Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has hit out at his players for one aspect of their performance in the 2-0 FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend.
The Blues did enough to get through to the fourth round of the competition thanks to goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ross Barkley, but Lampard was certainly not satisfied with everything he saw.
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Speaking after the game, as quoted by the Metro, Lampard made it clear he wanted more from his players in an attacking sense, with not enough of his midfielders and wingers busting a gut to get into the penalty area.
“I don’t like the way we don’t occupy the box enough. We need to occupy it more,” Lampard told Chelsea TV, as quoted by the Metro.
“We need to have someone across the front post, generally that’s your striker, midfield players arriving – not hanging outside the box – and opposite winger in the box. It might even be an opposite full-back in the box the way we want to play.
“That’s something we need to get better at, for sure, because we are making some nice little effective combinations on the right.”
The 41-year-old is clearly demanding, but Chelsea fans will be pleased to see how much he expects from his players, with the best coaches in the game always pushing for 110% from their teams.
Lampard is relatively new to the management game but has made a strong start to life at Stamford Bridge, and will hope to get his message across to his players so they can go on and achieve more.