Tuesday 15 December 2015 12:39, UK
Frank Lampard does not think Jose Mourinho has lost the Chelsea dressing room, but insists they need to turn things around quickly.
Chelsea's miserable season continued with a 2-1 defeat away at Leicester to leave them 20 points behind Claudio Ranieri's league leaders and down in 16th place in the table, just one point above the relegation places.
Defeat at the King Power Stadium was Chelsea's ninth of the season and Lampard, who was a guest on Monday Night Football, thinks Mourinho's players need to take a long hard look at their own performances during the slump.
I don't know whether he's [Jose Mourinho] lost them but something has to change [at Chelsea]. It has to change right now.
"I don't know about lost them [the players]," Lampard told Monday Night Football.
"They are good players but far too many of them are underperforming and they have been for a while.
"This is Chelsea we are talking about now. Chelsea on a bad year should be top six. They should still be there or thereabouts but where they are, just above the relegation zone, is impossible.
"I don't know whether he's lost them, but something has to change," he added.
"It has to change right now. Whether it's attitude or performance or something else, it has to change."
Back-to-back league defeats at home at Bournemouth and away at Leicester increases the pressure further on Mourinho but Lampard does not think the change at Stamford Bridge should be the manager.
"That's only one man's decision and that will be Roman Abramovich," Lampard said.
"He's probably looking at it very closely. Obviously we've been here before with Chelsea, when managers change midway through the season.
"I don't know how many times you can do that. We had some good results from doing it before but we had a different set of players at that point.
"But I have to say what they set out to do when Jose Mourinho came back was to have a long-term plan. What can they gain by getting rid of him now?
"They are probably not going to make the top four anyway or the top six. They're not going to get relegated if we are honest so I'm sure there's a view from Roman Abramovich to say: 'Hang on, let's see what happens at the end of the season.
"Why make a rash change that can't really affect the year that much, and then see where we are at the end of the season."
