Chelsea manager Frank Lampard had made it pretty clear, both before and after his side’s stunning Boxing Day loss to Arsenal, he’s going to do some squad rotation on Monday night.
Lampard has been publicly lashing out, this holiday weekend, at several targets. He’s not having a holly jolly Christmas, as he fumed at the Premier League and their broadcast partners, for forcing his side into a schedule that he sees as unfairly overloaded.
Aston Villa at Chelsea FC FYIs
Kick off: 5:30pm GMT, Mon. Dec. 28
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TV (US): NBCSN, Streaming NBCSports.com
Odds: Chelsea (-164), Aston Villa (+380) Draw (+320)
Form Guide Chelsea LWLLW, Aston Villa WWDWL
Table Position: Chelsea 7th, 25 pts, Aston Villa 6th, 25 pts
He’s also called out his own players, for making lazy decisions, and jogging around sometimes when they should have been running and sprinting against Arsenal.
“I think everyone who works in sport, when we play now it’s the second-day recovery,” Lampard said before the 3-1 loss in the London derby.
“It’s not good even for the players to go out and train let alone play to a high level of 90 minutes. I’ll have to see off the back of Arsenal where players are, every individual is different. We’ll do our best to get the turnaround right.
“I don’t see how it’s a fair playing field, I think it’s wrong and it’s not going to be the best for the players that play at the top level. Don’t get me wrong, Aston Villa have the same problem. Us playing them, we’ll both have the same problems. But I’m just saying we are not getting the same rest period that other teams are getting.”
The other teams he was referring to are the rest of the big six, most of whom are getting three days in between games, instead of just two. Only Manchester City have to endure a 48 hour turnaround in the same manner that Chelsea must.
Given this scenario, Lampard says he’ll have to do some squad rotation.
“I think [playing the same team is] pretty much impossible,” he continued.
“I couldn’t say what I just said and then bang out the same team and expect to get a high-energy, high-level performance out of them necessarily fitness-wise.
After the loss, Lampard did a media opportunity where he was asked if rotation would be an easy choice for Monday night.
He responded to TalkSPORT: “Some places, it certainly does. We’ll need some freshness, some people who deserve to play to show they can play on the maximum, on the limit because the Premier League demands it.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.