Christian Pulisic has been challenged by Chelsea boss Frank Lampard to reach the level of players like Raheem Sterling, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
The 21-year-old winger has made a huge impact since the campaign resumed, scoring in Chelsea’s victories against Aston Villa and Man City.
The USA international is the club’s second top scorer in the Premier League with seven goals despite having just 13 starts.
“I think he can be a really big player, because he broke through at such a young age in Germany and he made a big move, obviously expectations rise but you have to keep the age in consideration,” Lampard said.
“There is no doubt about his quality, we can see that and he is very keen to improve. He’s particularly hungry at the minute because he missed some time with an injury.
“If he looks at players around him that have made that sort of a jump, he has the ability like Raheem Sterling to produce numbers from wide areas, like [Mo] Salah and [Sadio] Mane. He understands the work that needs to be done to do that. He definitely has the talent, he needs to get to that level.
“I’m delighted to have him at the minute, he works hard everyday, he has to set his sights as high as he possibly can.”
Lampard goes into Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final match against Leicester City knowing he is possibly just three victories away from claiming his first trophy as a manager.
He also recalled how Chelsea’s first trophy under Jose Mourinho, a League Cup triumph in 2005, set the precedent for success in the League.
“[Winning the first trophy] was very important to us at the time because we were a team of not many winners, we didn’t have too many titles between us, we were a relatively young team. Jose brought that mentality to us and winning the first one obviously helps you to push on.
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“In our team I feel we have a mixture of players who have been here and won a lot and some younger players who haven’t done that, in my managerial career I haven’t. I recognise the importance of that, that’s what we are here for, to win things at a club like Chelsea.
“It doesn’t fall short on me, the FA Cup is something we are going to give everything to [try and win]. We have a difficult game against Leicester of course, we know the quality they have but we have to focus on trying to go as far as we can, it would be a big boost if we got further.”
