Chelsea slumped to a 1-0 defeat in their latest pre-season friendly on Friday morning.
Frank Lampard’s tactical experimentations continued in Japan and we’ll analyse his first loss as the Blues’ head coach in our Scout Notes article below.
Our game-by-game, team-by-team pre-season minutes spreadsheet has also been updated and is available to read here.
Kawasaki Frontale 1-0 Chelsea
Lampard says he wants Kurt Zouma to stay at Stamford Bridge this summer and bolster his options in central defence.
Zouma, who spent last season on loan at Everton, played the first 45 minutes of Friday’s friendly against Kawasaki Frontale as Lampard’s search for his Gameweek 1 centre-back pairing continued.
Antonio Rudiger (£6.0m) is expected to miss the start of the campaign and Lampard has tried various options in Chelsea’s three pre-season games to date, including playing Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.0m) at the heart of the defence.
This latest fixture saw Zouma and David Luiz (£6.0m) start the match at centre-half, with Andreas Christensen (£5.0m) replacing the Frenchman at the interval.
Lampard said:
Kurt is a very good defender, a very good person and professional, and I want him here, simple as that. We are competitive with the centre-backs we’ve got in the team. He had a very good season at Everton and I understand why they want him but he’s a Chelsea player and I want him. He’s working really hard and if he competes for a position and plays well this season then he plays.
Azpilicueta’s reversion to right-back will disappoint those who held out faint, optimistic hopes of Davide Zappacosta (£4.5m) offering us a cut-price route into Chelsea’s defence in FPL.
The Italian full-back did replace Azpilicueta at half-time, at least, and has featured in all three of Chelsea’s pre-season friendlies so far.
Chelsea were beaten by an 86th-minute header from Leandro Damiao and understandably struggled to sustain any intensity in a humid Yokohama, although had plenty of chances before they fell behind.
The mercury read 30 degrees in the Japanese city and Lampard cited the heat and humidity as an excuse after full-time:
Obviously, we want to win matches no matter what but ten days of pre-season, having flown into Japan three days ago, brings up a lot of difficulties for us physically.
That’s why I was very pleased with the players physically. They gave everything in strong humidity with some good individual performances. I discovered a real appetite and attitude to work in the humidity with jetlag for a lot of the players.
People are finding their fitness and their form. There are the normal things in pre-season that take a bit of time: being clinical in front of goal which we weren’t, but that comes, and some small details we will work on.
Our quality of play on the ball was not quite what we want. We will get there. In front of goal, it was a similar thing. We are not quite as sharp as we want to be but we are working towards that and I’m confident it will come. I have got no fears. I was happy with big parts of the performances.
There were still positives to take from the game, with Ross Barkley (£6.0m) a man-of-the-match candidate and Jorginho (£5.0m) resembling the intelligent pass merchant we were all promised at the start of 2018/19.
Barkley set up a succession of chances – two for Kenedy – with some sumptuous through-balls, operating in the hole in a 4-2-3-1.
It was a mixed bag from the Brazilian, who struggled on the left flank before improving on the opposite wing in the second half.
Lampard said:
With Kenedy, my feeling coming into a big squad with a transfer ban, is that I need to assess the players for as long as I can in pre-season to make sure we pick the right squad.
If Kenedy continues to show the attitude and play the way he did today he is making a great case to stay having been on loan in recent seasons. Nobody is in or out of the squad or has had a line drawn under or over them. Everybody is competing to stay in it.
Mason Mount, who played under Lampard at Derby last season, was involved with the senior team for the second game in a row, first starting as a number ten before moving to the left flank after Barkley’s introduction.
The Chelsea boss said of the young midfielder’s performance:
I thought Mason’s performance was really good. It was a continuation of how he played for me last year on loan. His energy is quality even though he hasn’t been with us long. We know Mason is part of the first-team squad this year, and it’s time for him. His qualities will improve even more with the quality around him. Everyone knows the hopes I have for Mason, and he showed a glimmer of what we may see this year and going forward.
We didn’t have much time to assess Christian Pulisic (£7.5m), who made his bow as a 65th-minute substitute and took up a left-wing role.
Speaking after full-time, the American said:
I’m delighted to be out here with the team and to play in an actual match for the first time as a Chelsea player feels really good.
We wanted to come out with the win but pre-season is all about getting minutes under the belt and I feel great for being out there.
It was a tough one out there with the humidity and they were a very good opponent, we saw that with their goal at the end but you want tough games like that in pre-season.
Pulisic showed glimpses of what he is capable of against Kawasaki and Lampard has been impressed with the ex-Dortmund winger so far:
He’s comfortable on the ball and I think he should have had a penalty towards the end of the game.
He wants to try to take people on, the sort of player the fans are going to like so we have to give him a little bit of time to adapt slightly.
But the way he has trained, the way he has come in with his personality looks great so I am really pleased to have him.
Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud (£7.0m) each got a half to impress, battling gamely in the lone striker’s role without much to show for their efforts.
Tammy Abraham wasn’t involved, with Lampard explaining why the young striker and Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m) missed out:
Tammy Abraham has tonsillitis and Kepa reported a stomach bug this afternoon. I’m not a doctor but it probably comes a little bit alongside what I mentioned before about players not sleeping and finding it difficult in different ways, and it’s come out in those two players.
I don’t expect either of them to be too long. I know Tammy is already on the mend. Hopefully, both are in contention for Barcelona next week.
Chelsea XI (4-2-3-1): Caballero; Azpilicueta (Zappacosta 45′), Zouma (Christensen 45′), David Luiz, Alonso (Emerson 45′); Kovacic (Drinkwater 57′), Jorginho (Bakayoko 57′); Pedro (Barkley 45′), Mount (Pulisic 65′), Kenedy (Palmer 71′); Batshuayi (Giroud 45′).
