Frank Lampard has attempted to provide some justification for Chelsea’s sluggish performance in Japan on Friday afternoon, report SportsKeeda.
It’s not uncommon for pre-season performances to be some way below the standard that you would usually expect from a team like Chelsea, but a loss to a team like Kawasaki Frontale is an obvious concern.
Chelsea have Barcelona next up in Japan, and if we perform against the reigning Spanish champions anything like we did against Kawasaki, we’re at risk of having our pants pulled down.
It’s early days in Lampard’s reign, though, so we have to manage our expectations. Our head coach has also offered some further justification for why Chelsea were so poor during the contest.
He’s quoted by SportsKeeda saying:
“Obviously we want to win matches no matter what, but 10 days of pre-season having flown into Japan three days ago brings up a lot of difficulties for us physically. That’s why I was very pleased with the players physically. They gave everything in strong humidity with some good individual performances.”
Ultimately, nobody remembers the pre-season performances, nor the results. Lampard will be judged on how Chelsea play throughout the course of the season. This is merely preparation for that.
