It's Thumbs Up for Lampard

Next time you watch Chelsea, try to stay awake and take a good look at the way Frank Lampard runs. Study him carefully. It won’t be difficult because he tends to move rather slowly and ponderously. Take particular note of the upper body, specifically the arms.

Anything stand out? You need to focus on the hands – and especially the thumbs. Because Frank always runs with his thumbs up. He isn’t testing the wind strength or direction - it’s just a sort of affectation which was once extremely fashionable. If you can get hold of footage from several decades ago, you’ll see that in the old days lots of professional players used to do it. Trust Frank, who’s a bit of a throwback to those bygone days in some respects, to keep the old traditions going. And that’s not even the half of it. The modern game has speeded up enormously, but Frank still moves sedately, with due deference to the players of the 1950s. He also likes to keep his hair short in a manner once favoured by barbers welcoming young recruits to their national service, to play the ball safely (square or backwards if possible) and to shoot from outside the box, even if he shows little sign of being able to think outside it. But that’s Frank for you – footloose, frill-free and unlike the predecessors he so closely resembles, absolutely loaded.