Lampard targets Super Cup victory over Liverpool, but keeping ‘bigger picture’ in mind

Chelsea have won pretty much every major honour since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. One of the very few that elude us is the UEFA Super cup, which we did win back in 1998, when Gus Poyet scored a late winner against Real Madrid.

In the past decade, Chelsea have had two shots at winning the Super Cup, once against Atlético Madrid as Champions League winners in 2012 and then a year later against Bayern Munich as Europa League winners. Unfortunately, both of those game ended in defeat, the first in especially gruesome fashion.

Perhaps third time’s the charm for both Chelsea and Lampard?

“We need to be absolutely ready. It’s a cup that the club desperately wants to win. I’ve never won it; a lot of players in there have never won it, so we have to give it everything. Going up against the team with the quality of Liverpool in a final is as tense as finals can be. You can lose finals; they’re very tough. But what you cannot do is lose it on the premise that we weren’t prepared, or we didn’t have that hunger or desire or everything you need to try and win a game of this magnitude.

-Frank Lampard; source: UEFA

Going in as the underdogs, Lampard understandably played down Chelsea’s chances of winning this trophy, and instead talked up the team’s growth potential in his pre-match press conference yesterday.

“It’s not a big question about tomorrow. We really want to win tomorrow of course, but bigger picture is how we work together to become a team. It’s a fresh start at the start of every season.”

“This trophy does mean something for us. For me it would be a really nice start personally and a feeling for players that we can compete with Liverpool and win a trophy. We understand importance.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Liverpool Echo

Starting the season and Lampard’s tenure with a trophy, however minor, would be a boost, obviously. But we also have to be wary of assigning this match too much importance, both as a team (with the home opener against Leicester City coming up on Sunday) and as fans. That said winning is nice and winning is a habit, so let’s go and get it!