Frank Lampard says Chelsea PLayers refused to listen in Southampton draw

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has revealed that his players failed to follow through on instructions during Southampton draw.

The blues lost a good lead and ended with a 3-3 draw. Lampard’s team could have won easily but it was the same loss of concentration and unnecessary errors from players that cost them 2 points.

Lampard said that he asked his players to follow his basic instructions and continue to push on and attack but they didn’t.

Lampard wanted his players to miss the Southampton press and go longer, as reported by Goal.

He said:

“I certainly didn’t want to play brave football in the last moments of the game.
“That was my message to them, that I wanted them to go longer and break the press. I don’t think the players did that enough.
“We tried to play too much and some of that is ingrained in the players that they want to try and play football.

“That’s certainly something I am not a big advocate of with high pressure, as something you can do is miss out the pressure to get the ball high up the pitch and use the players at the other end of the pitch.

“That was probably my biggest disappointment that the players didn’t put into action.
“I am not concerned about the communication; we certainly work very hard through the week to have that.

“What I am concerned with is game management and, in the game, the players have to gauge that on the pitch, it is part of what being a top player at Chelsea is about.

“Absolutely, it is the players’ choice. If there is a moment where the players have to see out a game, then we have to do that on the pitch and it isn’t about communication from that point at all.”