Frank Lampard
Chelsea interim coach, Frank Lampard, criticised his team’s lack of fight and said he has to turn around the club’s slump urgently before Tuesday’s visit by Real Madrid, following the Blues’ latest limp defeat.
Lampard, speaking after a 2-1 home Premier League loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, said Chelsea — the 2021 Champions League winners who are now stuck in 11th place in the Premier League — were displaying a worrying failure to perform the basics of the game.
“Disappointing on every level,” he told Sky Sports. “The better team won and could have won by more. They played like a team. They’re working together for a long time, give that credit.
“But it’s not good enough from our point of view. All the basic parts of football — to fight, to run, and those things — we were short on. We have to dig ourselves out of that very quickly.
“We’ve got a big game on Tuesday. There’s no point in being too down, but professionally we have to understand why today went the way it did. And it wasn’t good for us.”
Lampard said the defeat to Brighton was the most disappointing performance of the three games since his return to Stamford Bridge to see out what looks like being a barren first full season under Chelsea’s new American owners, despite their huge outlay on new players.