Frank Lampard was one of the best goal-scoring midfielders in the world during his playing days, there was not many better at arriving in the box perfectly timed to score, and he did it a lot for Chelsea.
The now Chelsea boss had a great finish on him, but it was all about timing his runs to perfection in order to arrive late and un-detected by the opposition.
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Lampard believes that one of his own current Chelsea midfielders has this in his locker, and wants to see him push on and do it a lot more now.
Ironically, it was the man who did it this Saturday and scored the winning goal for his team against Fulham – Mason Mount.
Mount is 22-years old now, and is always looking to improve his game. Lampard has revealed to the Chelsea website that he is training and encouraging Mount to get more goals in his game, just like Lampard did himself.
“It’s a conversation I have a lot with Mason,” he revealed.
“He can get more goals from midfield. I had him at Derby that year but even then there was a feeling between me and him he could get more. I’m always on him about it because it was obviously something big in my game.
“As I have alluded to before, my serious goalscoring at Chelsea came in when I was 25, 26. I’m not trying to measure Mason up against myself, but I understand it’s not easy to get so many regular goals.
“The nous of being involved in general play and getting two or three opportunities for himself will come with development and work.
“He will score a lot more goals. By the time he’s 24, maturing into the prime of his career, I would like to think Mason Mount will be a player in the highest level in all senses and have at least 10 goals, maybe 15, a season in him. The great thing is I know he knows it and he wants it, so it will happen.
“His ideal position is central, and from that central area he gets involved in build-up play a lot. My feeling is he needs to get in the 18-yard box more. There are times when we have the ball wide or outside the box and he can be higher up the pitch. As he gets older it will be very natural for him to understand the moments he can get in there.
“If he keeps doing that, with his quality and smartness, he will get chances and score more goals. To score the type of goal he did [at Fulham] is a big deal for me rather than the 25-yarder last week [against Morecambe], because goals in the box are what Mason can definitely add.”
