Frank Lampard was ‘gutted’ Timo Werner did not end his Chelsea goal drought against West Ham, but feels the floodgates will open soon.
Werner had a great chance to snap a drought that now sits at nine games, but he smashed a shot against the bar following excellent approach play from N’Golo Kante.
The Germany international, who said fatigue was a problem, also had a good chance in the first half of the 3-0 win, but he got the ball stuck under his feet and shot weakly at Lukasz Fabianski.
Failing to take the chances will hurt Werner, but Lampard is happy his player is getting in dangerous areas and feels the goals will come.
“I am gutted Timo did not get his goal at the end,” Lampard said. "That would have been great for his confidence. He is getting chances so the goals will come.”
Lampard, who was full of praise for Thiago Silva, feels the summer signing from RB Leipzig is in an adaptation phase that he will come through and show exactly why Chelsea splashed £47.5 million ($64m / €52.2m) to bring him to the club.
“I’m not worried,” Lampard said on the club’s official website. “Every striker will want to be scoring goals, it’s what they ultimately get judged on and that’s why Timo was a great acquisition for us because of the level of goals he’s scored in the last few years.
“He’s a player in a new league and we have to give him time to settle but he’s getting in positions regularly, he’s scaring teams and giving them a problem.
“It’s not quite going in for him at the moment but the moment that changes then we’ll see goals from Timo Werner for sure.”
While Werner drew a blank, albeit he got an assist, Tammy Abraham netted twice and Lampard was thrilled with the England striker’s performance.
“It’s good for his confidence clearly,” Lampard said of Abraham. “You have to work for your goals and he worked for them today because he put a lot of effort in. I wanted him to be a handful and to have energy and move the backline which he did.
‘Oli Giroud has been doing it for us in his own way and scoring goals so it was a decision more on the opposition today to play Tammy and I was pleased with how he did.”