Former Chelsea star Tony Cascarino has revealed why he is 'not convinced' by Frank Lampard's management after his old club's defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The Blues suffered a 3-0 loss at Stamford Bridge in the first-leg of their round of 16 tie against the Bundesliga champions, with ex-Arsenal attacker Serge Gnabry scoring twice before Robert Lewandowski added a third.
Lampard’s side also ended the game with 10 men after Marcos Alonso was sent off in the second half, and now need an extraordinary result at the Allianz Arena next month to stand any chance of progression into the quarter-finals.
And Cascarino has taken aim Lampard for constantly changing his team and for his apparent lack of defensive know-how, as well revealing how he once received a phone call from the Blues icon over something he wrote in his column for The Times.
"It's an awkward one with Frank, because we have had words before," the former Republic of Ireland international told talkSPORT on Wednesday morning.
"Not bad, but I had a phone call and things were said.
"If I'm being brutally honest, I've always found Frank to be a little bit spikey with some of the things that you say, and you can be complementary but Frank takes it slightly the wrong way.
"I'm not convinced by his management at times this year, because I do think it's an easy excuse just to go youngster, youngster – he's changed that team a hell of a lot.
"I don't like the Kepa issue. He deserved to get dropped, but keeping him out of the team – I'm not so sure that's a good decision.
"You have to show loyalty to players sometimes, even after a bad game.
"But it's happening all over the pitch, everywhere has been changed, everybody has been changed around.
"It's really hard to guess Chelsea’s XI and that tells you in some way that Frank is spinning plates around his team.
"We’re giving him the benefit of the doubt because he's new to this role of a Premier League manager and Chelsea have been in a very difficult situation where there’s been a lot of change and no buying power.
"But what I see, just look at the games they've lost, the amount of games they've lost and the goals-against column – that tells you a big story, that they can’t defend very well.
"I can't see [how that can improve] unless you buy new players, but you've also got to look at your system."
