TABLES & CHEERS
Lampard is obsessed.. and admits: I have a deep sense of pride about wanting to get fourth place
MOST managers insist that they don’t look at the table – not until the business end of the season, anyway.
Not Frank Lampard. The Chelsea boss admits he can’t shy away from studying the Premier League places at least twice a day.
But he does not want his stars to become as obsessed as he is.
And the only reason he discusses it with his players is because he wants to drum into them how proud he will be if Chelsea can pinch fourth place in his first season in charge.
Lampard will monitor that table even more closely now, after second-placed Manchester City’s two-year ban from Europe.
Chelsea go into their clash with rival top-four contenders Manchester United one point ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham – and six in front of tonight’s opponents.
Suddenly, the Blues look much safer as the cut-off point for Champions League football drops by a place.
But Lampard still wants N’Golo Kante and company to feel his urgency. He has seen his side win only two of their last six home games in the top flight – and is demanding more from his young side.
Lampard revealed: “I look at the League table two or three times a day sometimes. You can become obsessed with it.
“But that’s for me to do. For the players, reminding them sometimes is fine. It’s a good tool.
“I talk about other teams, and where they are in the table, at certain times.
“You shouldn’t speak about it too much because you end up with your eyes everywhere – up and down the table. “We can only affect ourselves, first and foremost. “But I don’t think it’s the worst motivational tool for all of us to understand the situation, because I have a deep sense of pride about wanting to get fourth place. “I remember having that as a player, though we were fighting generally for first and second place for a good period when I was here.” Chelsea were thumped 4-0 at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season but United were flattered by the
margin of their victory. Lampard insisted: “I’d be the first to criticise myself or us but it wasn’t a 4-0 game.
“I was honest with the players afterwards. I said to them, ‘That’s not a 4-0. Let’s not walk away from the small details that made it a 4-0 – but don’t take this as a big kick in the teeth because it shouldn’t be in terms of performance’.
“Three days later we went toe to toe with the best team in the country by a mile, Liverpool, and could have won the Super Cup.
“I didn’t take that defeat at United as a huge, hurtful thing because I saw enough then to suggest we could be a top-four team.”