Lampard says ‘tactics don’t matter’ *again* as Chelsea boss ‘learns’ nothing from interim spell

Frank Lampard reiterated that “tactics don’t matter” when the “collective standards” aren’t there as the Chelsea boss failed to come up with something he’s “learned” from his interim spell.

The crushing defeat to Manchester United on Thursday means Lampard has lost seven of his nine games since taking interim charge of Chelsea.

And after the game he insisted once again that the defeat had nothing to do with tactics. .

“It’s a simple thing to say but any team that wins in the Premier League has them [standards] as a base, because without them the tactics do not matter,” Lampard told Sky Sports.

“Training well every day, trying to improve, being a real collective unit.

“There are some variables for the players, everyone talks about a big squad and I understand that it’s hard for the coaches this year at the club – I get it because I’ve lived that for nine league games now.

“Sometimes you can say that is maybe a factor – if you want to call it an excuse – but as a player you have to put that to the side and focus on your own game.

“Since I’ve been in I’ve understood quickly that some of the collective standards – and it’s for the individuals within that to realise who they are – this is not a blanket, we just have to find the reasons for why the club is where it’s at, and there are many.

“It’s not just finger-pointing at the players because it’s definitely not a lack of effort this evening, but you build up the credit through your training and your prep, and you build up a resilience.

“I was fortunate enough to be a player here for many years and you can look at the group and the player next to you and know that he’s worked on his standards and everything is there to rely on each other.

“It’s a bad year for the club, and many clubs have these years when we’ve had massive success for the last 20 years or whatever, but the important thing is you get to the bottom of how it improves.

“It needs a reboot, the club will move on in summer in terms of what the squad looks like, and as a Chelsea player where we want to be, everything has to be improved to get to the level.”

Asked about his own future, Lampard told Sky Sports: “If you ask me what I’ve learned in this short period, in terms of coaching not so much.

“If you haven’t got that basis then back-five, back-four… two in midfield, three in midfield… those things are not so important.

“Because if you can’t build up and have that endurance in training, if that’s not there from a coaching point of view there are hard things you want to do [instead].

“I’ve been in this situation as a player, with an interim and change of manager. A lot of the plus points you gain are from what the team is fighting for, what can you motivate them for.

“We haven’t found that as a collective, the results say so.

“This job is going to challenge you at different times, I’m certainly not the victim – I love working for this club. That’s not changed from the moment I’ve been here.

“Have I learnt much on the football side? As I say, I don’t think so in this period. I did here before and I did at Everton. In this period it’s been more about what I’ve walked into and what I’ve seen, that’s been very different for me.”