Chelsea star Tammy Abraham has admitted that quite a few players at the West London club weren’t too happy with Frank Lampard’s training methods when he initially took charge of the club this summer.
The Blues had a bit of a strange start to life in the early parts of the season but it was expected because they lost key Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard to Real Madrid as well as Maurizio Sarri to Juventus. There was also a transfer ban that was imposed on the club which meant that Chelsea wasn’t able to purchase any players for the next two transfer windows.
Former England midfielder Frank Lampard was then appointed to succeed Sarri and it was quite a big risk taken by the club as the 41-year-old had only one year of management experience prior to the Chelsea job when he was in charge of Derby County in the Championship. Lampard almost guided the Rams towards Premier League qualification but fell short at the final hurdle at the playoffs.
However, taking the reins of a club like Chelsea was of a much bigger magnitude as Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge as a manager this time around. Things didn’t start off quite well for Lampard as he lost the UEFA Super Cup against Liverpool and had to wait for three games before tasting his first win as Chelsea boss but it is apparent that Chelsea are playing some attractive football and there is a solid plan in store.
Lampard has decided to promote youth and allowed the youngsters to express themselves on the pitch as the young guns are repaying the faith entrusted in them by the Englishman. Tammy Abraham has already scored nine goals this season and is a joint top of the Premier League goalscoring charts along with Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero.
But Abraham has revealed that a lot of the Chelsea players weren’t too happy with the way things initially began with the club during the preseason with Lampard’s training regime. While speaking to The Athletic, the young striker explained, “I think a lot of players were a bit upset about how much running we had to do in pre-season, but it’s all paying off now. It all makes sense why we did it, why we had such a hard pre-season. From when the manager came in he told us the style of play, how he wanted us to play, how to press. At first, I couldn’t do it. I had no energy. But as the season has gone on, I’ve got used to it. Now we know what he wants in the press, so for us, it’s about giving defenders no time on the ball – just rushing them.”
