Frank
Lampard said he was encouraged by the spirit, desire and defending of his
Chelsea team, despite their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool.
The Blues were reduced to 10 men when Andreas Christensen was sent off just
before half-time and goals from Sadio Mane after the break secured a
dominant Liverpool all three points, with Jorginho missing a penalty for
Chelsea.
However, Lampard was keen to take the positives from his side's performance
and ranked it better than their 3-1 opening weekend win at Brighton.
"I was happy about our defensive game," he told Sky Sports. "I wanted them
to be better on the ball. We showed moments on the counter-attack where we
dangerous. But to limit them to the chances they got in the first-half,
there were lots of things I was pleased about.
"My team talk at half-time was going to be: 'let's be more confident on the
ball lads.' Then the red card changes the whole team talk.
"They can be given or not. Once the yellow is the first decision, you feel
it needs to be absolutely critical that it's a red to make that difference.
I'm not sure it was. I'm not going to complain too much.
"I'm disappointed to lose three points, as you always will be and should be,
but actually I'm happier today in many ways than I was at Brighton. Brighton
was three points, an OK performance.
"We're in pre-season still because we haven't had long enough to train a lot
of the individuals and as a collective.
"Today I saw spirit, a desire to defend by a lot of our players. Reece
James, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori, the midfield giving everything to block
gaps. You play half a game with 10 men - you don't make that mistake for the
second goal, you score the penalty it's 1-1. I know that's not football and
I know I can't reflect on that but those are the realities.
"The players should take heart. It's how we go forward from here now.
Normally with new faces you get a month or so of pre-season to work on your
patterns of play. That's why the stuff on the ball at the minute is what I'm
not so happy about. The way we're defending I'm very happy with."
Lampard also insisted he wants his team to be given time to gel and develop
and said, given the influx of new signings, this season should be seen as a
new project from the one which took Chelsea to a fourth-place finish in the
Premier League last season.
"Every team that has been successful in the modern day has had time, has had
a process," he said. "Our process starts here. Not from last year. Last year
was a squad that we couldn't do much business going into it, so we worked
and we worked and we worked and we came fourth.
"Now it's a new start, our objectives are higher, our expectations are
higher, fine. But it will take some time."
Lampard revealed goalkeeper Kepa had put his hands up and conceded he made a
mistake to his team-mates after Mane intercepted his pass to score
Liverpool's second, and the Chelsea boss says rebuilding the Spaniard's
confidence is now key.
However, Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher said the Blues' shot-stopper is in a
difficult situation, making a string of mistakes with Chelsea reportedly
close to signing Rennes keeper Edouard Mendy.
"As players, you go through tough times at different times in his career and
you actually feel a bit sorry for Kepa now," said Carragher. "There's a new
goalkeeper that looks like he's coming in so I don't think there's much more
we can say about the goalkeeper.
"It must be tough for him and he's going through a really tough period. Our
job is to be critical at times, but I remember when I went through a similar
period earlier in my career. It wasn't going great and he's going through
his own nightmare at the moment."
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