Frank Lampard makes plea to Andre Villas-Boas to keep place in Chelsea team

Posted Thursday, January 05, 2012 by YAHOO Sport

Frank Lampard has called on Andre Villas-Boas to let him become a first-team regular at Chelsea and believes the "spine of the team" put together over the last few years should be kept intact.

Lampard has had the unusual experience of finding himself on the substitute’s bench this season and started just three of the last six matches.

But despite this he has nine goals, the second highest tally at the club behind Daniel Sturridge.

Lampard popped up late on Monday against Wolves to score the winning goal and after the match he reminded his manager of his desire to get regular 90 minutes, saying he is at his best when he is a mainstay in the team.

“The boss is the boss. He picks the team,” he told reporters. “I’m very committed to this club. I’ll always stay completely behind the cause of Chelsea because that’s me now. Chelsea’s my club.

“The thing for me is that it’s much easier for me, when I’m starting games and playing regular matches and 90 minutes, to get into the rhythm I’ve found since I’ve been here. That’s what I love doing and, personally, I think that’s when I’m at my best.

“I don’t know if you’d say that Wolves was a case of some of the older heads taking charge. In terms of the game, I hope I did. But we need those big players, like John Terry. The spine of the team is what’s made us what we are over the past seven years. I think that’s important, whether [or not] we’re changing the team.

“Of course, I understand that things change with time. But what we’re about is that spine, to an extent. So it’s nice to see big players who’ve been there a long time producing the goods.

“The team spirit’s okay. I just think that when you’re losing games it’s the first thing people look at. That takes the big players in the dressing room and everyone collectively to stand up and make a difference.

“That has to be there. It’s something we’ve prided ourselves on at Chelsea for many years, it won us a lot of things. It’s something we can’t lose. If you do lose that, you can’t be at the top.”

The win at Wolves moved Chelsea back into fourth place above Arsenal in the Premier League but it is still 11 points behind top of the table Manchester City.

Having becoming accustomed to challenging for the title it is an unusual position for Chelsea to find themselves in and Lampard insists that finishing outside of the Champions League positions is unthinkable.

“The fact that we weren’t in the top four on New Year’s Day has to drive the players on,” he said. “I get the hump looking at the table and seeing we’re not fighting within a point or two of the lead - never mind being in that situation. We all have to have the hump with that and make sure we react.

“The players in this squad need to be fighting for the league and now there’s a big gap.

“But you have to have that mindset, because the minute you lose that mentality, that’s the minute you become a top four team as opposed to a team that’s challenging for the title. If we think, ‘Okay, let’s just fight for fourth’, that’s too big a change for this club. We won’t be the Chelsea that we’ve been.

“Finishing in a Champions League spot has to be the bare minimum, of course. It’s been a given for the last seven or eight years, when we’ve also been fighting for titles. There’s no way we can drop that standard - that has to stay at the club.

“That’s what we’re used to, but there’s another six or seven teams saying that these days. The only way you get there is with good performances.”

On whether Chelsea could fight its way back into the title race, Lampard added: “I don’t know if we can get back into it. I hate to write it off but if you are being realistic it would be a very big feat to do it.

“It seems a long way but seeing the results that have happened over the past few days you have to be aware that it can happen.

“But last year we were a long way away but we came back to [be] within three games of winning the league when we lost to United [in what was effectively a title-decider in May]. You have to keep that mindset.

“The brutal fact is that we haven’t been at our best since the renaissance - beating Valencia and Manchester City, good performances against top teams.

“Then we dropped our standards again. It’s a mixture of things, once you lose little bits and get a couple of bad results, trying to turn that corner becomes even harder.

“Sometimes it takes a result like Wolves but we must carry on from here and keep that winning mentality, that fight and that desire.”