The thing is, if you listen to how Mourinho describes Lampard, there's one bit that sticks out. In his video for the Coaches' Voice website, he mentions his 'perfect' Chelsea side of 2005-2006, and recalls how it didn't matter what the opposition did - Chelsea would be able to score every time, and that created nightmares for the opposition teams. Defend high? Robben's pace would kill you in behind. Middle-block? Drogba's ability to bring people into play and spray passes behind the line would kill you.
Low block?
Lampard's ability to shoot accurately from outside the box (I think Mourinho labelled it as 'shoot five times, score four goals') would kill you.
The last bit is really crucial - it's the one-stop shop trick to breaking down a low block, the more I think about it. If you have a player with a very accurate long shot, the opposition *have* to leave their defensive shape to close him down when he gets on the ball, or they're risking a goal every time he opens up from range. That in turn creates spaces that said player (or a more creative colleague) can then play into, breaking down the block.
The last time we were particularly good at breaking down low blocks was in 2016-2017, when the small pitch at the Lane went from being a hindrance to being a bonus - with our extremely athletic style, we would simply overwhelm teams with pressing in a tightly confined space, forcing errors all game long. Dele *excelled* in that role.
But the athleticism for that style is gone, and will not be coming back - it was a confluence of a small pitch, a young side, a pressing manager and an insane fitness regime, all of which don't exist anymore.
Before that, though, the next time low-blocks didn't really affect us was in the 2012-2013 season - and that was because we had Bale
*whalloping* in shots from all over the pitch, all angles, all distances. West Ham away, Saudi Sportswashing Machine at home, Southampton at home, Norwich, Arsenal, Liverpool, West Brom, Lyon, Sunderland...didn't matter, he scored from all distances, and it meant we got 72 points and generally overcame most low blocks even with our generally conservative football with AVB.
Generally, to break down low blocks, the easiest way seems to be to have a player who excels at shooting from distance, whether in play or from free-kicks.
And, in Mourinho's system, the player who seems most fit to do that seems to be the central attacking midfielder - everyone else seems to have their roles in a '5 at the back, 5 up front' sort of formation, but the clam has license to roam, as Lampard did, and as Lo Celso's currently doing.
The problem is, Dele has never, ever been good at that. Wondergoal in 15/16 aside, he's generally a finisher who works best from inside the 18-yard box, and I don't think I recall many of his long shots being particularly successful.
Which means he isn't the solution to breaking down low-blocks. Which further means his utility as a 'Lampard' type is a bit questionable, imo.
