LONDON: Frank Lampard claims Chelsea’s frantic fixture schedule is damaging his bid to solve his struggling team’s problems.
Lampard is in charge at Chelsea until the end of the season after the Blues legend returned to replace the sacked Graham Potter last week.
But the 44-year-old has had limited time to work with his players on the training pitch in a period that will see the team play four times in 11 days.
Lampard worked with the squad for the first time 24 hours before last Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Wolves, then on Tuesday flew to Spain for the 2-0 loss at Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Chelsea returned in the early hours of Thursday, and today face Brighton at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League as they look to end a run of four games without a goal.
The west Londoners’ longest scoreless run since 1993 has underlined the problems facing Lampard, but he insists goalscoring woes can only be resolved through application in training.
“I understood the problem before I came. Trying to address it is our job of course. There’s been a lot of talk about belief, I’ve said that word a lot myself,” Lampard told reporters yesterday.
“The reality is it’s work, and to replicate on the training pitch. To have enough urgency in our attacking game that we have numbers in and around the box, and an idea of how we want to attack.
“In a tight turnaround, the work on the training pitch is not there. You can’t work the players physically when you play three games in six days.
“We’ll communicate what it means to play for Chelsea to the new players and work towards it. It won’t be an overnight process, because of the lack of training time.
“As much as you can have good meetings and an idea, there’s nothing better than repeating movements that you want on the pitch.”
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang could be a solution to Chelsea’s goal issues after the Gabon forward came on against Wolves after being largely frozen out by Potter.
“Auba is a bit like everybody in the squad now, whether you have been starting before or not starting so much, everyone now needs to compete in training to show that you are worthy of a place,” Lampard said.
“Of course history says he has a fantastic goalscoring record so we’ll see.”
Adding to the difficulties facing Lampard in his second spell as Chelsea boss, the former England star confirmed the injury sustained by Senegal centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly at Real will keep him out for “weeks, not days”.
