Frank Lampard tore into his players and insisted they have to change their mindset after Chelsea fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Wolves in his first match back at the helm.
After dispensing with the services of Graham Potter earlier in the week, the Stamford Bridge hierarchy moved swiftly to bring Lampard back to the club as caretaker manager until the end of the season while they conduct the search for Potter's permanent successor.
The onus is now on Lampard, who was sacked by Roman Abramovich after 18 months in charge back in 2021, to lift the beleaguered Blues, who headed into Saturday's match languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League standings.
But Wolves were good value for their win at Molineux, which came courtesy of a stunning strike from their sought-after midfielder Matheus Nunes. And Lampard had no complaints over the result against their "aggressive" hosts.
Lampard said after the final whistle: "In terms of the performance, in the first-half I thought we were slightly off the pace. You could feel Wolves were aggressive, fighting for their Premier League status. I felt they had a little bit more aggression in their game. That's something I said to the players at half-time. I think we corrected that slightly in the early parts of the second-half, but at that point, you're 1-0 down."
While speaking to Match of the Day, Lampard then touched on the short period of time that he and his staff had to prepare with the players for this weekend's fixture - but also stressed that the ongoing turmoil at Stamford Bridge could not be used as an excuse for such a performance.
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He added: "We have been working here for one or two days and it's about getting an understanding of that and the mindset of the team.
"There has been a lot of change and that's not an excuse but things need to improve and I think that performance summed it up. I have to get an understanding of it. When I say mindset, it's not necessarily a negative. You have to get used to winning and make it a habit. Credit to Wolves today, they were physical and stuck in for a win.
"We will work and recreate. We will get into those positions and repeat it. Maybe there's a feeling you won't score. I've been there before and as a club we need to address it.
"It's not where the club wants to be but it's the reality and we have to work through it. You have to get to a point where you can move forward. We need to lift it more than we did today."
