Frank Lampard hasn't shied away from calling out Chelsea's poor standards in training as a reason for the club's continued poor form this season. Ahead of the toughest game of the season, heading to the Etihad Stadium as the biggest underdogs they have been in their history, the interim coach has sent his side a brutal message.
With Mauricio Pochettino expected to be announced as the new permanent manager from the end of the season in the coming days, Lampard has just three game left of his temporary spell. It has been a struggle so far, coming off the back of Graham Potter's disastrous tenure.
With a squad of 32 players to manage and a group of differing personalities and ambitions it has proved to be a logistical minefield for the 44-year-old. Despite being keen to raise the spirits, Lampard hasn't backed down from explaining the inefficiencies within the squad.
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"There's different sides to it," he explained to
"I don't want to sound too harsh because some of it is a confidence issue, coming in when a team is not getting results over a long period of time. There are some things that I've seen that seem pretty ingrained here and some that need to change.
"In terms of my message across four or five weeks it's been difficult to affect the change because when things are going the way they have been for a while, sometimes you need a reboot. What I do see, because I've been at this club for a long time as a player and as a coach, is that when this club has had success, the squad has had a real togetherness and standard about it.
"The feeling between the 20 or so players that if you don’t do your job on the pitch, I’m going to show in training that I’ll do your job and the manager will select me for that. The really pure feeling of competition in a good way and they're the sorts of things that get you to a successful point.
"Afterwards you can layer on the finer details, the tactics, the development of players and all the other things. Without that you cannot be a success.
"You've always got to be careful because some of it can be player's confidence and for what ever reason, I understand that. There are a lot of things that at first glance, it's hard as an interim because you're coming in for a short period of time and without as much to play for after Madrid, I know people would look at from the outside but you're trying to learn what the reasons are very quickly and they're not always what you first think.
"As a general rule, and I do know what it takes to have a squad that are pushing each other and doing the basics right, when I see us train, for whatever reason the level needs to come up and that's a general statement and I feel fine to make it because we shouldn't hide from that fact."
Lampard has so far been unable to drastically alter the mentality or output from the expensively assembled stars under his stewardship. He hasn't been the only one to make a point of the mistakes and poor dynamics within the club, either. After the defeat to Real Madrid in the quarter-final second-leg tie, Thiago Silva candidly explained: "I think the first step has been made, an incorrect step, but it has been made.
"We can’t be blaming the managers if we don’t take responsibility. It’s a hard period for the club, with a lot of indecision.
"Change of ownership, new players arriving – we had to increase the size of the changing room because it didn’t fit the size of the squad.
"A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy. There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play. The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that’s tough.
"Some can’t make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes."
Pochettino will be the man tasked with overhauling the squad and making the long-term changes but for now he has been given a word of warning from his predecessor, one that the players need to take in too.
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