Frank Lampard openly criticised his players and admitted Chelsea need a “reboot” this summer after they were thrashed by Manchester United on Thursday night.
United eased to a 4-1 win at Old Trafford to secure a place in next season’s Champions League. By stark contrast, defeat left Chelsea in 12th place in the Premier League, with just 43 points from 37 matches.
The Blues had their chances against Erik ten Hag’s side, but simply didn’t take them and were punished at the other end. Casemiro’s free header and Anthony Martial’s tap-in sent United in at half-time 2-0 up after Mykhaylo Mudryk and Conor Gallagher spurned great opportunities to score.
Bruno Fernandes netted a penalty after Wesley Fofana brought him down before Marcus Rashford pounced on another mistake to make it 4-0 with a rebound off Kepa Arrizabalaga. Joao Felix did get a consolation goal with a neat finish on the counter-attack, but it did little to change the narrative of the night.
“It’s a simple thing to say but any team that wins in the Premier League has them as a base, because without them the tactics do not matter,” Lampard told Sky Sports. “Training well every day, trying to improve, being a real collective unit.
“There are some variables for the players, everyone talks about the big squad and I understand that it’s hard for the coaches this year at the club – I get it because I’ve lived that for nine league games now.
“Sometimes you can say that is maybe a factor – if you want to call it an excuse – but as a player you have to put that to the side and focus on your own game. Since I’ve been in I’ve understood quickly that some of the collective standards – and it’s for the individuals within that to realise who they are – this is not a blanket, we just have to find the reasons for why the club is where it’s at, and there are many.
“It’s not just finger-pointing at the players because it’s definitely not a lack of effort this evening, but you build up the credit through your training and your prep, and you build up a resilience.
“I was fortunate enough to be a player here for many years and you can look at the group and the player next to you and know that he’s worked on his standards and everything is there to rely on each other.
“It’s a bad year for the club, and many clubs have these years when we’ve had massive success for the last 20 years or whatever, but the important thing is you get to the bottom of how it improves.
“It needs a reboot, the club will move on in summer in terms of what the squad looks like, and as a Chelsea player where we want to be, everything has to be improved to get to the level.”
Lampard will take charge of his final game as Chelsea’s interim boss against Newcastle on Sunday before Mauricio Pochettino takes over this summer.
