Kai Havertz role at Chelsea will be different from my: Lampard brush off comparison between him and the German

Chelsea manager is aware of the comparisons that are made between Havertz and himself, as well as Michael Ballack.

He brushes them off, though, maintaining that the German will be a player in his own style.
The boss does hope the impact will be similar in goals and assists, though.

"It is very easy to make those comparisons," Frank Lampard told the official Chelsea website about the parallels between himself and Kai Havertz. "I know he is hungry to score goals and make assists so I have already had those conversations with him, but I do think we are quite different in our styles.

"Kai can probably start in more forward areas than I started in. I liked to come from deep as a midfield player, and a lot of Kai’s really good play in the last few seasons as he has broken through at Leverkusen has been in a slightly advanced no.10 role, or slightly wider areas or more in a striker kind of area of late.

"So I think there are differences in our game and styles but in terms of what we try to bring to the team, it is pretty similar in terms of productivity in goals and assists.

"Michael Ballack was a good player for us in terms of what he contributed and we have all got really good memories of Bally when he was at the club and what he did for us, but Kai is going to be his own player and his own person.

"He has his own style and he is very unique in terms of that, which really excites me to work with him, in terms of him going forward."

Lampard has spoken about his new player's versatility, and it is a major factor in his output for Bayer Leverkusen: last season, Havertz scored 18 goals and registered 8 assists in all competitions for the Bundesliga side.

It's barely in doubt that the manager will use this talent to the team's advantage - especially given that Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi can also play in several positions.