Chelsea: Frank Lampard has the players and is at fault for not using them

Chelsea succumbed to yet another defeat as they lost 2-0 to Southampton at home. Frank Lampard has the players – he is just not making good use of them.

Boxing Day’s loss to Southampton was Chelsea’s fifth defeat in seven matches. This run of results cannot be justified at any level for a club like Chelsea. Even though this is Frank Lampard’s first season managing in the Premier League and he is doing it with a young team, Chelsea should be doing better.

A decent result against Tottenham cannot suppress the fact this team are downright terrible lately. As much as the players, Frank Lampard is also at fault. His team selection has not been brilliant in this run. Even with the transfer ban, Chelsea has more than enough squad to finish in the top four, and Lampard has been spotty with the chances he has given his team.

Callum Hudson-Odoi has been poor for the last two months. Yet he is given chance after chance while an established player like Pedro is presented one chance a month and is then dropped without another chance.

Michy Batshuayi is given plenty of substitute appearances even though there has been nothing worthy from him since the goal at Ajax. Meanwhile, a reliable player like Olivier Giroud is ignored completely, just like Pedro.

The case is the same in defense. Kurt Zouma, who was at fault for Southampton’s first goal, is one of the first names on Frank Lampard’s team sheet, even though there is not a match where he does not make some silly mistake. Reece James, who can cross better than anyone at Chelsea, is not given enough opportunities, even against teams like Southampton, who will sit deep. Meanwhile, Emerson is always reluctant to make a cross.

Anyone who has followed Chelsea in the past two years can predict what will happen when Willian takes a corner: it will hit the first man four out of five times. Yet there has not been any change to his delivery or the fact of him taking corners.

Every time Chelsea executes a forward move, the ball will end up going back to the center backs in no time. Even when they are struggling to make the simple pass, they try overdoing it with flicks and flips, which obviously result in the ball ending with the opposition team.

Lampard cannot sustain this terrible form. Some fans want to spread positivity at moments like this by saying Chelsea is still in the top four and the knockout stage of the Champions League.

We can only wonder if they would still have such an optimistic assessment if it was Maurizio Sarri or Antonio Conte on the touchline.