Chelsea boss Frank Lampard spoke at a press conference on Tuesday ahead of the Champions League game against Rennes. Here are three things we learned.
Christian Pulisic’ injury is not serious
“He had a scan and it’s shown a very minor injury to his hamstring – very minor.
“He’s already back outside (training). He won’t be fit for tomorrow and we’ll see after that.
“It’s obviously a relief that the injury is on the small side. Christian made the right decision not to play (at Burnley). That could have made it worse.
“It’s clearly a relief that hopefully we’ll have him back very soon.”
Edouard Mendy has been great off, as well as on, the pitch
“When we were in to sign him, all the feedback was that he had a great personality – a strong personality in the dressing room. Everything that I heard, all those positives, came true.
“He’s very low maintenance, works hard and is eager to engage with his team-mates and myself, has a smile on his face and has played well.
“When I say low maintenance, he’s a player that has a massive work-ethic to train and push himself every day.
“A lot of that is feedback I get from the coaches – and I’ve had that feedback with the other goalkeepers too.
“He’s shown that work-ethic, smiles every day, is not asking a million questions but he’s asking enough questions which are really relevant – little things like his relationship with players on the pitch, which I love.
“I really enjoy that positive side of the engagement. And he hasn’t knocked on my door much.”
“It’s a real positive when you have a player that comes in and hits the ground running on the pitch but is also a real positive in the dressing room – and he’s been that.”
Lampard will be ‘up front’ with Thiago Silva
“Particularly when you have an experienced player who’s such a great professional as Thiago is, that honest conversation is very easy.
“If it means managing training or means managing game time, which we did last week, I’ll be very up-front and honest with him in terms of what I think and what he thinks.
“At the back end of my career I had to change my training programme, so I’ll be very open to the small tweaks with Thiago.”