It’s Cup to us
ZOUMA: TODAY’S KEY IN RACE FOR EUROPE
KURT ZOUMA reckons Chelsea can snatch a psychological edge in the race for the Champions League by dumping Man United out of the FA Cup.
The Blues go head to head
FRANK LAMPARD has warned Chelsea’s leaky rearguard to cut out ‘individual errors’ or face a Wembley hiding from red-hot Man United.
Despite sitting third in the table, the Blues headed into the weekend boasting the worst defensive record in the top half of the Premier League.
They have already conceded 49 times in 36 games in that competition – and kept only three clean sheets in eight outings since emerging from lockdown.
One of those was in their 1-0 FA Cup quarter-final victory at Leicester City, which set them up for today’s titanic semi-final showdown against top-four rivals United.
And Lamps is well aware that his mistakeriddled defence will have to be at its meanest to stand any chance of snuffing out Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s explosive attack.
Asked if he is concerned about his own side’s continuing frailties at the back, the Blues chief said: “We are working on it and, to be fair, we always work on it specifically.
“There’s never a neglect of our defensive work in the game. It has to be constant and repeated regularly.
“A big problem of ours this season is that we’ve been committing individual errors in games – sometimes in matches we have really been comfortable in – it has been from a counter-attack or cross into our box.
“Certain games have been different to that – like against Sheffield United – where we just didn’t play well as a team.
“But we have had individual errors in key moments that have changed the face of the result and it’s been too regular.
“It’s my responsibility and I look at where we can improve individually and then on the training ground how we can improve collectively.
“We will always take the responsibility as a whole. And I always work on it.”
United have been smashing in goals galore pre-and-post coronavirus with Anthony Martial, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and teenage star Mason Greenwood on fire.
Lamps expects that fearsome, free-scoring attack to seriously test his Blues, who have already lost three times to Solskjaer’s Reds this season.
“We will have to be very much on top of ourselves when it comes to the quality of opposition we have,” he said.
“No matter what, they can hurt any defence or any team with the individual quality that they have.
“It was good to get a clean sheet against Norwich in midweek. But this will be a different animal.
“We will have to defend very well. “There are two big teams going against each other. We know their front three are playing very, very well. The amount of goals they have together as a three has been amazing.
“But they have a strong team throughout. Their midfield is functioning really well now. The introduction of Fernandes gave them a huge boost in January – everyone’s seen that.
“It will need a complete performance to challenge United.”