Werner is scaring teams – Lampard unworried despite Chelsea forward´s lack of goals

Frank Lampard believes Timo Werner is “scaring teams” and the head coach is unworried despite the Chelsea forward’s lack of goals.

Signed for a reported £47.5million from RB Leipzig ahead of the 2020-21 season, Werner has scored just four goals in 14 Premier League games.

The Germany international has failed to score in each of his past seven starts for Chelsea in all competitions, his longest run since September 2016 between spells at Stuttgart and RB Leipzig.

Werner had a game-high four shots in Monday’s 3-0 win over West Ham and provided an assist for Tammy Abraham, and while Lampard would have liked a goal from the forward, he backed the 24-year-old.

“I’m not worried. 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 told a news conference. 

“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, and he’ll keep working hard, then we’ll see goals from Timo Werner for sure.”

While Werner has four assists in the Premier League this season, his shot conversion rate (excluding blocks) of 15.4 is the third worst of forwards to have taken at least 30 shots, behind only Aleksandar Mitrovic (7.7) and Sadio Mane (15.2).

Abraham scored a late brace after Thiago Silva’s opener against West Ham as Chelsea climbed into fifth in the table.

With 25 goals in all competitions since the start of last season, Abraham has scored seven more than any other Chelsea player.

“It’s good for his confidence clearly. You have to work for your goals and he worked for them because he put a lot of effort in,” Lampard said.

“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 to play Tammy and I was pleased with how he did.

“We need that, we’ve had goals from all over the pitch, that’s great, but you do need people scoring regularly and Tammy scoring two will help him.”