Frank Lampard described himself as having a ‘great problem’ after beating Sevilla 4-0 in the Champions League last night.
He has a very large squad and ridiculous strength in-depth, which showed last night with the comfortable win in Spain.
Chelsea insider reveals all the January and summer transfer information you need to hear – Full story HERE.
Lampard rested a number of his key regular starters in favour of the fringe players, and they all did a decent job to show the Blues boss that they’re ready to step up when needed.
The Blues boss was very pleased with his group, as reported by the Chelsea website.
He said:
“I loved all those parts of us at the top end of the pitch, having made nine changes in a game, because as I said players are deserving to play, because I see them training well. Some players can get their heads down if they’re not playing lots of minutes and that’s always a worry when you make that level of changes.
“But the focus and concentration of the team, in the moments you suffer which you always will do against a team like this. In the first half we dealt with things, we defended well, we were organised and some of our play was great. Whether it was our comfort on the ball or whether it was our counter-attacking at pace to cause a threat to them, there were so many big pluses from tonight and we need to continue with that.
“That’s what you ask for I suppose when you make nine changes. I always say when I pick the team I try and pick the best team for the game and not to have favourites as such. You try and put the best team on paper.
“When players play as they did today they give you a great problem. It’s not a problem, that’s the wrong way to describe it, it’s just having a top player playing with quality, playing with dedication.”
Lampard is trying not to get too carried away with his how his team is performing, but after some fine form in the league in recent matches and now winning their Champions League group, the clear progress cannot be ignored.
He says he is pleased with the growing confidence that his team is showing and believes they can take on any opponent put in front of them.
Lampard continued:
“I’m pleased with where we’re at. The levels will obviously go up in the next stage, which we’ve thankfully qualified for and we’ve topped the group at this early stage. So that’s great for our confidence but the levels will go up, the competition goes up, we found that out last year.
“But we’re in a different place now. We are improving. I felt that and I’ll never be one to get carried away, but I knew at the start of the season, with the new players having some time to bed in, the younger players to mature. We’re seeing that in the younger players, the maturity of their levels.
“The young players are reacting to competition and experienced players are affecting things and reacting to competition. Look at Oli today, but you could look around at other performances within that team, with Jorginho, Rudiger, Azpilicueta and others.
“We have to keep improving because at this stage now things will get tougher game by game as we go through. What I’m pleased with is we are in a position where we are gaining confidence so that we feel we can take on any opponent. That’s the progression that we’re in, today was another step for us.”
Chelsea face Leeds United on Saturday night and they will be looking to continue this great momentum.
