And the manager feels the Premier League should follow Uefa’s lead in allowing referees to review contentious incidents on pitchside monitors, after another weekend of confusion over VAR, with Lampard sympathetic to Tottenham striker Heung Min Son, who was sent off in Tottenham’s draw at Everton on Sunday.

He was also unhappy about a penalty awarded against Chelsea at Watford, when referee Anthony Taylor’s original decision was overturned by VAR.

Lampard was asked yesterday if he feels VAR is undermining referees and said: “I think so and I think that’s the worst of both worlds.

On Saturday, Anthony made the right decision because there wasn’t enough contact for it to be a penalty and then it was overturned by VAR so the right decision is made into a wrong decision.

“That’s happened too much. The thing I will give the referees is that it is still new and we are still relying on humans, so we must work with them a bit. We must work for improvement because we all want better.

“I think the use of the screen on the side of the pitch can be a help because we’ve seen this weekend in the Premier League decisions that have taken a long time to get to, which seems to bring in the fact there’s an element of doubt.

"So for the clarity of the referee on the pitch who has to see things live and make quick decisions, I think the idea he can go and look again has to be a good one.

My understanding was that it was going to be used sparingly, but it hasn’t been used sparingly, it’s not been used at all. That’s one thing we could look at.

While admitting he does not have enough experience of the use of pitchside monitors or VAR in the Champions League, he added: “It just feels in the Premier League there are things that aren’t right with it. I think that’s pretty much universally agreed at this point and I don’t think it’s for the want of trying or anyone having the wrong aims.

"We all want a better game and the right decision. But at the minute we’re not quite getting that.”

Son was dismissed at Everton after a non-malicious but clumsy challenge knocked Andre Gomes off balance, and when the Portuguese midfielder caught his studs in the Goodison Park turf, he suffered an horrific ankle injury.

“I felt very sorry for Son. He took a red card but there is no way the force of his tackle affected the injury. That’s something that is horrendous and can happen occasionally, so I felt sorry for both players.”

Lampard believes it is time for a full and frank discussion on the merits of VAR.

I would work with it at the moment and see where we can improve. It needs to be a really open conversation, referees, managers fans, whatever. I know there are so many opinions, it’s not easy.

It should be easier, however, for his young Chelsea side to progress to the next stage of the Champions League after their recent run of nine wins in the past ten games, since losing their opening Group H game at home to Valencia.

“I wouldn’t like to say that until that foot is officially in the next round. I said at the start that this group would be tight because all the teams could take points off each other, which has proved to be correct. But we’ve had two good results and another one would be great for us with two games left.”

Ajax are not the same team that beat Juventus and Real Madrid last season before losing in the semi-final to Tottenham. Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Kasper Dolberg were sold for a combined €190m in the summer, and Chelsea beat them 1-0 in the Netherlands last month. But Chelsea have yet to win at home in the competition and Lampard says the Dutch are dangerous on the road.

“We must understand that even though we are at home now, the quality and the danger from Ajax is as much if not more than the game we played away because they are such a good technical team.”

N’Golo Kante is back in contention after recovering from a groin injury, but it is the form of another midfielder, Mason Mount, that pleases Lampard most.

The youngster spent a season on loan in Dutch football with Vitesse Arnhem before another loan spell at Derby under Lampard last season. This year he has broken into the Chelsea and England teams, and Lampard said: “I’m really proud of him.

“After his loan spell in Holland and then with me in the Championship, I saw first hand his quality and also his character. He has exceeded my expectations this season.

"I thought he’d get minutes and be good for us, but I didn’t realise to quite what level he would produce as he has done. So that’s a great story, and the next story is his, it’s up to him. I believe in him. He has to keep working to improve all the time. Hopefully he will get even better.”