Frank Lampard agrees that fans should be WORRIED by Chelsea’s downfall this season

By Tamara Prenn For Mailonline and Pa Sport 00:25 27 Apr 2023, updated 02:27 27 Apr 2023

Frank Lampard agreed that fans should be ‘worried’ after Chelsea suffered their fifth straight defeat following his appointment as caretaker manager against Brentford on Tuesday. 

The Blues failed to score for the sixth game in their last seven and saw their woeful record continue after conceding two to hand their west London rivals the win. 

Club captain Cesar Azpilicueta netted an own goal before a Bryan Mbeumo strike late on likely condemns Chelsea to a bottom-half finish for the first time since 1996. 

Chelsea, who have seen four managers in the dug-out this season, have not won since their 3-1 victory over relegation-threatened Leicester in early March. 

The win at the King Power Stadium marked the third-to-last match played under former manager Graham Potter, who was sacked on April 3. 

Chelsea were greeted by boos at the final whistle following a 2-0 defeat at home to Brentford Caretaker manager Frank Lampard admitted that there is cause for concern for supporters

Despite the installation of Bruno Saltor, and then Lampard in his stead in an interim capacity, Chelsea’s co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are yet to appoint a permanent successor. 

In the eight games since Potter’s dismissal, the west London side have only scored once.   

In the midst of this late-season turmoil, Lampard defended the right of Chelsea fans to boo the team, but argued that his players’ confidence must also be considered. 

‘Absolutely the fans are going to be worried,’ Lampard said. ‘If you’re a Chelsea fan, you’ve been used to 20 years of success, you’re used to it and you want it more.

‘I’ve got no problem with fans booing. I’m not sitting here to go against the fans and say don’t boo the players. I’ll defend the players because they’re young lads who want to do well. Is there an issue with confidence? Yes. Is there an issue with the balance of the squad? Maybe yes.

‘I’m not patronising everybody, I expect them to have an idea what’s going on behind the scenes, but when you work with it in this Premier League, if you think Brentford are going to come and turn you around and have corners and throw-ins against you and you’re going to walk that game, that’s not the case any time.

‘When you’re in this moment with a lack of confidence, then it can be difficult to win a game. I’m not exonerating the players, far from it. I’m just supporting them. They’re in there disappointed because they wanted to win that game. They performed in my opinion like they wanted to win it.

‘Is there a confidence issue? Yes. Are we dynamic enough in the final third? No. Have we been for a long time before I came here? No. Those things are not things that are going to turn overnight. We have to keep working.

‘I understand the fans booing. I don’t think anybody is saying they can’t believe that’s the case today.’

Cesar Azpilicueta scored an unlucky own goal on his return to the starting XI on Tuesday

Brentford’s win marked their second consecutive victory at Stamford Bridge, and Thomas Frank’s side played the home side with pitch-perfect instinct. 

The Blues were unable to break down the visitors, who later swept their hosts aside with Mbuemo’s late finish. 

Attacking has been a particular issue for Chelsea this season, and Lampard’s starting XI on the night had only 10 goals between them. 

‘There is a balance in the squad to address, I think everybody sees that,’ Lampard continued. ‘What can you do? This has been a problem that predates me coming recently into this. 

‘When there are not so many goals you also have to have players who can do a tactical job and work for the team.

‘We have to keep working and fighting to try and create opportunities to score goals. 

‘Maybe there aren’t goals so much in the team, and we’re low on confidence. There’s a clear issue in the squad, not scoring enough goals for a team like Chelsea.’

The aptly-named Blues have now lost all eight of their matches since sacking Graham Potter Bryan Mbeumo was able to scythe through the Chelsea midfield to score Brentford’s winner

Brentford’s manager reflected that Chelsea possibly showed his side too much deference in picking a team with minimal attacking threat.

‘So nice to win,’ he said. ‘This was a well-deserved win. We were aggressive in the high press especially in the first half. Second half it was a little bit more difficult for us to do.

‘I was pleased Chelsea showed us so much respect.

‘I respect every team. We don’t fear any team, but we need to be very respectful. We spoke about the team when we saw the line-up, it’s still top players where one moment can decide the game.’