Frank Lampard has blamed Andre Villas-Boas's Chelsea sacking on the Portuguese spending too much time thinking about the future.

Blues owner Roman Abramovich, who had put Villas-Boas in charge of freshening up the Stamford Bridge squad, then sacked him after poor results and rumours that he had fallen out with some of the club's experienced players.

33-year-old Lampard, one of the players which Villas-Boas was said to have had major disagreements with, thinks that his former boss spent too long planning for the future and lost grip on the present.

"His plan was long-term. But somewhere in the middle of that, the present didn't go so well and that's where the problems came.

"To be fair to AVB, that was part of the remit and I get that we need to move on and change. But you can't lose sight of the present.

"I wasn't disrespectful. I just told him I thought I should be playing. The fact we might not have seen eye to eye was irrelevant to me."

Chelsea, who have won all three matches since changing their manager, play Leicester City in the FA Cup later today.