Lampard says his new signing face more pressure compare to his playing time.

Chelsea Manager Frank Lampard says that Kai Havertz faces a lot of pressure after a big move from the German side Bayern Leverkusen compare to what he faced when he was a player.

“My pressure was not really anywhere near theirs, particularly Kai because of the price tag and what came with that, the modern world of expectation and social media and everything that goes with it. It is ramped up completely since my era,” he said.

“Moving country, missing pre-season. I say it a lot but Kai only had about five work days with us before he played and that is just not beneficial for a player in any league, let alone when you are coming to the fastest, most physical league in the world.”

He stated that the 21-year-old needs time to adapt to the fastest and most physical league and also added that he needs time to recover from COVID-19 that hit very hard.

“Then, just as Kai was really coming to terms with it, I thought he had some really good performances, he got Covid and he had Covid quite severely. I’ve read a few things now about how people can really suffer with this and he has definitely had a bit of a fallout from that physically. It is something we are trying to help him deal with.”

“So with the expectations around him, you have to put context to the story. Kai’s talent is undoubted, I see it every day. Giving him the time to adapt to the Premier League and to our team is crucial. We have seen players come here in the past that didn’t really adapt and went elsewhere and then came back to the Premier League and lit it up to unbelievable levels.”

“I am not trying to compare Kai to that directly but there are so many stories across the Premier League, not just at Chelsea. I have full belief in him and we need to give him that time, particularly because of Covid. That is an issue that is related beyond his illness.”

Lampard further stated that it’s not very easy for a player to move to a new league playing games every three days.

“When Kai came I was excited to take on that challenge with him, of how this league is going to be different and let’s see how you can adapt because your talents are different too in a really positive way and can help us.”

“Something as a coach I know I can rely on is personal experience when it mirrors up slightly and I know I had to do extra work myself [when joining Chelsea]. Kai is different from me but particularly with the knockback of Covid now, we need to give him time to do that extra work which we are doing with him now. It will make him better and stronger in the end and we need to remember he is a young player as well so even more reason to give him time.”