The Chelsea boss was pleased to announce that his midfield options has been bolstered by the return of N’golo Kante from an injury lay off as the Blues prepare to host Ajax on match day 4 of the UEFA Champions League.
Frank Lampard has had to make do without the France international for about four weeks. Kante had been struggling with a niggling injury since the start of the season but the World Cup winner trained with the rest of the Blues squad on Monday and is expected to play some part as the English side hunt for the win that would place them in good stead for qualification.
‘Kante is in the squad so he is fit and it looks nicely like the injury and the few niggles he was getting have cleared up and we have been able get some work into him,’ Lampard reported at his media conference on Monday afternoon at Cobham.
‘It was always stop-start before that. He is in the squad and available.
‘N’Golo is huge for us,’ added Lampard.
‘He is one of the best midfielders in the world and has been for a few seasons, so I won’t complain about the nice problem I have with him fit. I want competition, we are playing every three or four days at the moment and I am going to need all of the midfielders and in different positions as well.’
Lampard does not expect an easy game against last year semifinalists Ajax but he is optimistic that his side can pull a similar result to the victory they claimed in the Netherlands a fortnight ago.
‘It is a very good Ajax team with a great record going into that game,’ he noted.
‘They had won all their games, I and the players understood that and we knew we had to be at our top level to get the result. We were but I also think we can improve but in the game itself we did so many of the things we needed to do to stop Ajax being so good on the ball, which they are, and to stop them playing through the lines, which they can.
‘We gave them some problems themselves so I thought it was a fantastic game to be involved in and to look back on, and we will have to perform at our highest level because I expect more of that from them tomorrow.’