Jody Morris has discussed Chelsea’s recent struggles and Frank Lampard’s management style as the duo look to revive the club’s fortunes in the coming weeks.
The Chelsea assistant has been discussing the club’s wobbles in recent encounters, with last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Brighton leaving the Blues with just three wins from their past nine fixtures in the Premier League.
Impressive wins at both Tottenham and Arsenal have been mixed with disappointing home defeats to the likes of West Ham and Southampton, and Morris says the club’s struggle for consistency is a reflection of the player’s same individual inability to produce on a regular basis.
“Sometimes you can get away with two or three who have been a little bit inconsistent, but our numbers of players who have been inconsistent is more than two or three,” Morris said at Friday’s press conference, where he sat in for the unwell Frank Lampard.
“Sometimes when we make mistakes it snowballs into more mistakes rather than us simplifying the game and riding out the little spells when we’ve maybe been poor. They have maybe gone on for longer than they should do. You’re going to get spells in games where you need to be a little bit more solid, and when you do get an opportunity, you need to take it and put it to bed.
“You need to be clinical. You do need that little bit of quality. When other teams set up and start working you out a little bit more, you need to rely on a few players to perform further up the pitch, and create some more chances with varying up their game.
“It’s a collective effort. We can all get better at creating chances, whether it be from winning the ball back high up the pitch, or whether it be from going back to front a bit quicker. It’s a combination of those that means we haven’t been doing as well as we should.”
Morris worked alongside Lampard at Derby County before following the 41-year-old to Stamford Bridge last summer, and has described his former teammates ‘passionate’ managerial style.
“He lives and breathes it,” he said. “He’s passionate about improving players, and passionate about winning, but it’s not just results that push him into a place where he’s getting frustrated.
“Recent results would maybe point towards it being his first test as a manager, but we had moments at Derby when we were winning games when we’ve been just as frustrated.
“He’s a deep thinker and he wants to come up with ways individually and as a group. We are forever talking about where we can improve, what we can do better, and what we should be looking at. He was like that as a player, and he’s certainly like that as a manager.”
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