Frank Lampard has explained his team selection for Chelsea's clash with Fulham today.
The Blues made the very short trip to Craven Cottage today as they look to snap out of a run of just one win in six league games and respond from their defeat to Manchester City.
Ahead of the game, Lampard confirmed a surprise team selection including the introduction of Antonio Rudiger - who only had two Premier League appearances this season prior to this one - at centre-back, the German replacing Kurt Zouma, while Olivier Giroud was selected to lead the line, instead of Tammy Abraham.
Meanwhile, Timo Werner started from the bench, along with Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Jorginho also won a start in the midfield.
Ahead of kick-off, Lampard explained the decision to Sky Sports, saying: "Some of our results recently have been indifferent and that’s not a direct thing on Kurt, but we felt there were some changes to be made.
"To lean more on what Toni is doing in terms of his training, he has come into games and played well.
"He’s a personality in the group and at the moment, we need personalities to try and get a result to try and kickstart us again. Again, nothing bad on Kurt, but felt like a change was needed.
“I can talk about personality and experience again. I get asked a lot about Tammy and Oli about which one to pick and why, and they both bring different things to the team. Oli’s been scoring when he’s played and he’s a leader in the dressing room.
"More importantly, he has talent and he can score goals. We haven’t chipped in with enough.”
Fulham have enjoyed something of a resurgence, going five league games without defeat, though all of those games have been draws.
Scott Parker's men have drawn consecutively against Liverpool, Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle United, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, and another draw today would represent another positive result for the Cottagers while being potentially damaging to Lampard and his Chelsea future.
