Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is worried about the lack of leadership being shown inside his squad.

Conte lost John Terry to Aston Villa over the summer, while Nemanja Matic defected to Manchester United.

The Times says the Italian chief is concerned no-one at the Blues has the ability to run the team on the pitch after their humbling in Rome.

Along with Terry and Matic, Conte has also lost Diego Costa and and Branislav Ivanovic over the past year.

The oldest two players at the club are goalkeepers Willy Caballero and Eduardo - both of whom hardly feature.

Centre-back pairing Gary Cahill and David Luiz are the next eldest - at 31 and 30 respectively - but both lack experience in leading teams on the field.

Conte warned his paymasters of his concerns over the summer.

“We need time to work, to improve. I thought this season would be difficult, we lost a lot of strong players that built a strong base," he said.

“John Terry, John Obi Mikel, Branislav Ivanovic — and now we need to find the right way to build. We must have patience to build for the future.

“Last season we started to build this foundation and we won, so it means we built something.

“But now it's not enough, we have to improve, to extend this base, work together with new players."