Frank Lampard says he’s ‘really pleased’ with Christian Pulisic but believes the Chelsea winger can reach the next level by converting more chances.
Pulisic failed to make impact at the start of the season after arriving from Borussia Dortmund and struggled to nail down a place in Lampard’s first-team.
However, Lampard handed Pulisic a rare start against Burnley at the end of October and the 21-year-old repaid his manager’s faith with a stunning hat-trick at Turf Moor.
Pulisic has not looked back since and is now a regular in Chelsea’s starting XI, but Lampard is still demanding more from the United States international.
Asked how much more he can expect from the attacker, Lampard replied: ‘More, a lot more. I have just mentioned there about conversion of chances.
‘I think he gets himself in so many good positions with his talent and his dribbling ability that I think more goals will be the next stage of that.
I am really pleased with him. I have asked a lot of him.
‘He has played a lot of games recently, back to back, in a new league that we know is very physical for him. I am asking a lot but he has done very well. I expect a lot more.’
Lampard insists the Premier League top-four race is still wide open ahead of Chelsea’s clash with Bournemouth this weekend.
Asked whether Liverpool and Leicester have almost guaranteed their places, Lampard responded: ‘I think Liverpool people would agree with you, but the rest is up for grabs.
‘Huge respect to Leicester with what they have done so far, but there is a long way to go for all of us. With the teams below us as well, there is a lot of work to do.
‘Yeah, we have our eyes on that, I don’t think we were very fancied to do that at the start of the season. It is important that we keep proving people wrong.
‘I think the recent form, I don’t think you can count Man City because we had a very good game with them and it was a close game. But the two games we have lost since have been a nice, I wouldn’t say nice, reminder for us. A timely one that we are nowhere near what we want to become.
‘That was always going to happen and it is how we are going to react.’
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