Frank Lampard says a lack of time to train with his squad could be behind the lack of consistency in Chelsea's performances.
The Blues go into Tuesday's Champions League game at home to Sevilla off the back of a 3-3 Premier League draw with Southampton.
It was the second 3-3 draw of their season, with the club only keeping one clean sheet in the league to date.
Lampard dismissed the theory that he is an attack-minded manager, and that that may have led to his side being so free-wheeling, adding, "We're working hard defensively and we're always trying to improve on that.
"This season we've had the second-fewest shots on our goals behind Man City, but we have an issue where we're conceding too many goals from the chances that we do allow.
The main thing particularly for ourselves is that there has been a lack of preparation which if you're working with new players or small changes, that takes time. And hopefully that will keep improving now.
"Maybe there's an element of that for everybody, without the fans, but we have to worry about ourselves and we have to change it ourselves."
To the manager's point, Chelsea had four games in ten days prior to the international break, and Tuesday night's meeting with the Europa League winners will be the second game of five in the span of a fortnight.
Lampard was asked at what point he'd be happy with the amount of time he has to prepare his side, replying, "I'm not sure whenever you would say you're satisfied with anything in this sport, in this game of football, you're always searching for improvements.
"So there's never going to be a line where I draw and go, 'there you are, we're happy with that', because that would be the start of the downfall.
"In terms of how I communicate with the players, there's no way I talk about anything but the need to work and improve daily, so every training session, every meeting we have, to get better. And those are the rules of football.
"The clear fact is here where you normally have one month or so of pre-season and we haven't had that.
"Nor have other teams, and maybe that's a factor in the results we're seeing, but we have to concern ourselves least with that.
"There's nothing given to you in the Premier League or the Champions League, and all we have to do is carry on working to get relationships around the pitch, get players fit, which has obviously been an issue for us, and stay calm, keep working."
