Lampard: We must fix goal drought as a group
Frank Lampard never had to worry too much about goals during his time as a Chelsea player, but as the club’s head coach there are already signs they might be an issue.
This is not a problem of Lampard’s making as Chelsea were the lowest scorers in the Premier League’s top six last season and Eden Hazard, their most prolific player, was sold before he succeeded Maurizio Sarri. Add the transfer ban and injuries to Ruben Loftus-cheek, who was Chelsea’s third-highest scorer in the league with six goals, and Callum Hudsonodoi, and Lampard has started this season short on firepower.
Lampard saw his team start encouragingly at Manchester United and react well to going behind, only to lose 4-0. And Chelsea’s record scorer believes his team should have been out of sight before Leicester City equalised last weekend. Ahead of today’s trip to newly promoted Norwich City, only Mason Mount has scored in the league so far, with Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham yet to grasp the chance of becoming Lampard’s first-choice striker.
Michy Batshuayi, who was not among the substitutes at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge, staked his claim with two goals for Chelsea under-23s in midweek.
But Lampard recognises that Chelsea’s best hope of replacing Hazard’s goals and trying to keep up with their rivals will be to share them around, rather than hoping for one man to come to the fore. “We will have to find it [the goals] among the group,” said Lampard, who is sweating on the fitness of midfielder N’golo Kante, the victim of a sprained ankle.
“I know the stats and I know how many goals Eden Hazard was part of in terms of scoring and assisting. So they are facts and ones we have to try to address with work, which means can we score goals from other areas of the pitch? Can we be more clinical up front? “The challenge is clear for the strikers and the attacking players. Can you be the players to score those goals? The top teams in the league tend to have players who are scoring regularly, who do win games that are tight, who do score enough goals to put the game to bed. And that’s a challenge for us, because it’s something we aren’t doing and we need to do.”