Frank Lampard has hinted that he wanted to use Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang more at Chelsea but his omission from the club’s Champions League squad forced him to turn to other options.
The £12million summer signing from Barcelona was effectively exiled just four months after joining after being removed from the European squad in February.
Aubameyang had played just 30 minutes in the last three-and-a-half months but was thrown on at half-time by Lampard in the 2-0 home defeat by Brentford on Wednesday night.
Speaking after the match, Lampard hinted that he wanted to give Aubameyang more minutes but had to prioritise those players who could feature in the Champions League.
He said: “Auba has been a tough one for me because I have complete respect for him and his career: he has scored what, over 300 goals in his club career?
“He couldn’t play the two Real Madrid games for me because he was not in the squad.
“He came on for me against Wolves and for a number nine to be sharp and playing regularly is key. To see him training when we haven’t had many minutes before to train, he came into my thinking today anyway.
“You can see he is the profile of a number nine and we don’t have that in the squad so I did see a difference in that today.”
Lampard saw his side booed off at the end of both halves against Brentford after an own goal from Cesar Azpilicueta and a late Bryan Mbeumo strike sealed victory for Thomas Frank’s side.
Lampard said he couldn’t get angry at his players, who he believes are trying their best to end such a dismal losing run. He added: “I defend the players because I know that they’re young lads who want to do well.
“Is there an issue with confidence? Yeah. Is there an issue with the balance of the squad? Maybe, yeah.
“But when I say people don’t understand [how hard the job is], I’m not patronising everybody and expecting them to have an idea of what’s going on behind the scenes. But when you work with it, you understand it’s the Premier League.”
