Chelsea Just Another Game for Mourinho, What About Frank?
By Aaron Coe
José Mourinho was clear in his response about playing Chelsea not taking on more importance for him, but José did not address Tottenham facing Frank.
When it comes to the most important players José Mourinho has coached in his life, Frank Lampard must be at the top of the list. However, now that Lampard is no longer his player, you can bet your bottom dollar José Mourinho wants to get one over on Frank, his managerial counterpart. So, while José can say Chelsea is just “another game for me” the same may not be true of facing Frank Lampard when Tottenham take on Chelsea Sunday.
Mourinho and Lampard Champions Together
If anyone watched All or Nothing, there was a quick scene where José Mourinho was asked about Frank Lampard. Mourinho simultaneously got a little glint in his eye and got extremely serious in saying that Lampard what the greatest competitor he had ever coached. That is really saying something when it comes from a coach who has played nearly 400 players including Cristiano Ronaldo and John Terry.
In his five seasons under José Mourinho Frank Lampard played 215 matches, that is the third most of any player under José. Only John Terry (266) and Ricardo Carvalho (292) have made more appearances for the Portuguese coach. Together during his first run at Chelsea, Lampard and Mourinho won six trophies, including two Premier League titles. In their first season together Mourinho helped Lampard move to the next level with Lampard being named the best player in England in 2005 as Chelsea won their first of two consecutive titles under Mourinho.
What separated Lampard from the 398 other players was his ultra-competitiveness and the incredible production from the midfielder under Mourinho. It should be clear to all Tottenham fans by now that Mourinho wants players to compete, whether in crosses & naughts, indoor cricket, or a competitive match of football, José wants his players to compete. Given Lampard’s competitiveness there was never any doubt the two would be fast friends.
With all those appearances Frank Lampard did not waste his opportunities. On top of his willingness to do the work, add in Lampard’s production and you can see the makings of José Mourinho’s favorite player. Lampard is fourth all time in goals for José with 70, behind only Didier Drogba (73), Kareem Benzema (78), and Ronaldo (168).
Given all the wonderful goal scorers José has managed this is honestly saying something. Yes, he had more seasons with Mourinho, but that is more goals under José than scoring superstars Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gonzalo Higuian. Combined Anthony Martial and Eden Hazard played 1 more season under José than did Lampard, yet the midfielder has 7 more goals than the two goal scorers combined in 16 less matches.
Of course, Lampard provided the ball on numerous occasions for others to score while playing for Mourinho too. Frank Lampard is second all-time under José with 61 assists. Only Mesut Ozil (80) feeding the Real goal scoring machines Benzema and Ronaldo has had more assists under Mourinho. Now there are a lot of games helping Lampard accumulate all these numbers under Mourinho, but there is no doubting the success of the two together.
Beating Frank at Tottenham
If you pay attention you might notice that there is Lampard the favorite footballer of José Mourinho, then there is Frank the coach of the opposition. As José tries to separate the player from the coach, he has detached the name, sort of like Diego his friend and Maradona the footballing superstar. So now we have José Mourinho, facing Frank, which has not gone as well as the Portuguese manager would have liked historically.
Jose Mourinho has now faced Frank Lampard the coach on four occasions only winning once, the shoot-out victory for Spurs over Chelsea earlier this season in the Carabao Cup. In the two matches for Spurs last season, Chelsea won by a combined score of 4-1. Further, Mourinho once faced Frank the coach of Derby County in the Carabao Cup when he was at Manchester United. In another match to go to a shoot-out, Lampard and Derby got the better United.
Of course, four matches is a small sample size and now that Mourinho has won once, Tottenham fans would like to think it is the start of a new trend. Whether or not a new trend begins to develop or Frank’s success against his mentor continues we will see on Sunday. Regardless, you can be certain José wants to get one over on his counterpart Frank the coach and will have a plan to do so.