Frank Lampard says Chelsea must adapt to defensive opponents

Frank Lampard admits that Chelsea must find ways to counter teams that sit back and defend

Speaking in the pre-match press conference before the game against Wolves (h/t Sky Sports), Frank Lampard admitted that Chelsea need to find solutions to opposition teams that set up defensively against them.

The English manager referred in particular to Everton, who took a highly defensive approach against them.

“We just need to make sure that we understand that if teams make it difficult for us, we have to have ways to get around that.”

The Toffees ended Chelsea’s 17-match unbeaten run on the weekend when they won 1-0 at Goodison Park.

Gylfi Sigurdsson scored early on for the hosts, after which Everton sat back and defended their one goal advantage.

Chelsea enjoyed more than 70% of the ball throughout the match, but could not force their way through a resolute Everton side.

Lampard mentioned that Everton played similarly to Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur, who also defended their way to a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge earlier this month.

“It felt like Everton played very similar to how Tottenham played against us a couple of weeks ago.”

The Chelsea manager said that in order to counter such teams, he needs to find solutions around such a system. However, he was also quick to acknowledge Chelsea’s own shortcomings. (h/t Sky Sports)

He explained that the Blues not moving the ball quickly enough was the reason they could not score past Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

Chelsea have scored the second most amount of goals in the Premier League this season, and Lampard said that he understands that teams will try and stop them from doing what they do best.

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The Blues’ manager comments make even more sense when considering that Chelsea have failed to score in their last 2 away games.

Chelsea will face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday at the Molineux and will look to get their goal-scoring streak back.