Chelsea legend Frank Lampard believes changes need to be made at Stamford Bridge if the Blues are to recover their disastrous 2015-16 season.

The defending Premier League champions fell to their ninth defeat of the term at Leicester City on Monday and they now sit in 16th place, just a point above the relegation zone.

Lampard is unsure whether Jose Mourinho will be relieved of his position as manager following Chelsea’s latest humbling, but he is adamant that something has to change, per Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football (via ESPN FC’s Liam Twomey):

Chelsea, in a bad year, should be top six, still there or thereabouts. Where they are at the moment is impossible. I don’t know whether [Mourinho]’s lost them but something has to change right now, whether it’s the attitude or the performance. 

That’s only one man’s decision [to change the manager], and that will be Roman Abramovich. He’s probably looking at it very closely. 

We’ve been here before at Chelsea where managers change in the middle of the season. I don’t know how many times you can do that. We had some good results from doing it before but we had a different set of players at that point.

A two-time Premier League winner under Mourinho at Chelsea, Lampard, 37, ruled out any possibility of Chelsea finishing in the top six this season, but he indicated that a rash change in manager may not be beneficial in the long term.

However, the relationship between Mourinho and his players seems to be souring further after the Portuguese admitted to feeling “betrayed” by Monday’s performance in which Chelsea lost 2-1 to the league-leading Foxes, per the Times‘ Oliver Kay:

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, also speaking on Monday Night Football, said either the manger needs to go or sweeping squad changes have to be made if Chelsea are to get back on track, via MailOnline’s Matt Morlidge:

There’s obviously a big divide between the players and the manager and it’s up to Roman Abramovich. Whose side does he pick? They can’t come back together now and make Chelsea a great team and win things. I’d be very, very surprised if that happens next season. Either the manager won’t be there, or they’ll have to completely change the players because I don’t think there’s any way these players and manager can work together for a long period of time.

Any chance of the west London outfit finishing the season in the top four is seemingly now gone—Bleacher Report’s Sam Tighe believed as much even before Monday’s defeat:

Therefore, unless the Blues can win this season’s Champions League, they are likely to spend at least a term absent from Europe’s premier club competition.

The Europa League may also be out of reach for them now, and this could play into Mourinho’s hands.

Given a season to focus only on domestic competition, the former Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss could have the time and space to return Chelsea to the top of the Premier League again.

Major changes will need to be made and Mourinho does not have a history of staying in the same role for a long time, but he could yet turn things around at Chelsea if given time.

While Blues owner Abramovich has not been historically patient with under-performing managers, Mourinho’s contract until 2019 may prevent the Russian from swinging the axe just yet.

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