Frank Lampard has acknowledged Chelsea fans’ concerns after the team’s fifth consecutive defeat during his tenure against Brentford at Stamford Bridge.
The visitors secured a 2-0 victory with an own-goal from Cesar Azpilicueta and a late effort from Bryan Mbeumo, leaving Chelsea with a sixth game out of their last seven without scoring and dim prospects of finishing in the Premier League’s top half.
Chelsea’s run of poor form is worrisome, with no wins in any competition since beating Leicester on March 11 under former manager Graham Potter. Lampard and Bruno Saltor have presided over a winless streak of eight games, during which only Conor Gallagher has scored a deflected goal. Compounding matters, six of these winless games occurred at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard has defended fans’ right to express their dissatisfaction, but he asserts that the players’ morale, rather than their commitment, is responsible for their downward spiral.
“Absolutely the fans are going to be worried,” said Lampard. “If you’re a Chelsea fan, you’ve been used to 20 years of success, you’re used to it and you want it more.
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“I’ve got no problem with fans booing. I’m not sitting here to go against the fans and say don’t boo the players. I’ll defend the players because they’re young lads who want to do well. Is there an issue with confidence? Yes. Is there an issue with the balance of the squad? Maybe yes.
“I’m not patronising everybody, I expect them to have an idea what’s going on behind the scenes, but when you work with it in this Premier League, if you think Brentford are going to come and turn you around and have corners and throw-ins against you and you’re going to walk that game, that’s not the case any time.
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“When you’re in this moment with a lack of confidence, then it can be difficult to win a game. I’m not exonerating the players, far from it. I’m just supporting them. They’re in there disappointed because they wanted to win that game. They performed in my opinion like they wanted to win it.
“Is there a confidence issue? Yes. Are we dynamic enough in the final third? No. Have we been for a long time before I came here? No. Those things are not things that are going to turn overnight. We have to keep working.
“I understand the fans booing. I don’t think anybody is saying they can’t believe that’s the case today.”
“There is a balance in the squad to address, I think everybody sees that,” said Lampard. “What can you do? This has been a problem that predates me coming recently into this. When there are not so many goals you also have to have players who can do a tactical job and work for the team.
“We have to keep working and fighting to try and create opportunities to score goals. Maybe there aren’t goals so much in the team, and we’re low on confidence. There’s a clear issue in the squad, not scoring enough goals for a team like Chelsea.”
