Frank Lampard admits he got scared when he was in a good run as a player. Fearful that things were going too well – and he is the same as a manager.
So as his young, vibrant Chelsea team go in search of their seventh win on the bounce at Burnley on Saturday (5.30pm), Lampard admits he likes to keep his men on their toes – with the odd rollicking.
And Lampard revealed he was on the end of a few monsterings in his own time as a player, mainly from his uncle Harry Redknapp when he was at West Ham.
But if any rollickings are to be handed out at Chelsea, Lampard says they come from him. Sometimes he has to play the ‘bad’ cop to his players.
The Chelsea manager, whose team registered their best moment yet under his command as they famously beat Ajax 1-0 in the Champions League in Amsterdam on Tuesday, warned: “It is a good feeling at the moment. I want to keep that – but temper it with a bit of edginess.
“It comes from me, because I was that way as a player. Having a good run of form, slightly relaxing, and the form turned.
“I was fearful of good patches, any form of relaxation – so I push that. I am the one who drives that home.
“I’ve had a couple of words occasionally with them, but I’m not a manager that is full of rollickings. I like to have a message that is clear that I drive home.
“If I ever felt there was a lack of effort then that would be the moment that I would go towards that. That is not a rollicking – that is my job to keep enforcing it until we get it right.
“It doesn’t work like me being the good cop and Jody Morris the bad. We can both have our moments. If you try to be the good cop consistently I’m not sure that’s the right tone.
“Sometimes a strong message comes out, even if it is not nice. It must come from the manager – so I have to be bad cop sometimes.”
But, the Chelsea manager insisted: “You only do that if you want to get the right result. Regular rollickings just become white noise. Not positive.
“Probably only Harry in my early days at West Ham really gave it out. He would have been the one who was the most vocal, throwing a sandwich.
“I remember a couple of those. But the game has moved on. It’s uncomfortable to work in that environment. To do it consistently – who wants that every day?”
Lampard will again be without the injured N’Golo Kante, still recovering from a groin strain, and Ross Barkley, who has an ankle problem.
Probable Chelsea team to face Burnley (4-3-3): Arrizabalaga; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Tomori, Alonso; Kovacic, Jorginho, Mount; Willian, Abraham, Hudson-Odoi.