Frank Lampard has revealed that he sat down with Chelsea winger Noni Madueke after returning to the Stamford Bridge dugout in a bid to help the England under-21's star rediscover form.
Having impressed for PSV Eindhoven across the last couple of years on a domestic and European basis, Madueke was part of the Blues' January flurry of signings, joining the club for a fee believed to be in the region of around £35 million.
However, like most of his teammates and fellow new arrivals, Madueke initially struggled to make an instant impact under Graham Potter, often finding himself rotated out of the starting line-up on a regular basis.
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While such a trend continued immediately upon Lampard's interim appointment as he failed to make the bench for fixtures against Wolves and Brighton, Madueke has recently started back-to-back Premier League fixtures and impressed in the defeat to Arsenal and long-awaited victory over Bournemouth.
It cannot be denied that the 21-year-old's potential is sky-high, but what has been behind Madueke's mini-resurgence in recent times? Lampard revealed all in his pre-match press conference ahead of today's fixture against Nottingham Forest.
“There’s certainly talent in the building," Lampard insisted. "I think Noni is a good example of an individual that in the first week of training had clear talent but I wanted to see a bit more.
"I had that conversation with him and he showed me more and he’s come into the games and showed me probably as much his talent but his personality to come in in a tough moment, take the ball and show glimpses of his talent.
"It won’t just stop with him, but those sort of players - I’ve said before in press conferences - they need stability around them to take forward their own game and they haven’t had that this season.
"So that’s probably something I’ve seen that I think probably other people have seen this season.”
The topic of stability highlights just how critical the club's next managerial appointment will be, and also the importance of placing faith in that appointment.
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