Frank Lampard has hinted that Benoit Badiashile could start for Chelsea ahead of their trip to the south-coast to take on Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon. The Blues caretaker boss has lost all six of his games in charge so far after returning to the club on an interim basis until the end of the season.
If Chelsea lose again on Saturday they will have equalled an unwanted club record - making it the third time in the club's history where they have lost seven games in a row - something that hasn't happened since 1961. There are plenty of issues at Stamford Bridge that need addressing and one of those is the inflated squad Lampard has to deal with.
Badiashile was one of eight new arrivals in January which saw the squad numbers rise to over 30 players. The Frenchman faces competition for a starting spot against the likes of Thiago Silva, Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah at present - with Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella currently sidelined with injuries.
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Badiashile has played just once under Lampard so far but the caretaker boss admitted he is 'close' to starting in the team. Speaking to the media ahead of Chelsea's trip to Bournemouth, Lampard said: "Yeah, he's very close.
"He couldn't play in the Champions League. He played against Brighton which was a difficult match for everybody.
"He's close. He's in competition with Thiago [Silva], Wesley [Fofana] and Trevoh [Chalobah] in that area of the pitch.
"He's very close. He's training well. He's come here from a different league at a young age in the Premier League, it's understandable to have moments of game time, maybe moments of not.
"To a degree, it's needed to develop a player in terms of finding your feet in the league as a young player. In a normal case at a club like Chelsea and maybe other clubs, there's a lot more stability but at the moment that's not the case.
"So to give credit to those players themselves, that's not easy to take the responsibility on their shoulders but what they are all doing is trying to work and keep going. We're here as staff to support that."
Lampard added that there are no fresh injury concerns facing his players ahead of the clash against Bournemouth. The Chelsea legend said: "No we're all good, as we were."
This suggests that both Koulibaly and Cucurella will remain absent from the matchday squad for Saturday's game, along with Mason Mount and Reece James who are set to be out for the remainder of the season. After the shocking performance in the 3-1 defeat against Arsenal, it would come as no surprise to see Lampard make a number of changes and potentially hand Badiashile just his second start after the Blues legend made his return to Stamford Bridge.
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