DBasia.news – Frank Lampard said that the Chelsea players did not follow his instructions properly when they faced Southampton in the fifth game of the Premier League on Saturday (17/10/2020).
Chelsea were only able to draw 3-3 at home to Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday (17/10). This result has made the Blues fail to improve their position in the standings.
Even though Chelsea had a two-goal lead in this match through the action of Timo Werner. However, Southampton were able to equalize at the start of the second half with goals from Danny Ings and Che Adams.
After the equalizer, Chelsea returned their lead through Kai Havert’s goal. The 3-2 score lasted until normal time ended.
But Southampton finally took home a point after Jannik Vestergaard equalized in injury time. This is the reason for Lampard’s statement.
According to Lampard, Vestergaard’s third goal would not have happened had the players followed his instructions. He had asked to apply the long ball scheme.
“I certainly did not want to play brave football in the last moments of the match. That was my message to them, that I wanted them to play the long ball and break the opponent’s pressing,” said Lampard as quoted by Goal.
“I don’t think the players did enough. It was probably my biggest disappointment that the players didn’t act.”
Even so, Lampard wouldn’t want to blame his players too much. He also denied that it happened because there were communication problems.
In the transfer window last summer, Chelsea did bring in a number of new stars who came from outside of England. They certainly need time to communicate smoothly with their new colleagues.
“If there is a moment where the players have to look outside the game, then we have to do that on the pitch and it’s not about communication at all,” he concluded.