Frank Lampard took over as Chelsea caretaker manager last month and Gary Neville claims he ‘doesn’t like’ his players. The Blues were defeated 1-0 by the Premier League champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, leaving them 12th in the table, 45 points behind Man City and 12 points above the relegation zone. This was Chelsea’s 15th defeat of a torrid season, having finished third last season and reached two domestic cup finals under Thomas Tuchel. The German was sacked at the start of the campaign and his replacement, ex-Brighton boss Graham Potter, won just 12 of his 31 games in charge before also being axed.
Lampard cut a frustrated figure for much of Chelsea’s defeat to Manchester City at the weekend and Neville claims it is obvious that he ‘doesn’t like’ his players. He said: ‘Every time I look at Frank Lampard he’s got a look of a manager who doesn’t like his players. Chelsea need the end of the season, badly.’ Lampard admitted that the incoming manager Mauricio Pochettino has ‘a lot of work to do’ and suggested he had issues with the current squad, describing it as ‘imbalanced’ following the Man City defeat. He said: ‘The Premier League is getting tougher, we’ve felt that this year and we’ve felt things we need to improve for next year. There’s a lot of work to be done. There’s clearly talent in the squad, making a lack of stability in the squad, maybe an imbalance in the squad. So those things are maybe club issue and every player needs to really get the work on to see if they can get us back to where we want to be.’ Lampard has two more games in charge of Chelsea, with the Blues visiting Manchester United on Thursday night and then playing host to Newcastle United on the final day of the season.
