Amongst the tasks that have landed at Frank Lampard's feet in the past week, one of them he won't have to deal with is Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian remains out on loan and has continued to pick up form ahead of the final stretch of the season.
With another goal contribution to his name, this time setting up Robin Gosens just six minutes into the Serie A game against Salernitana, he is finally hitting his stride. It's his eighth contribution in the past 10 matches for club and country.
Although he hasn't had the best season until now, Lukaku is once more building fitness for the run-in, one that sees Milan making progress towards securing a top four spot in Italy again. There is also the case of Champions League quarter-final football to plan for.
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It was Lukaku's goal that sent the 2021 league winners through the last eight in the first place and he is now showing the first signs of returning to anything like his levels for that season. With Chelsea's major struggles in front of goal only being amplified in recent weeks, Frank Lampard may be left wishing he could call on the 29-year-old.
"In terms of goalscoring, there's no genius answer for a coach to explain to you about scoring goals to a point," he said of the continued drought for his new squad in front of goal. "You can set up the structure of a team and work to get your team in a dominant area of the pitch a lot.
"We saw that against Liverpool, a lot of good chances. All I'll be here is to work repetition on the training ground, to work in terms of speaking to the players. Fortunately, it was a big part of my game. That's not me comparing it. It's just understanding the mindset to take that aggressive, cold-hearted nature to want to score goals. I know the players will have that, it's just a case of trying to direct that in the right way."
Lukaku is certainly that type of player and was described as a potential answer for the problem heading into next season by Daniel Sturridge. Lampard, unless for an extremely unlikely scenario in which he ends up with the role full-time at Stamford Bridge once more, won't have that opportunity.
What he will be able to do is try and add the attacking instincts in the final third to the squad. Should that happen, Lampard may well be able to offer Todd Boehly something beyond this season even if he doesn't stay on as manager beyond the close of the campaign. As for how the Blues great sees Lukaku, he has previously been extremely glowing of his qualities.
"He's very different, he's improved a lot," Lampard said of Lukaku when he was at Everton and preparing for a big money move to Manchester United. "He was quite raw at Chelsea before but you could see he had the talent."
Lampard has also shown why Lukaku has struggled to fully define himself in England too. "He wasn't ready to be a Chelsea striker," the Englishman added. "What I did see was his ethic on the training ground. He's obviously taken that through with him now. He's not very delicate on the ball and maybe his hold-up play can improve. His audition has been the season and how he's performed."
It wasn't until four years after that comment that Chelsea would bring the striker back to SW6. The misunderstanding between player and manager last season was one of the major reasons for his ultimate failure, Lampard has already shown his appreciation for that but whether or not it changes what happens in the future is yet to be decided.
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