Frank Lampard today called on Chelsea's players to show strength of character and unite around new manager Guus Hiddink.

The Dutchman was due to meet the squad for the first time today amid reports of divisions in the ranks which contributed to the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari.

A number of the club's foreign players were said to be unhappy with the Brazilian's coaching methods but it was not a view shared by most of the English contingent.

While Lampard refused to confirm or deny there had been a split in the dressing room over Scolari, he insisted the players need to improve their individual performances to turn around Chelsea's faltering Premier League campaign.

Lampard, who played in England's 2-0 defeat in Spain last night, said: "Everyone is talking about uniting dressing rooms - but the players just need to perform. We have to worry about our own performances. That will make the manager's job easy.

"If you start looking for problems in a dressing room, you'll find them. If you just worry about yourself and your own performance, you can hold your head up high every day.

"I can't worry about everyone else and what's going on in their head. I know I play with a lot of top players who want to win things and it's hurting us that we are not right at the top of the Premier League at the moment.

"But every player and club has to go through little ups and downs in their career. The strong ones come through it."

Lampard is confident, however, the arrival of Hiddink can kickstart their challenge for silverware this season.

The Blues, who are fourth in the League, take on Watford in the FA Cup on Saturday and later this month play Juventus in the Champions League.

Lampard added: "Hopefully, Hiddink can bring us some glory this season. We're still in the League and if we can get back to winning games regularly then who knows what can happen.

"It's important we don't drop our heads in any shape or form.

"We have a very difficult FA Cup tie at the weekend against Watford and huge games against Juventus in the Champions League.

"If we win those games the confidence will be there and we can go on to do what we want to do. You don't become a bad team overnight.

"Hiddink is a top name and technically he makes teams play very well.

"It's not ideal, we'd all love to stick with the same manager and have success for many years. But that's not football.

"We're fortunate enough we've got an owner and a club that has come in and given us all our dreams at Chelsea. So I don't think you can complain too much and you've just got to keep going."

Hiddink, who has agreed to take charge for the rest of the season while still fulfilling his role as Russia coach, is determined to restore order to the club as quickly as possible.

The Dutchman has already pledged to talk to Scolari to get his feedback on what went wrong and any guidance on cliques.

The 62-year-old famously turned Holland's fortunes around during his time as coach between 1995-98 having arrived with things in a similar state of disarray.

He did it with a strict code of conduct, which he is thinking of using again at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking of his time in charge of Holland in 2007, he explained: "I made some principles and the players had to decide if they could cope with it, yes or no. If it was yes, then they were welcome to be in the national team, but if it was no, it was please stay away and I won't select you.

"These rules regarded their behaviour, the way of playing and how to conduct yourself when you're substituted, for example.

"From then on the Dutch team was strict and disciplined and people saw that at the World Cup in 1998 when we got to the semi-finals. It was as a result of those principles."

Chelsea defender Alex has seen Hiddink's man-management skills in action, having won two Championship medals under him when he was at PSV Eindhoven.

Alex is delighted to be reunited with the coach and said: "He is a good manager and a fantastic man. I think he would play a very similar system here to what we have seen. When I was at PSV it was a 4-3-3 system and we had some very exciting times there."