Frank in rallying cry
FRANK LAMPARD has challenged his Chelsea players to show their character in the battle for the top four.
The Stamford Bridge boss has not given his players a public dressing down often this season – but he was highly critical of them for being too quiet during Saturday’s lame 3-0 surrender at Sheffield United. The Chelsea boss wants his players to be more vocal on the pitch. And he also told them to “stand up” and show “character” as they cannot afford any more slip-ups, especially as the stakes have been raised by Man City overturning their Champions League ban. Lampard said: “The important thing now is how we react and I expect that from the players.
“I’ve got big personalities – they need to stand up. “They need to now show the quality they’ve shown for big parts of the season. I trust they will do and because we’re at the business end it’s very important that they do.
“I think mentality is huge. If you watch the games, and I had a long afternoon watching all the games on Sunday, you will hear, for good or for bad, managers talk about mentality after the results.
“It cannot be understated how big mentality is. How big attitude is. When you talk about players it is very easy and natural to look at talent but you also have to look at attitude and character within the team.
“I think it’s something we can improve. Younger players can be more vocal, can grow as they go along.
“Older players can take on responsibility of helping that as well. We’re in a good place but it can certainly improve.
“Moments like this, critical times like now where there’s a lot on the line, it’s time for people to make that improvement.”
Lampard also admitted that he does have some quiet players in his dressing room – but he insists that even they must learn how to be more demanding and speak up for themselves on the pitch.
“With players that don’t speak, I get it, it’s not an easy one and I’m not trying to make a quiet player into a biggest mouth” Lampard said.
“There is an element natural.
“Some people naturally open their mouths and talk more, give information, but you can improve it. It is much easier to improve opening your mouth than it is to beat three players and put it in the top corner.”
Chelsea expect Andreas Christensen to be fit to face Norwich tonight but N’golo Kante will miss out, although he hopes to be fit for the FA Cup semi-final this weekend.
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