Lampard insists he can cope with pressure as struggling Chelsea look for Premier League lift
▶ Spotlight focused on Blues manager after four damaging defeats in their last six games
Frank Lampard insisted he is coping with the pressure that has come with his toughest spell as Chelsea manager and said his years as a player at the club prepared him for it.
After a 17-match unbeaten run in all competitions, Chelsea have lost four of their last six league games, going from first to ninth to bring suggestions that Lampard’s job could be under threat.
The 42-year-old, who accepted recent results have not been good enough, played for nine different managers during his playing career at Stamford Bridge, which gave him a grounding in the club’s trigger-happy culture.
“I am feeling fine,” he said. “I was very aware when I came into this job, and I think at any big club, you have to understand that pressure will come very quickly at times and pressure is constantly there.
“I felt pressure in our good run or last season when expectations were lower for us and I felt we overachieved. It is very normal. I have been here as a player for a long time. It focuses my concentration completely on how to get us results. In the last few games we know it has not been good enough.”
No Chelsea manager has kept his job in the Roman Abramovich era after failing to qualify for the Champions League and only Lampard and Jose Mourinho have survived a season that did not bring a trophy. Expectations were increased after Chelsea were Europe’s biggest spenders last summer but they have fewer points than at this stage last season.
But Lampard believes the crowded fixture list has made it harder to integrate new signings. Chelsea beat Morecambe in the FA Cup on Sunday but have had two free midweeks, a rarity for them, since the 3-1 loss to Manchester City.
“I know the rules in football,” he said. “If you have young or new players you need time to work. We had that last season. Even with the young squad and some areas that were imbalanced we had a long pre-season and some time to work. Those two weeks have given us a chance to refocus on the basics of our game.”
One of those new recruits, Timo Werner, scored 34 goals for RB Leipzig last season, but was on a 12-game drought before finding the net against League Two Morecambe.
Lampard was adamant Chelsea will see the best of the £47 million ($64m) forward but noted that less can be demanded of big buys at other clubs immediately. “A lot of players that come into this league are given time to come in and out, like players at Liverpool in recent years, to feel how the team plays,” he said.
“With Timo, we didn’t have that opportunity. We bought Timo and others to make an impact in our first team straight away but people have to be patient with the idea that we will maximise Timo’s talents in this team and that is a two-way street. It is very normal it will take time for Timo to see what my idea is and his teammates’ idea is.”
Chelsea face Fulham on Saturday at the start of a run of seven games, five of them against bottom-half teams, but with their local rivals in form. “They have drawn with Liverpool and Tottenham so it will be a tough game,” Lampard said.
It pits Lampard against a former Chelsea and England teammate, in Fulham manager Scott Parker, whose prowess in the dugout comes as no surprise to him. “He’s diligent, has a good football brain, very determined, wants to do well in everything he does, he prepares right,” he said. “Everything he did as a player made me think Scott could go on to management.”
A modern-day Chelsea midfielder, N’Golo Kante, is suspended, but Lampard can welcome back a fit-again Reece James and Andreas Christensen.
Fikayo Tomori, who has not featured in the Premier League since September, is unlikely to be involved. Chelsea are likely to loan him out, but Lampard maintained the defender’s Chelsea career is not over.
“He absolutely has a longterm future,” he said. “There is a long-term plan for Fikayo in my head and if he goes out on loan it will be to enhance his personal development and come back as a better player.”