Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has admitted he spoke to his players about utilising Ben Chilwell’s qualities at left-back more before the game against Burnley.
The Blues ended up putting in a fine performance and winning 3-0 at Turf Moor, with Lampard pleased with how his full-backs, Chilwell and Reece James, performed at both ends of the pitch.
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Full-backs are an increasingly important part of the modern game, with Liverpool a prime example as both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson are often the team’s main creative outlets.
Chilwell impressed at Leicester City before his move to Chelsea and has shown he can hack it at a big club too, with Lampard praising the England international after yesterday’s game.
As well as acknowledging his qualities to the press, Lampard also suggested that using the player better was also a key part of his game-plan ahead of this weekend’s Premier League clash.
“An important part of how I want us to play is involving our full-backs in an offensive sense and I’m not taking anything away from him defensively,” Lampard said, as quoted by the Metro.
“I thought him and Reece today perfectly found their moments to get involved and join in in high areas of the pitch, perfectly covered their positions to get ready for second balls with what was coming at us today.
“Part of the reason for bringing Chilly to the club was to bring that. He covers a lot of high intensity, distance in games, where he’s joining high up the pitch.
“We haven’t utilised it enough in our last two or three performances, I’ve got to say. It’s something we spoke about a lot yesterday and I worked on that with the team and we saw a little bit of that today.”