ING A FAST ONE
Chris can match Prem elite
FRANK LAMPARD is challenging Christian Pulisic to shoot for the stars.
Not any old stars either because the Chelsea manager is talking mega superstars – Raheem Sterling, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. Yes, that is how highly the Blues’ USA winger is rated by Lamps.
He waxed lyrical on the lightning, dazzling skills of Pulisic after his superb solo strike in Thursday’s 2-1 league win over Manchester City which kept Chelsea’s top-four charge very much alive.
But the Stamford Bridge boss also urged caution.
He thinks Pulisic, 21, is pure quality already and how far he can go in the game depends on how badly he wants it and how much self-belief he has to fulfil his ambitions.
Lamps’ order to the ex-Borussia Dortmund playmaker is to target the very top.
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And that’s why he name-checked arguably the three most dangerous wide players in the Premier League.
Asked if his form since the campaign resumed is evidence that £54million Pulisic is beginning to deliver, the Stamford Bridge chief could scarcely have been more complimentary. Lampard, whose side travel to Leicester in the FA Cup quarter-finals today, said: “Christian can be a really good player – we can see that. “Because he broke through at such a young age in Germany and then gets a big move to us, people’s expectations rise. So we do have to take his age into consideration. But there’s no doubting his quality.
“If he wants to learn – and he does – then it’s how he sees the game and looks at players around him,who have made that sort of jump.
“He has the ability of the Sterlings, Salahs and Manes who are now producing numbers from wide areas.
“It’s important he understands what is needed to do that because he certainly has the talent to do it. He needs to try to get to that sort of level.”
Of course, few in the game can claim to have surpassed expectations of him as a youngster than Lampard himself.
When emerging at West Ham, nobody envisaged he might one day go on to become Chelsea’s highest-ever goalscorer – from midfield – while winning everything in sight. Commitment and dedication are two words which best summed up Lampard the player – and so far the signs are good for Pulisic, who has seven goals in 18 league outings for the Blues.
Ex-England ace Lamps added: “He’s very keen to improve. He works hard. “I’m delighted to have him. Now he has to set his sights as high as possible.”
Whether Pulisic faces the Foxes in the Cup remains to be seen.
But, rest assured, Lampard wants to bag a trophy in his first season at the helm.
The four-time FA Cup winner said: “We’re in a year of slight transition but when it comes to Chelsea you want to win.
“And when you get to the quarterfinals, you want to get to Wembley.
“We’re building and we’re working. It won’t be easy, but with our squad and positive feeling we have at the moment, we must go with the right intention.”