Lampard on injuries, Watford, Werner, Ziyech and reports Emerson is set for move

Frank Lampard spoke to reporters via video on the eve of Chelsea’s game against Watford. Here’s some of what the Blues boss had to say.

On Mateo Kovacic

“Kovacic is going to be out of this game. He hurt his Achilles during the West Ham game and will miss this one and possibly the one after that. Hopefully it won’t be too long after that.”

On Fikayo Tomori

“Fikayo’s still not fit. He’s hopefully going to be training with us some time next week.

“He’s been doing a lot of work. The last bit to get him on the training pitch has been tough.”

On Gary Neville’s criticism of Marcos Alonso

“It’s much easier to comment from afar. I don’t think it’s quite fair to just look at Marcos.

“In that isolated incident, yes, he can recover and we can recover better as a team.

“But that has to be something fundamental to the team. You have to run backwards as much as you run fast forward.

“I can’t complain about that with the team this year. When you isolate one goal because it’s so crucial it wins the points, fair enough, but I know that with my player that generally we have a desire to press very well off the ball.

“It was a game where we slipped up – not just that mistake but other mistakes – and we lost the game for it.

“I haven’t spoken to him (Alonso) about it (the criticism).

“It’s a dangerous game to comment on every pundit, because you’d probably have to have conversations with all your players every week.

“If I felt a player needed help or support in those situations I would do.

“Myself and the players are probably the biggest self-critics – we analyse games, go over them and talk with the players individually or collectively.

“That’s my main focus, not so much what comes from outside.”

On reports Chelsea are in talks to sell Emerson Palmieri to Inter Milan

“I’m not aware of the talks. What I am doing is focusing on the team and the squad day to day.

“I don’t have any real conversations about the transfer window, whether it’s about who we might bring in or who might leave the club.

“Those are obviously questions we’ll need to answer come the end of the season when the window opens, but I certainly don’t want to be swayed by rumour or gossip.”

On Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech

“They haven’t arrived. As the whole country is waiting on quarantine news, we’re also waiting on quarantine news to make sure the players can travel and be able to move around and work.

“With Timo Werner, he’s only finished (the season in Germany) recently so he’s having a break at the minute – well deserved – and will come back later on in July.”

On being nominated for manager of the month

“It’s a small thing to be proud of. These are not the huge, important things but it shows our good form – five wins in five in that period, playing some good stuff.

“Obviously it was disappointing against West Ham but before that we’d been on a good run.”

On Watford

“They’re a dangerous team. With Nigel Pearson they’ve shown a real desire to get out of trouble. He came in at a really tough time. There’s a spirit within them.

“I won’t pay too much (attention) to their recent (poor) results. The restart has been difficult for different clubs in different ways.

“We must take the game on its merits. We know they have a really good side and they’re desperate for points.

“We came unstuck against a team in a similar situation (West Ham) a few days ago, so we should be fully aware of the dangers of the game.

“It’s a team that are fighting for their lives, are physical and have a real desire to get points and stay up.”

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