Frank Lampard Impressed by Antonio Conte’s Early Regime at Chelsea

Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard says that he is left impressed by manager Antonio Conte’s first few months at his former club.

After starting out in brilliant fashion with several late victories, the Italian manager suffered major setbacks later on – especially in the games against Arsenal and Liverpool. However, the club has since recovered and it was largely down to the brilliance of Conte. The Italian switched to a 3-4-3 formation, which he has used for the majority of his managerial career, after recent defeats. It was widely expected that Chelsea would begin the campaign with this formation.

It may have been forced upon the former Juventus manager, but he has so far been able to reap incredible success from it. The club have now gone without conceding a single goal in the last five matches, which have all finished as solid victories for the team.

Chelsea have gone from struggling in the mid-table places a few weeks ago into being second in the Premier League just behind Liverpool. Conte has been praised from various quarters, and Lampard has just joined the bandwagon. He also says that he would have loved to stay at Manchester City just to play under Pep Guardiola.

Lampard spent one season on loan at City when he played under Manuel Pellegrini. “I'm waiting for the Conte-era to really kick in. I was excited as a Chelsea man when he came in, I thought they needed the discipline and a different angle from last year. I think people were relaxed, I think they won the league, and they relaxed. The minute you relax in football, you turn the switch off, you can't turn it straight on again.That's why I quite like Conte, he's known as a disciplinarian, he's working them hard in training, and he's trying to organise them, working them hard on the pitch,” said Lampard.