Tim Sherwood has urged Chelsea to sign a ‘little magician’ during the January transfer window to replace Eden Hazard.
Chelsea enjoyed a bright start to the season under new manager and club legend Frank Lampard but have struggled recently, losing four of their last five Premier League games.
Saturday’s shock defeat to injury-ravaged Bournemouth allowed fifth-placed Tottenham to move to within three points of Chelsea ahead of next weekend’s London derby.
Sherwood admits Lampard is now facing a ‘test of his managerial credentials’ and says Chelsea should enter the transfer market in January to replace Hazard.
Belgian forward Hazard left Chelsea last summer, securing a dream move to Real Madrid for a fee of over £100million.
‘I think Lampard is very honest with his appraisal of the game,’ Sherwood told Premier League Productions. ‘He doesn’t try to hide behind any stats or anything.
‘He knows his team should be beating the teams they’re losing against. They’ve lost four of the last five. It’s easy this job when you’re winning every week.
‘But it’s when the results start going the other way and people start asking questions of you in the media and from upstairs by the hierarchy, because they certainly will be.
‘He’s not getting a complete free ride here Frank. There will be objectives and that will be to finish in the top four.
‘Now he’s looking like he’s holding onto that, they’re three points clear of Tottenham now, massive game next weekend.
‘They’re asking questions now so Frank, I sense a wee bit of self-preservation there in his interviews. We’ve all done it, I was a master of that.
‘And listen, he needs to put it right. Now’s the test of your managerial credentials.
‘When things start going wrong at a big club, everyone’s looking at the back of your head in that technical area and saying: “Do something, what you going to do now? Let’s see it.”
‘I think they will go into the transfer market now, I think they need to find a little magician like Eden Hazard.’
On Sunday, Chelsea visit Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham, who have won four of their last five Premier League matches.
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