Antonio Rudiger has backed Timo Werner and Kai Havertz to come good after their slump at Chelsea and explained how both players need time to adjust to a new league.
Werner completed a move from Leipzig to Chelsea in the summer and started promisingly, scoring eight goals in his first 12 matches for the club under Lampard.
But Werner has looked short of confidence since November and has scored just once against Morecambe in his last 19 matches in all competitions.
It’s been a similar story with Havertz, who became Chelsea’s second most-expensive signing after Kepa when he made a £62m transfer move from Leverkusen to the blues back in September.
‘Our relationship is good. I’ve known the guys for a long time, especially Timo. I already played with him in Stuttgart. But I already know Kai from the national team,’ Rudiger told Sky Sport Germany.
‘They are very talented guys, maybe in a little slump right now, but if you saw Timo’s performance against Sheffield United, then he was very important to us.
‘He makes a lot of runs and I think the goals will come. ‘That applies to both of them. This is their first experience abroad, they have only been in Germany so far, have only ever been in a safe environment, as I would call it.
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‘This is new territory for them and my job is to help them. I encourage them and I am just there for them. ‘But at the end of the day they have to do their own work on the field.’
Rudiger added: ‘It was a little easier for me as England wasn’t my first experience abroad. ‘My time in Italy helped me. It was maybe different from my game.
‘Everything in England was faster and physically even harder than in Italy and Germany in my opinion. ‘You have to adapt to that but that happened relatively quickly.’
On the role Tuchel has to play in reviving both Werner and Havertz, Rudiger said: ‘He will do everything in his power. ‘But at the end of the day the guys have to be there for themselves on the pitch.’
