(Reuters) – Kai Havertz has struggled to hit his £ 71m ($ 95m) price tag since arriving at Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen, but manager Frank Lampard said the 21-year-old needed time to to prove his worth.
Havertz, who has only scored one goal in the Premier League this season, missed three games after testing positive for COVID-19 in November and has been substituted in each of his last four games, including the 1-0 loss on Saturday against Everton.
“In this day and age there will be criticism for any player at any club who loses a game,” said Lampard. “We should be patient with Havertz from the Chelsea end because he is a high profile talent who has come into this league.
“He can play over the top three in any position and has played on the right countless times before playing for Chelsea.
“People who want to criticize should just wait and give a young player time. I know the player who will be Havertz. “
Havertz said last week that COVID-19 tired him so much that he felt like he had never played football before.
Chelsea, who are fifth on 22 points and three points behind leaders Tottenham Hotspur, face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday.
($ 1 = 0.7507 pounds)
Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru
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