Lampard unimpressed with Chelsea squad and urges Conte to strengthen urgently

Posted Monday, August 07, 2017 by squawka.com

Chelsea's all-time leading goalscorer Frank Lampard has criticised the strength of the club's current squad and called for Antonio Conte to make urgent additions.

The former England international was speaking after watching Arsenal beat the Blues, courtesy of a penalty shootout, to lift the 2017/18 Community Shield at Wembley Stadium.

The former Chelsea midfielder was particularly concerned by Nemanja Matic's recent sale to Manchester United considering the role he played in the Blues' emphatic title triumph last season, and even went as far to say Conte has "half" a squad at his disposal compared to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.

"You look at the two teams there, and Chelsea have got almost half of what the Arsenal squad is," Lampard said on BT Sport's coverage.

"If we're talking about quality, I still think Chelsea have that quality, but when Conte was at Juventus he used to do the same thing in the summer. He used to push the club to buy more players to move forward.

"I think he's concerned as he's going to lose [Diego] Costa, they've lost [Nemanja] Matic. They've brought players in but I think he wants more because now they're going to be fighting on the Champions League front.

"It was a strange one [to see Matic go to United]. He was such a huge part of Chelsea's play last year alongside Kante at the base. He let the wing-backs fly on and he allowed Pedro and Willian freedom to go forward."

Chelsea have signed Alvaro Morata, Tiemou Bakayoko, Antonio Rudiger and Willy Cabellero already this summer, and continue to be linked with Juventus defender Alex Sandro.