Frank Lampard received condemnations from pundits and the press alike, for fielding a very young side against a big club like Manchester United. People believe that was why he lost 4-0. However,the real factor that made the difference was not age but experience, premiership experience.
A Manchester United team made up of Lindelof, Martial, Rashford, Wan-Bissaka, Shaw, Perreira, McTominay, etc, all in their very early 20s, was not a lot older than the players who wore Chelsea’s shirt at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The difference between them was that the United players have had more experience in playing in the premier league while a few of the key players for Chelsea on that day Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount in particular have only had Championship experience. They are good players, but as they found out, the premiership is a different ball game compared to the Championship.
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Manchester United did not particularly field better or more talented players, all they had were more street wise players who picked the pockets of their relatively naive Chelsea rivals.
It is all good for Frank Lampard and his assistant, Jody Morris to go on a crusade of promoting youth team players into the senior team, it is all good to trust young talents to do the job, but the reality is that you still need the older and experienced players to hold them by the hand and show them how it is done.
Ajax are the experts at unleashing young talents on the world, but even they do it cleverly. That was why for instance they had the experienced Daley Blind to pair with de Ligt in the centre of their defence.
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Now, the question Frank Lampard will need to ask himself is whether he trusts his youngsters enough to keep them on to compete against the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Spurs, Arsenal, Everton and even Wolves, or whether he will make good use of the experience and talents of players like Kante, Willian and Giroud.
He is a legend at the Bridge, he has the excuse that the club is under a transfer ban so he cannot get new players in that will give him time with the fans and club owners, to get it right.
However, he needs to be honest with himself and realise that he needs the older and more experienced players to help his younger players through this trying period.
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I hope the performances of Kante and Giroud in the Super Cup will go a long way to convince him.