Chelsea boss Frank Lampard spoke at a press conference on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s game against Burnley. Here are three key things we learned.
Thiago Silva is ready to return
“Taking him out of the Russia trip was a maintenance issue for him, rather than him having any problems. Thiago is fit.
“In this schedule, where we have game after game after game, it made sense for Thiago to sit out.
“I spoke with Thiago and if he had to have played, of course he could have. But we want to manage Thiago slightly differently because of the circumstances.
“He has ambitions to keep playing for a good couple of years and rightly so the way he looks and condition he is in.
“It proved to be a good exercise because we won the game and Toni Rudiger came in and did very well. We need competition for places and we’ve certainly got that.”
Lampard wants 5-subs rule back
“I think the ball was firmly dropped when clubs turned away from having five subs. We’re clearly in the most unprecedented times. The demands on players are huge,
“I’m not just talking about my club, I’m talking about every football player who is asked to play day after day putting themselves at injury risk.
“It’s changed the landscape so we’ll try and manage it as well as we can.
“We’re fortunate in the way that we have a big squad here, but at the same time, we want to do the best, the pressure is on the players who want to get the right results.
“And it could certainly have a big effect this year more than any other year.”
And he rejects claim, made by RB Salzburg assistant manager Jesse Marsch, that he didn’t rate Christian Pulisic
“I was surprised by the comments and that Jesse managed to read my mind as well as he thought he did,” he said at a press conference.
“Jesse came up to me and said what a talented player Christian was which I know and I agreed with, and I spoke about the fact it was exciting to see how he can develop for us with the talent that he has.
“That was the conversation, Jesse managed to put it across slightly differently.”