Three games and three defeats into his second stint as Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard is yet to lift the gloom at Stamford Bridge.
Saturday's dismal 2-1 loss at home to Brighton added to the misery around West London which has failed to subside since the legendary former Blues midfielder was called upon to succeed Graham Potter. While co-controlling owner Todd Boehly - who was targeted by angry fans in the wake of the Brighton defeat - searches for a permanent successor, it was hoped that Lampard would offer some short-term relief, despite losing his job as Everton boss in January and getting the sack at Chelsea two years prior.
Roy Keane, however, wasn't - as he might put it - 'kidded on' by the decision to install his old rival until the end of the season, labelling Lampard "lucky" before slamming the Blues' struggling squad. During an episode of the The Overlap fan debate in London, Keane declared: "Frank is a lucky boy. Frank has had some really good jobs, you need some luck in the game, but to go back in there?
"Good luck to him. The way things have changed in football, the manager is under a lot of pressure now," the former Manchester United captain added. "They've got some excellent players, but obviously something is missing at the moment. Even in the last couple of performances, they're not finding a way to win.
"I look at the personality of a team when all the stats are positive in terms of possession and chances created, but they haven't got that nastiness that some of the Chelsea teams have had over the last few years."
Even Lampard appears to be somewhat in agreement with Keane's scathing assessment, criticising those who produced a limp performance when Brighton came to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and took all three points - just as Wolves did at Molineux a week earlier.
"I've been at the club nine days, I don't like what I saw today," Lampard bluntly stated post-match. "I'm not going to try and dress that up in any way. We have to be really honest about that. There should be a feeling when you play for Chelsea of pride involved. We have to do more for Tuesday. To get there, there needs to be a new energy. That needs to come back."
Needing plenty luck on their side to overturn a 2-0 defeat by Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday, the ex-Chelsea midfielder admits that the Blues need to start doing "the basics of football" well. "More than defeats, it's performance we have to talk about," Lampard confessed on Saturday.
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"Wins only come with performance and in terms of performance that was the most disappointing one because we were well beaten. In the basics of football... we were short, a yard short, a tackle short, a fighting duel moment short.
"When that's not right you're not going to win games. You have to have the capacity to do that as well, as well as the desire and at the minute we’re falling short on that and we have to turn it around quickly."
