Chelsea boss Lampard pins last-gasp defeat on wasteful finishing

Frank Lampard insists Chelsea cannot do more than they already are doing in training to improve their finishing and has urged his team to find a “killer instinct” in front of goal.

Chelsea failed to make a dominant display count as Isaac Hayden’s last-gasp header handed Newcastle United a 1-0 win in Saturday’s Premier League encounter at St James’ Park.

While Joelinton had earlier hit the bar for the home side, Tammy Abraham spurned two glorious chances, while Willian had also failed to take a good opportunity.

Lampard offered no excuses for the defeat, though, insisting Chelsea only have themselves to blame as he acknowledged his side’s deficiency in regards to goals from their attacking players.

“It’s football, you have to get your head around it very quickly. I’m not always massive on stats but the feel of the game was domination,” Lampard told Sky Sports.

“They hit the bar with a header, one of I think three headers they had in the game and they scored with one of them. Other than that, second half I don’t remember them endangering our box, we were camped around their box and creating chances.

“We know we have problems at the top of the pitch, scoring goals. We don’t get enough front-line goals if we want to bridge the gap and that’s something we’ve seen a lot this season, especially at home. 

“Today was like a home game in how we performed on the pitch and if you don’t score then you’re always liable to a sucker punch and we got it.

Devastating.#NEWCHE pic.twitter.com/LoMawi3BW7

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 18, 2020

“It’s something we need to address, the instinctive nature to score the goal. We’re working on it.

“We need to be clinical. We can’t make any bones about it, it’s a reality. We can’t work anymore in training on finishing. You have to have that killer instinct in front of goal. We need to score more goals from front-line areas to get where we need to be.”

Lampard insisted in his pre-match news conference that he would not be drawn into making any “kneejerk” signings.

However, he conceded it is clear Chelsea need reinforcements in the final third.

“It doesn’t matter until it’s done,” Lampard said when he was asked if any incomings were close.

“It’s quite clear that I know where we need to strengthen, so we’ll see.”