• Premier League

Mourinho needs to be given time - Lampard

Frank Lampard believes manager Jose Mourinho will need "two or three months" to bed down his ideas and get Chelsea playing he kind of football he is eager to promote.

A much improved second half performance in the 1-1 draw against Tottenham on Saturday sends Chelsea into Tuesday night's Champions League game against Steaua Bucharest in buoyant mood, but Lampard suggests the Blues are not yet firing on all cylinders under Mourinho.

"It can take two to three months to develop, for players to follow a new manager's idea," Lampard said. "It might be a matter of time in certain areas, but I certainly believe in the squad that we can do big things. It's easy to talk about it, but we actually have to do it, starting from now.

"I really believe in the squad we have and the young players we've got. Now it's important that we take the manager's ideas on board. I have a lot of respect for him and I know he's a winner, he's shown that not just at Chelsea, and I think we need to bring that all together."

Mourinho has stated his side face a second successive season of early elimination from the Champions League if they lose in Romania, with Lampard confident the experience Chelsea gained when they played Steaua Bucharest in the Europa League last season will stand them in good stead on Tuesday night.

"I think our group is quite tough, it's a group where people might have looked at in the beginning and thought it was relatively easy for Chelsea, but when you have a group where there's a good level and no one team stands out as being very weak you have to prepare for all the games professionally," Lampard said.

"We're well aware Steaua are a strong team and if we just turn up and think we're Chelsea, we're going to come and play and win the game easily, it's not going to happen, but that's down to us.

"We're lucky we played Steaua Bucharest last season because it makes us fully aware of the good team that they are and particularly the atmosphere we're going to get tomorrow.

"Last year, in the first half we were slow and we weren't ready and we lost the game in the first half. Considering the position we're in now, and we need a result tomorrow, we have to start the game at a top level."

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