Chelsea's worst start to a campaign since Roman Abramovich bought the club already sees them languishing outside the top four, and anything other than victory against Wolves on Saturday could mean they end the weekend down in seventh place.
After helping his Bayer Leverkusen side pile on the misery for Chelsea in Wednesday's Champions League clash, Ballack urged Chelsea's senior players to take the lead, saying: "They have to do it. You can't talk about or just criticise the young players. It always has to come from the older more experienced players."
He added: "There are still enough big and experienced players at the club who speak in the dressing room. I'm sure of that. It's not just one player."
Another player whose experience will be crucial is goalkeeper Petr Cech, who was in no doubt where the blame for Chelsea's problems lay.
He told the club's official website, www.chelseafc.com: "The manager is not on the pitch, we are on the pitch and we are making mistakes. He cannot do anything about individual mistakes while he is standing by the bench.
"So the players are to blame and we know it and we try to make things happen and change. It is not easy but we keep going."
Meanwhile, Chelsea have appointed one of London's leading developers to explore the feasibility of building a new stadium at Battersea Power Station.
The club, who still need to buy back the freehold of Stamford Bridge before they can move anywhere, are acting in order to ensure they would not miss out should the location emerge as their most viable option were they to choose to relocate from their current home.
The Blues chose Mike Hussey, chief executive of Almacantar, as their development partner and have hired architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox to draw up plans for the construction of a 55,000-60,000-seater stadium to the south-east of the Grade II-listed power station site.
Source: PA
Source: PA