Manager Frank Lampard criticises Chelsea players and responds to Kai Havertz speculation after Bayern Munich mauling
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| Asked for his assessment of Chelsea’s overall season, Lampard replied: ‘It’s not a slight to say it’s a working progress |
Frank Lampard criticised Chelsea’s players for gifting Bayern Munich goals after their thumping 4-1 (agg 7-1) defeat at the Allianz Arena and refused to rule out a move for Kai Havertz as he promised to work on strengthening his squad for the new season.
Trailing 3-0 from the Champions League last-16 first leg, Chelsea were battling against the odds to secure their place in the quarter-finals and first-half goals from Robert Lewandowski and Ivan Perisic all but confirmed their elimination from the competition.
Callum Hudson-Odoi had an exquisite solo strike disallowed before Tammy Abraham capitalised on Manuel Neuer’s poor goalkeeping to reduce the deficit right on half-time.
But the hosts tightened their hold on the tie after the break as Corentin Tolisso extended their advantage and Lewandowski capped off a superb individual performance by completing his brace.
It meant the Polish striker played a part in all seven of Bayern’s goals across the two ties.
The Bundesliga champions will meet Barcelona for a place in the semi-finals
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| Frank Lampard criticised Chelsea’s players for gifting Bayern Munich goals after their thumping 4-1 (agg 7-1) defeat at the Allianz Arena |
I thought they Chelsea performed alright. It’s difficult to say that after a 4-1 defeat. I’m not happy. You don’t want to lose a game here Lampard said shortly after the final whistle.
But after we conceded those two early, I thought the resilience with how we got back into the game was good.
It was unfortunate with Callum’s goal. When we get a goal at 2-1, we’re fully in the game, we’re competing with what is a top team. When you match up our Champions League appearances to theirs and you look through the team, I think you can see a big reason there in what we’ve seen tonight.
But I’ve seen lots of things in the team and also some of that bad that we’ve seen this season which is where we need to improve. At 2-1 we’re competing in the game, we don’t get our goals, we have individual errors that gift them goals and at this level that will finish you off.
Asked for his assessment of Chelsea’s overall season, Lampard replied: ‘It’s not a slight to say it’s a working progress.
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| People wouldn’t normally commend Chelsea coming fourth, it’s not always been the level |
It’s not the norm for Chelsea in the last 15-20 years when you have players and teams in their prime like Eden Hazard and Diego Costa and prime John Terry, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba those teams competing for Premier League titles year on year, getting to semi-finals and finals regularly. we know that’s not the case.
We lost the best player in the league in Eden Hazard, we have a lot of players that are young and have come back from loan and I think they’ve developed greatly through the year.
People wouldn’t normally commend Chelsea coming fourth, it’s not always been the level. But the feeling is that we’re not happy with fourth and we want more.
We’ve achieved something but now is the important time to not settle and rest with fourth and think where can we improve as players and as a club.
Lampard stressed that Chelsea were keen to make up for lost time this summer in the wake of their two-window transfer ban.
We will look at that because that’s our job, my job and we’re very joined up with how we’ve worked at it already, he added.
From having a transfer ban, you feel the fact we missed out where other clubs had spent and improved and recruitment is a big part of this game.
Nights like tonight for me from a footballing sense show me a lot so it’s a conversation now the season is ended.
It’s a very quick turnaround but now is the time to see what areas we can improve in.
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| Reports late on Saturday night claimed Havertz had agreed a five-year contract ahead of a move to Stamford Bridge |
Asked specifically about rumours linking Chelsea with Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz, Lampard responded: ‘I wouldn’t expect anything but it’s our job to go away and see what happens and see where we can improve.
In a footballing sense, I feel like I know where we can improve but now it’s time to look at that.
Reports late on Saturday night claimed Havertz had agreed a five-year contract ahead of a move to Stamford Bridge.
It’s understood the Blues are optimistic about finalising the transfer over the coming days after offering to stagger their payments for the 21-year-old attacking midfielder.