Chelsea boss Frank Lampard was unhappy with how his side attacked against Nottingham Forest in Sunday’s FA Cup victory and believes the team need to improve how they ‘occupy’ the box.
The Blues booked their place in the next round with a routine victory over Championship side Forest at Stamford Bridge, with Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ross Barkley both getting on the score sheet in the first half.
But Chelsea eased off in the second period, much to Lampard’s annoyance, and he feels their cautious attacking play was symptomatic of what they have done all season.
“I don’t like the way we don’t occupy the box enough. We need to occupy it more. We need to have someone across the front post, generally, that’s your striker, midfield players arriving – not hanging outside the box – and opposite winger in the box. It might even be an opposite full-back in the box the way we want to play,” he said.
“That’s something we need to get better at, for sure, because we are making some nice little effective combinations on the right.
“We were, before Reece’s injury, in a few of the games here it looked like it was coming off, but it’s no good putting in a great cross and the crowd goes ‘oooh’ and it goes through the other side or we’re not on it or they head it away. We have to occupy the box better,” he said.
On the performance as a whole, he continued; “I liked parts of it, I liked the first half, I liked what we did on the right-hand side. I thought Reece and Callum were lively and bright.”