Frank Lampard opens up on ‘two battles’ he faced as Derby County boss

Follow us on Google Discover

As Derby manager, Lampard steered the Rams to the Championship playoffs and came within one game of bringing Premier League football to Pride Park.

Frank Lampard has spoken in depth about his time at Derby County and how he found himself taking on “two battles” in his job.

The 41-year-old was given his managerial break by the Rams last season and he did well at Pride Park, securing a Championship top-six finish and reaching the playoff final while also reducing the average age of the squad.

Now at Chelsea, Lampard spoke to BT Sport about how the experience he picked up from his year at Derby, and how the amount he learned was almost like having “three or four seasons in one”, which will help him at Stamford Bridge.

“I think as a manager, you will continually learn because of the nature of what the job is,” he said, speaking on BT Sport programme Sport in Focus, as quoted by Football London. “It is the variables that come along. I felt like the year I had at Derby and the team I had, I think this was the real benefit I had, there was a real desire for a change of style. And with that, we had to change personnel and bring the age down too, so there were two battles going in.

“I learnt day-by-day, week-by-week, and probably trying to find the balance of information not to overcome the players in one go, you can’t change it all in pre-season for instance. So I learnt a lot about myself, my staff who I really rely on and trust, and I feel like I am in a good position. It feels like I almost had three or four seasons in one maybe.”

Lampard has been very much handed a baptism of fire at Chelsea, his first competitive fixture away at Manchester United in the Premier League, which resulted in a 4-0 defeat, followed by Champions League holders Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup, the Blues narrowly edged out on penalties.

As for Derby, they have Phillip Cocu at the helm, who has begun brightly at Pride Park, claiming four points from their first two Championship games and progressing in the Carabao Cup to book a second-round tie away at Nottingham Forest.