Christian Pulisic will need to go the extra mile in order to win a place in the Chelsea side, according to Stewart Robson.
The American has been overlooked by Blues boss Frank Lampard and the return to fitness of Callum Hudson-Odoi has nudged him further down the pecking order.
And while the likes of Hudson-Odoi and Mason Mount are grabbing the headlines, Pulisic is struggling to establish himself.
Former Arsenal and West Ham midfielder Robson therefore believes Pulisic has to do all he can to prove to Lampard he is worth selecting.
“Every day he goes into training, he’s got to be better than those two,” Robson told ESPN FC, as reported by the Daily Star.
“When those two players, Hudson-Odoi and Mason Mount, have worked hard on the Saturday and they’ve played a full game and then they come in on Monday and they can’t quite work at full pace, that’s when Pulisic has got to take the opportunity.
“He’s got to play better than them in training, he’s got to run harder, he’s got to go past people with the ball, he’s got to make things happen and then have a little look over to Frank Lampard and say ‘I’m ready’.
“He’s got to do that week in, week out, day in, day out to prove he’s as good if not better than those players we are talking about.
“He’s a young player, yes, but he’s got to prove that he’s better than those two players that Frank Lampard at the moment is preferring.”
Lampard has insisted that Pulisic is very much part of his plans despite finding himself on the fringes during the early part of the season.
Lampard said at a press conference last month: “We have got a squad. We have wingers to choose from with the way we are playing, but he is well in the plans.”