https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/07/07/
lampard-on-abraham-sustaining-early-season-form-and-keeping-youn
Lampard on Abraham sustaining early season form and keeping young players
confident
07 Jul 2020
Having discussed yesterday two of the young players at Chelsea, Ruben
Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi, Frank Lampard extends the debate
today to Tammy Abraham and the youthful potential in his squad generally.
https://i.imgur.com/q7unLPC.jpg
Abraham is one of the Academy players who have broken through and become a
mainstay of the side this squad but unlike six of the others, he has not
signed a new contract in the past year. Lampard however does not believe
this to be a distraction.
'We are not at a critical level with Tammy's contract, and I will leave
that between him and the club to discuss,' he explains. 'If it is in his
mind now then it shouldn't be. What needs to be in his mind now is these
games coming up and how much he can give us, whether he comes on as a sub
or is starting games because he has had a really good season.
'He has not scored so much in the second half of the season and as a young
player, it is always clear that when you have these periods there is only
one way out of it and that is work, and repetition in training, and every
moment you get trying to make the most out of it.
'The contract will hopefully look after itself between him and the club
and he just needs to focus on giving us that Tammy we had earlier in the
season, which was giving defenders so much of a problem in games and
scoring regularly. It all came from how he was training and working
through the week. You could see it in his demeanour through the week which
meant he performed on the match days and that is what he has to sustain
all the time.'
Lampard widened the debate to all emerging players in his squad and
highlighted the importance of helping them maintain self-belief throughout
the inevitable dips that will come with their upward progress.
'We get very excited about young talent and rightly so, but it is pretty
hard to come into this Premier League with the level that it is at and
sustain performance or be in the starting 11 all the time.
'There is competition, games are hard, so whether it is Tammy, Mason,
Fikayo, Reece, they have had periods of real input, playing regularly, and
periods when they have not quite so much, in their own ways. That is
something we all have to be calm with from the outside and can all sort of
expect that, but the main thing from me working behind the scenes with
them all is that they understand they will have those little moments and
not lose confidence.
https://i.imgur.com/hO4YHiR.jpg
Frank Lampard congratulating Mason Mount earlier in the season
'I am always there to support them on that one. But also they need to
continue the work and never think they have it cracked. That is a message
for all young players, not just mine, because I have been there, I know
how hard it is to break through and once you break through, it is possibly
harder to sustain it and move onto the different level which top players
do, sustaining great performances for years.
'So all these younger players here potentially have it. A lot of it is in
their hands at this point.'