Frank Lampard, the temporary manager of Chelsea, has declared that he “won’t let anyone off the hook” after Real Madrid eliminated them from the Champions League, dealing them yet another significant setback in their sputtering campaign.
Real won the quarterfinal match 4-0 overall thanks to two goals from Rodrygo at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
Therefore, Lampard’s record as the Blues’ temporary manager since this month’s appointment is currently four defeats in a row.
He told BT Sport, “You have to give everything you’ve got in every game.”
“I’ve only been here for two weeks so I’m hungry,” the 44-year-old former manager and all-time leading scorer for Chelsea said.
I’m not going to let anyone off the hook for finishing this season. The inverse must be true.
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The Champions League was Chelsea’s best hope of advancing to the next season, as they were currently in 11th place in the Premier League and 10 points behind Brighton in seventh place.
But now they must prepare for a season devoid of any trophies, in which they will have wasted a record £600 million on players over the previous two transfer windows.
The Blues put up their greatest performance during Lampard’s brief second stint as manager on Tuesday, but they once again failed to capitalize on opportunities that presented themselves.In their four losses under Lampard, they’ve only scored once.
The 211-goal former Blues midfielder, who played for 13 years, continued, “It’s not for lack of effort.
We had a number of crosses and people in good situations, so I won’t ever fault the guys for that; it’s just that if they took any of those chances. You could definitely have felt the atmosphere change if the score ever reached 2-1.
“There we were playing against top-tier competition, and I thought we were the superior team with more opportunities.
“It’s the first game since I got back that I’ve really noticed the things and how we’ve been putting them into practice, and it’s something that we want to maintain for the remainder of the season.
The bar cannot now be lowered. Once this is over with, internally, that is the only message that remains.
Seven league games are still left for Chelsea, the first of which is on Wednesday, April 26 at home against Brentford.
