Boss Frank Lampard says Chelsea fans have every right to be annoyed by the performance in the home defeat against Bournemouth and has demanded that the players show “more balls”.
The 1-0 loss was their fourth defeat in five Premier League games and the third league defeat at Stamford Bridge already this season.
“In front of our home fans it is clear we are not playing well enough, or getting enough results,” Lampard said when it was suggested to him that the atmosphere at the Bridge has been flat at times.
“I will be the first one to say if the fans were flat and we needed them. Today I would never say that. If I am a fan today I would go ‘too slow, too slow, centre-back to centre-back, to full-back, back to centre-back’. I don’t want to come and see that.”
The supporters remained behind the team. But the frustration at a poor display against a struggling Cherries side who had lost their previous five games and were only a point off the relegation zone, was clear.
“I won’t blame the fans,” Lampard added. “They come to support the team. Some responsibility is on the players to excite them and have the personality and the balls to take the ball in an area and beat someone or play it forward. It is a joint thing.
“Up until now I think a lot of it was not taking chances. Today we created two or three great chances and need to take them but we didn’t get the fans excited enough. The fans shouldn’t be excited if we play 10 balls across our back four.”
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This post was last modified on 15/12/2019