Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has revealed he believes being a manager is much harder than his time spent as a player.
Lampard moved into management with Championship side Derby County in May 2018 before being appointed Chelsea manager in July 2019.
During a 21-year playing career, Lampard made over 650 club appearances for West Ham United, Chelsea, Manchester City and New York City, winning three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League with the Blues.
But while he admits he had to work hard during his playing days, the 42-year-old thinks there is little comparison to be drawn between the two roles.
"The facts and reality is I realise now it's much harder than playing in terms of it being consuming," he told Eddie Hearn's No Passion No Point podcast. "The life of a manager is 25 people in the squad, staff in the building, problems with different departments. It's so far removed from football.
"When you work for your coaching badges, you have to put time in. Then when you start doing it, you have to practise, you have to fail, get better, fail and have relationships with people you never had as a player.
"Players can easily sit there and say they want to be a manager, then they start the road and say: 'Actually, I want to be a pundit.' I respect it because being a pundit is tough as well but in terms of management I wanted to test the water.
"A manager gets 50 problems a day. It's much more consuming but I love it and couldn't live without it."
Lampard has taken charge of 125 games with Derby and Chelsea, winning 60, drawing 31 and losing 34. So far with the Blues he has a 52.90% win percentage and this season has them fifth in the Premier League table on 15 points from eight games.
While he is enjoying a good spell at the club where he made his name as a player, with his side unbeaten in eight games across all competitions, he says it took him time to grow into the role at first club Derby.
Lampard told boxing promoter Hearn that he made "a lot of mistakes" and was "finding his feet" to begin with at the Championship club.
Derby finished in sixth place and reached the play-off final in the 2018/19 season, but were beaten 2-1 at Wembley by Aston Villa.
