[ad_1]
Frank Lampard feels the pressure as a Chelsea manager, but remains focused on a brighter long-term future for the club.
Frank Lampard agrees that Chelsea received “serious lessons” from Manchester City on Sunday but he insists that people must be patient as they try to build a stronger team.
Lampard’s Chelsea continues to learn
Pep Guardiola’s team was left with 3-1 winners at Stamford Bridge, with Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne scoring in the first half for a team that was exhausted by a coronavirus outbreak.
Chelsea, who scored a consolation goal through Callum Hudson-Odoi in second-half stoppage time, managed just two shots on goal throughout the game as Premier League rookie Zack Steffen had no problems.
The Blues have now lost four times in six league games, as many as they did in their previous 23.
They have scored 26 points in their first 17 league games of 2020-21, three fewer than they achieved in the same leg last season, and never finished above sixth after not accumulating more than 26 points at this stage of the bell. .
With the top two Liverpool and Manchester United seven points ahead of them with one game in hand, the pressure is mounting on Lampard, whose team was bolstered by a net spending of more than £ 220 million in the window of previous transfer.
While accepting that his team was not good enough in the first half, Lampard believes he needs time to bring Chelsea closer to the level of City and champion Liverpool.
“For 10 minutes we were good, then they started playing and we conceded two bad goals, really bad goals. I felt like it hit us and I felt like we didn’t react as well as I wanted to,” he told Sky. Sports.
“We knew they would play without a real forward, so we had to make sure there was no room. We left room for De Bruyne to come into the game, and [Bernardo] Silva and Gundogan, when he gets a chance to shoot the first one.
“So, yes, serious lessons in the first half, good character in the second half, but the damage was done. The level of play, you are talking about De Bruyne, I know he was here when he was a child and the merit of him , he left and he came back and now he is the best Kevin De Bruyne.
“So you can stop by their team and talk about it and the reality is for us, and that’s why I spoke at the beginning of the season, a month ago everyone was saying, ‘we can win the league’, I was pretty sure in the fact that , where we are, in terms of [transfer] Prohibition, in terms of reconstruction and where we are as a team, in terms of youth, that there are periods of pain that we will go through as a club and as individuals.
“It was a painful first half. We have to improve our reception of the ball in tight areas, we have to understand that when the press arrives, you have to accept it or lose it. When a team gives you a problem on the pitch, which we talked about before of the game, you have to solve it in the game. In the first half we didn’t do it; in the second, we were better, but the damage was done. “
Lampard pointed to his own experience as a player as proof that things can change quickly in football when it comes to teams succeeding.
“I’m not leaning on the youth [as an excuse] because I think some of the younger players really came to the fore, “he said.” I thought Mason Mount showed the second half, Billy Gilmour when he came in, Callum comes in and gets his goal, so it’s not about the youth in the Squad it’s the problem. It’s just a reality, like I said before.
“Right now, we are in a small period, a period of five or six games that none of us like. I think if you probably go back to City’s first year in this regime or Liverpool, you have to fight. That comes with checking. this game and see how you can improve.
“If you’ve been in football for that long, and I said this to the players at halftime, I had those days. I sat there and I had those days and I lifted a trophy at the end of the year. I remember getting hit in Middlesbrough, two or three to zero, [Mark] Viduka and Yakubu [Ayegbeni] in the front, and we were sitting in the locker room quite demoralized. We recovered because we had spirit in the dressing room and quality of player.
“We are in a different period now, but any soccer player is going to have moments like this. Some of the results that we have seen this season for other teams, Man City, Liverpool, etc., have been tough for them.” Now as we are in a period it gets even harder for us, I will not hide from that
“But the players, myself, we have to hold our chin and react. This is football.”
When asked if his Chelsea players have the character to come out of their slump, Lampard replied: “We definitely do.
“We were 16 games unbeaten and a month ago, everyone asked me, am I going to leave? When is the new contract? Now people will say otherwise. I can’t control that. We can’t control that. What can we do? ” Control is what we do tonight, tomorrow, the next day, what we do against Morecambe, what we do against Fulham, and then I believe in this group.
“I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m criticizing the players. I’ll be the first to look at myself today. But when I look at the team, I know there is a lot of momentum in this team, but I know where we are.” I’m in because I see it and I know the work it takes to be at the level that Manchester City showed today because it has been many years in the making, many players playing in the prime of their careers, showing confidence and character.
“It is normal that, as a squad, we receive small blows on the road. Now it is a test.”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
[ad_2]
