Frank Lampard says Chelsea’s recent poor results reflects “the reality” of where the club is and it will take time to turn things around.
New owner Todd Boehly has spent £600m on new players this season, only for performances to get worse.
Lampard has lost all his six games in charge, with the midweek defeat at Arsenal leaving them on course for their lowest finish since 1996.
“We need to take small steps, fans might not want to hear that,” he said.
Lampard, 44, reiterated that his players do care after they were accused of lacking effort during their defeat at the Emirates, which saw them go 3-0 down within 34 minutes.
“Firstly to be clear, I know they do [care]. They do care, they all have their reasons to care,” he added.
Lampard, who succeeded Graham Potter on 6 April, has now lost 10 successive Premier League matches including his final four games in charge of Everton before he was sacked in January.
The record in a single Premier League is the 11 matches lost by Daniel Farke at Norwich in 2019-20.
Chelsea have won just four of their 23 matches in 2023, failing to score in 13 of those matches, and could drop to 14th this weekend if results don’t go their way.
“There’s a reality of the club of where it’s at,” added the former England midfielder. “It’s not my job to think about stats that have been produced from the outside.
“That’s commonplace in football, you can make any stat be in the moment. As a coach and a player the biggest thing is your next game or step.
“I think everybody understands the difficulty of the situation I have come into. I understood it coming in, especially in those first two or three weeks where we played five games, with two against Real Madrid.
“I haven’t had much time to really lay much down. You have to accept that as a consequence of the job. As much as you have your great moments where everything feels easy, you also have your moments where they’re not so.”
Speaking at a conference in the United States on Wednesday, Boehly said he saw his investment as a long-term project.
“There’s a lot we’ve learned about the different markets, the global aspect of it all,” he said. “And the fans are demanding and they want to win. We get that and we want to win.
“Our view though is that this is a long-term project, we’re committed to the long-term and we very much believe we’re going to figure it out.”
Lampard has welcomed Boehly’s comments, adding: “It’s a good thing to speak positively, there are good intentions.
“I’m working with the squad to try turn this run around. Other than that it’s for the owners of the club to get those bigger decisions.”
