With 14 years of top-flight experience, 83 international caps and approaching 700 career games behind him, Frank Lampard is more than able to take a long view on evolving team formations over the past decade or so.

First coming into the game when the time-honoured 4-4-2 was still king, in England at least, he was then in the middle, often literally, of a widespread shift to 4-3-3 and is still most likely to be seen there when wearing a Chelsea shirt.

Yet for many other teams the tactical wheel has turned again. Three of the four semi-finalists and both finalists in the World Cup lined-up with not one but two holding midfielders sitting in front of the defence, and Inter won the Champions League Final with their version of that 4-2-3-1 formation, also playing it against Chelsea earlier in the competition.

Its rise pre-dates the past year; Rafael Benitez's Liverpool was a good example of a team favouring it, but its use appears to be spreading and already Chelsea have faced the formation this season.

With the midfield being the distinguishing area from other formations, Frank, whose hernia surgery went well this week, is ideal to talk through the tactical trend so the Official Chelsea Website sat down with our vice-captain to discuss it.

Carlo Ancelotti adapted his team shape during his highly-successful first season in London but 4-2-3-1 was one he didn't ask his players to play, and it seems Frank is pleased about that.

'Formations do generally go in cycles,' he observes.'In the 90s it was 4-4-2 and then it changed and I think we were probably the instigators as much as anyone in England in making it 4-3-3 when [Jose] Mourinho was in charge.

'Then because football has become a bit more tactical and organised, it is about becoming harder to beat and teams want two holding midfielders sometimes. I personally don't like the system too much. I think one holding midfielder if they are good at their job is enough and I find if you have two in a straight line then it doesn't give you so many angles to play through midfield.

'I always think it is better to have people at different angles which means one being deeper and the other two taking up different positions [further forward].'

If, like Ancelotti, you have players available such as Frank and Michael Essien who are famed for their lung-busting ability to get up and down the pitch, it is perhaps not surprising if the manager feels little need to ask one to curb his running and stay forever close to John Mikel Obi.

But as ever, formations are only effective with the correct players to make them work and for managers less blessed with players with forward and reverse gears, they must see playing two anchor midfielders as allowing their best attacking players to get on with that job, less inhibited by defensive duties.

'I am sure that is part of the thought process,' Frank agrees, 'and it depends on the individuals in the team. If the manager wants to get the best out of wingers or players who like to play with a lot of freedom and think they need two others in there to do the hard work and stay back then so be it, but when we had [Claude] Makelele he didn't particularly need anyone to be next to him, he did the job perfectly and we worked all around that.'

When Chelsea did switch to a regular 4-3-3 in 2004, having an extra midfielder in there against old-school 4-4-2 shapes brought a lot of success. Much of the Premier League soon mirrored our formation but often without the same type of wingers, without the same type of centre-forward or without a proper Makelele type.

A different formation is now all the rage but Frank defends managers against accusations of following fashion for fashion's sake.

'It becomes a vogue and teams do follow it but if they see it working at a top club and at the top level then no wonder they try it. And also they try to counter the formation and sometimes the best way a lesser team can take on a Chelsea or a Man United is by matching up man for man, position for position. So that is what they try to do but more often than not the top teams will come out on top because of the more individual quality they have.

'Playing against two holding midfielders hasn't really made a difference for me because the opposition can't have players everywhere. If you are clever about your movement, if two players want to sit and hold all the time then you can make angles to the side of them and you can still play through them. It depends really on the quality of the players.'

Chelsea's two major summer signings have been midfielders with the arrival of Yossi Benayoun and Ramires. There have also been midfielders departing but with the transfer window closed this week and league squads submitted, it is a familiar-looking Chelsea going into the season, and the early results suggest a team totally aware of each other and what to do.

'Continuity is nice,' Frank says, 'especially when you have won a Double but you do want to add to it and make it better although at the same time you don't want to add to it and make it worse.

'There is an element of keeping what you've got and only adding if you are adding better or good squad players. Five first-team squad players have left but we have started off very well and we have to keep that going. If we get injuries to big players we hope we have got the cover there.'

Injuries remain football's big uncertainty, even for the strongest of squads, while emerging young players become one of the club's big hopes, that and the mental boost winning the Double could give the team.

Even a set of players that has won many medals can benefit from such reassurance of its abilities Ancelotti has indicated.

'I don't know about individually, everyone is a bit different,' notes Frank, 'but as a group the Double certainly has an effect on collective confidence.

'That is a big positive but the negative is if people think we have won the Double, let's rest on our laurels. It is very important to keep the confidence but make sure that you never get the feeling that we can easily do that again. The moment you think that then you won't win anything else, so it is a balancing act.'