John Terry tells his Chelsea players they need to 'liven up'

• 'Champions League a must' says captain Terry
• Chelsea have already played 40 games this season

John Terry has told his Chelsea team-mates to "liven up", insisting rotation was no excuse for their recent malaise.

Terry made his long-awaited first start since returning from injury in Sunday's FA Cup fourth-round tie at Brentford and was far from impressed by another "lacklustre" performance as they narrowly avoided a humiliating giant-killing.

"We need to liven up a bit and realise the importance to the fans and the club. Champions League football is a must next season," he said.

"We saw last season, going to the Champions League final, suffering with all the extra games and stuff like that, we ended up finishing sixth in the League. It's difficult but we have a squad and it's down to the players who come in to rotate and play well."

Sunday was Terry's first start since he suffered a knee injury in November, but it was Chelsea's 40th game already this season.

He added on Chelsea TV: "Even though it's great to be back personally, on a team performance we should be winning the game and now we've made it difficult for ourselves with a replay again.

"We have another game we could do without but we should beat them at the Bridge. I was disappointed because we didn't fight and they wanted it more.

"We're not [winning any trophies at the moment]. It's disappointing going to Swansea and not scoring over two legs of the [Capital One Cup] semi-final. Being so lacklustre, like we were at Brentford.

"Over the two legs against Swansea, at home we did better but going there, I'd rather we'd lost that three or 4-0 and give it a go and we didn't do that."

Meanwhile Terry's manager at Stamford Bridge, Rafael Benítez, admitted on Tuesday he did not think Chelsea would give him any more money to spend before the transfer window closes.

The interim manager confirmed last week he had told the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, that his squad was not strong enough to cope with the unprecedented fixture pile-up facing them this season.

But he appears to have given up hope of being allowed to add to the January signing of Demba Ba before Thursday's transfer deadline.

Asked if he anticipated any movement in the final 48 hours of the window, Benítez said: "I don't think so but my job is to improve my squad and manage the situation we have." Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 hours ago. ~Chelsea Headlines on One News Page [United Kingdom]~
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