Lampard frustrated by players ‘mindset’
Chelsea manager upset at lack of concentration Lerma’s imperious display delights Howe
Three minutes. That is all it took for Chelsea to go from one goal up to one down.
Leading by Marcos Alonso’s firsthalf strike, they conceded two shoddy goals at Bournemouth and found themselves chasing a game they had seemed in control of. With five minutes remaining, Alonso returned Chelsea to parity with a flying header after Aaron Ramsdale parried Pedro’s drive.
Both managers were left vindicated and frustrated in equal measure after the 2-2 draw, both face Liverpool next – Chelsea tomorrow in the FA Cup, Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime – and both were left to ponder their players’ game management.
Chelsea were jittery, even when in front. Head coach Frank Lampard’s perseverance with three at the back enabled Alonso to be far enough forward to score his two goals, but Fikayo Tomori, a surprise choice ahead of Antonio Rudiger, struggled to impose himself, Andreas Christensen was spooked by Bournemouth’s pace and the home side’s brief, but effective, tsunami took Chelsea by surprise.
“We lost a lead because of our mindset,” Lampard said. “The frustrating thing is that we spoke at half-time about what Bournemouth might do.
“As a group, we can’t be happy conceding like we did. Being 1-0 up always gives the other team a chance, so it’s about concentration and sometimes you have to dig in and concentrate that bit more. The players have to find the solution.”
If Bournemouth was a partly taken opportunity to exorcise the
Games 105 117 110 113 125 99 ghosts of Bayern Munich’s visit, a wounded Liverpool, for whom the FA Cup is the third of their three priorities, is another opportunity for Chelsea redemption. Lampard deployed his big guns sparingly against Nottingham Forest and Hull City in previous rounds, but this time he is not for tinkering. “It’s a game to go for victory, not to rotate,” he said. “Our fans want us to overturn the best team in the land. This doesn’t mean I won’t change a couple of people, but only to bring in fresh legs or different options. I won’t be giving out minutes. I will treat it with the care I would give a Premier League game.”
Once Joshua King’s tap-in had put Bournemouth ahead, the home side had an attack of the vapours and the sight of Callum Wilson causing his own defenders consternation in their penalty area and no attacking option epitomised his team’s collective panic. A Chelsea equaliser was always a question of when, rather than if.
That said, there were pluses for Eddie Howe, the Bournemouth manager, not least £25million Jefferson Lerma. The Colombian was imperious in midfield and his meaty header from Ryan Fraser’s corner was his first goal since 2018.
“He’s there to read danger and stop attacks and he was in control of what he was doing today,” Howe said. “He put out a lot of fires for us.
“The biggest compliment I can give is that when he doesn’t play, we miss him. He has the unique characteristics we need against the big guns, chiefly his athleticism.
We don’t have anyone else in the building like that.”
Moreover, if those three minutes of madness were indicative of Chelsea’s failings, they were also a showcase for Bournemouth’s capacity for an ice hockey-style power play at the most unlikely moment.
“We were in a difficult moment at half-time and I’m delighted how the players responded,” Howe said. “Of course, we’d have loved to have seen more of the intensity which brought our goals. It’s about trying to keep things together and again, we’re frustrated we weren’t able to defend better with their two goals.
“We needed to take the sting out of the game towards the end, to slow it down. It’s part of our learning process, but in our situation with 10 games to go, we haven’t the time to waste.”