Chelsea is not 'Liverpool of last year', says Lampard
Dec 20, 2020
London [UK], December 20 : Chelsea manager Frank Lampard believes that it is too early to compare his side to Liverpool's title-winning team from last year.
Chelsea has suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time since December 2019 in the Premier League. Earlier, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had also described Chelsea as the title favourites this season.
The Blues were recently outclassed by Everton and Wolves and this brought an end to Chelsea's 17-game unbeaten run across all competitions.
"Everyone was talking about us going on a great run and we should win the league. Part of my reasoning to dampen that was other teams have probably been together longer and built for longer which builds confidence within the group of players that they can deal with things better in games. Part of where our progression is that where we have some younger players and newer players, and I think as times goes on, they will definitely get stronger in those moments. That's why you have to take lessons from things like the other night when we lose," Goal.com quoted Lampard as saying.
"Personality is very hard to measure. I just think with a group that has been together for a long time and maybe suffered some tough moments and failures. Liverpool in their period now, they looked like an absolute machine last year, but there would have moments that they would have gone through over those four or so years as a club where they would have looked at themselves," he added.
Lampard also drew comparisons from his own time at Chelsea and said that every team needs to be given proper time to go through a transition phase.
"I played in a team that had that. The early Abramovich years, we didn't win the league the first year, we came second and next year we felt a bit stronger and learnt a bit more. I think that is football," said Lampard.
"It's never easy to quantify as such but you certainly can work on it and build it and I think the responsibility is definitely with manager, staff and players altogether. The realism is we are not a Liverpool of last year or a Manchester City of the year before where you can just go out and win, win, win, win, win. In periods, you have to be ready for some tough moments," he added.
Chelsea is currently at the eighth position in the Premier League standings with 22 points from 13 matches. The side will next take on West Ham on Monday in the Premier League.
