, getting players in all in one go and doing it early. But if you don’t then get them to gel, you’ve got a problem."
“I thought in their first few games, Chelsea had slight problems. We saw that against West Brom when they couldn’t defend.
''We saw that in the first couple of games with Spurs, but Spurs now seem to have got their act together, they’ve got an understanding of how to play.
"That would be my one criticism of Chelsea. I’m not sure that when Frank Lampard bought those players in, knew how he wanted to play and what his best team was. I’m still not sure he knows what his best team is.”
Frank Lampard was appointed as Chelsea manager last summer after spending one year at the helm of Derby County, whom he guided to the Championship playoffs.
In his first season on the Stamford Bridge bench, he made considerable progress by finishing in the Premier League top four and making it to the final of the FA Cup despite being handicapped by a transfer ban.
Frank Lampard was widely lauded for his promotion of academy players. However, with Roman Abramovich having overseen one of the busiest summers in recent Chelsea history, he will be judged by much higher standards this time around.
