Chelsea manager Frank Lampard was blessed with a number of top quality summer signings to add to his squad this season.
The new Chelsea squad has a real feel of being something very special when they start firing on all cylinders and fully gel together.
Lampard knows the sheer quality that he has on his hands, and now it is about getting the best out of them all as a group.
His first addition this summer was Hakim Ziyech from Ajax, and the Blues boss has been singing his praises publicly this week.
The 27-year old came in as a very experienced player having played at the very top in the Champions League, and he brings a lot more to the table than just his quality on the pitch – which he has plenty of.
Lampard has been enjoying the personality of Ziyech around the camp as well, and believes he can be a really good influence to the rest of the group.
As reported by Goal, Lampard said:
“I really like him as a personality.
“I had conversations with him very early when we signed him and was struck by his confidence. There is an inner confidence which I love. We needed that.
“We need players with confidence and personality who believe they should be here and want to offer something. He has been an absolute dream to work with.
“Sometimes you see the best of players when they are injured because he was so excited to come here and hit the ground running and got his injury in pre-season and his work ethic in the gym, interaction with the physios, desire to get fit and to form relationships in the group, he has made himself at home and felt at home in a short space of time.
“I think he is going to be a big plus for us on the pitch and in and around the pitch I can see it already in the way he has trained and the confidence in the way he has trained with.
“People always think that personality is just about getting a foot in, shouting and fighting to the end. Of course, you require that in football, but sometimes personality is receiving the ball in tight areas when others don’t want to and taking the confidence to keep getting it and make things happen even if you try a pass that has not got there.
“He’s not necessarily a winger who is going to fly past players all the time, albeit that is in his game. He can find a pass and sometimes last season I felt we lacked that when we were playing against low-block defences.
“We saw a bit of his quality and personality against Krasnodar. The idea of receiving the ball and turning, facing forward and finding that pass before teams are set, that is what I’m excited about to see from Hakim.
“We had Pedro last season and [Willian] was a huge player. The year before that we had Eden Hazard. Those sort of players don’t get replaced on a whim.
“With Hakim, we had the potential to bring in someone with real different qualities to what we’ve had in recent years in terms of a left-footed, right-sided player which was his main position at Ajax although I know he played in a No.10 and he can definitely do that for us if we want to play a No.10.”
