Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho will look
to use Frank Lampard sparingly over the
coming season.
Lampard signed a new 12-month
contract last season, following a
campaign in which he broke Bobby
Tambling's goalscoring record for the
Premier League club.
However, Mourinho believes that the 35-year-old needs a more pragmatic approach
when it comes to how often he plays if he is to maximise his impact in 2013-14.
"With Frank, the role doesn’t have to change," Mourinho said. "What has to change is
the way we analyse every competition.
"With Frank, before, we didn’t have to analyse - it was simple: every match, he plays.
"I believe he is the same player but there is a difference. He is 35 and the time needed
to recover from match to match is not the same for a man of 25 as a man of 35. That’s
the only point."
The former Real Madrid manager also suggested that Lampard could have a similar
season to that once enjoyed by Claude Makelele at Stamford Bridge.
Makelele joined Chelsea as a 30-year-old and was an integral part of Mourinho's side
that won the Premier League twice in his first spell at the club.
"He (Lampard) knows what I did, for example, with Makelele here in the last two
years of his spell at the club," Mourinho continued.
"He knows I know how to do it with players of his age, because at the end of the day
we have to be just clever, because the player is the same.
"I like players without looking at their birth certificates. Performance determines how
good you are, not your identity card or birth certificate. It’s about performance,
nothing else."
Lampard made 29 appearances in the Premier League last season, scoring 15 times to
move him to 203 goals for the club.
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