Chelsea hero Joe Cole defended manager Mauricio Pochettino after their defeat at home to Brentford.

The Blues lost 2-0, with Cole leveling blame at the owners.

"I actually feel quite sorry for Mauricio Pochettino. I felt sorry for Frank [Lampard], I felt sorry for [Graham] Potter and Thomas Tuchel because you come to this club as top managers and they came in at an unstable time," Cole told TNT Sports after full-time.

"The new owners, they've come in and been in for a while now and one of their points has been 'we want stability, continuity'. But it's one thing saying it, and another actually achieving it. On the flip side, you're changing managers at strange times, the planning on signing players isn't being explained to the fans, or even the players and the staff so I feel sorry for the coaches.

"Their heads could roll like the three before them. If you're going to have these morals, these points that you live and die by as the Chelsea owner, 'we're going to have continuity', 'we're going to go and buy young players', then you've got to stick with the manager. You can't just write them down on a bit of paper, have them painted on your training ground so you walk past it every day and tell them to the media.

"I don't know the structure, I know there's three or four guys on recruitment, Todd Boehly has taken a back seat after last year, he's never at the stadium anymore. The communication with the fans needs to be better, it's not where it needs to be with the fans.

"When Mauricio came in, I thought he was the perfect person to rebuild this team with. But he'll always be viewed with that Tottenham history, especially with their slow start to the season, because fans are tribal and their instinct is to lash out and they're lashing out at Pochettino.

"Ultimately, he's in there trying his best, the players are trying their best, but there's something in the structure at the club that isn't right yet. There's no point in us coming on here and saying they need to play better - it's down to the people at the top making much better decisions on recruitment, what we are as a club, and living those things - not just saying them and going away.

"This is Chelsea, let's get ourselves on the right path again, make sure we're doing things correctly, explain what's going on to the fans and it'll start to calm down a bit. Then the players will be able to breathe on the pitch easier because they won't be as nervous. Ultimately, those 11 players, 15, 16 whatever it is after your subs, they need to be confident and they need to feel like they're part of something.

"It's got to come from the structure, and I do feel sorry for Mauricio, I do."