Frank Lampard has reserved special praise for Moises Caicedo following Chelsea’s victory over Liverpool, claiming it is ‘fair’ to liken the midfielder to Claude Makelele and N’Golo Kante.
The Blues spent a then British-record fee of £115million to prise Caicedo away from Brighton in 2023, with the Ecuador international under intense pressure to live up to his hefty price tag.
And after a steady start to life in west London, Caicedo has managed to establish himself among the most highly regarded central midfielders in English football.
Caicedo has played every single minute of Chelsea’s Premier League campaign thus far and is undoubtedly one of the first names on Enzo Maresca’s teamsheet in his third season at the club.
Last weekend, it was Caicedo’s thunderous 30-yard strike that opened the scoring in Chelsea’s 2-1 triumph over the champions Liverpool. The 23-year-old will no doubt be looking to pick up where he left off after the international break.
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Such has been Caicedo’s impact, fans and pundits alike have began comparing the Ecuadorian to some of Chelsea’s midfield great of the past, namely Makelele and Kante.
‘I see that and that’s a big comparison because of those players and what they did. I played with both Kante and Makelele and they were both amazing,’ Lampard told talkSPORT when quizzed on the comparisons.
‘Makelele was a different type to N’Golo because N’Golo could really get around everywhere whereas Makelele basically sat in front a lot.
‘But I see that because of the style of play. Caicedo can really do the Makelele break-up stuff really well, he closes down space really quickly and he’s showing last season and this that he’s got the Kante bits in his game.
‘N’Golo could do that. He could arrive at the edge of the box and score goals.’
According to Lampard, Caicedo must continue ‘churning it out’ on a consistent basis in order to further close the gap on the likes of Caicedo and Kante.
‘He’s still a young player and he’s growing quickly within the group. I think it’s a fair comparison,’ he added.
‘What he’s got to do now is churn it out consistently for the next season and hopefully try and win more things with Chelsea. He’s doing really well.’
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Lampard is confident the recent criticism directed at Maresca will be water off a duck’s back to the Italian, whose Chelsea side rose to seventh with the defeat of Liverpool.
‘It’s early in the season and it’s the nature of the job at Chelsea or any major club,’ Lampard, who has managed Chelsea for two spells, continued.
‘The intensity, the scrutiny is so big that you can go a couple of [poor] games, I lived it myself, and you have to put that to the side to manage a club of that size.
‘You also have to go back to what they achieved in the end last year, which was a positive season obviously.
‘It’s a younger squad, it’s still in that sort of development stage and I think it [criticism] can be normal.’
Lampard – now in charge of Championship table-toppers Coventry City – hopes Chelsea’s ‘massive’ win over Liverpool provides a big boost ahead of the club’s return to action at Nottingham Forest.
‘It was a massive result, though, for the feeling. I managed to get home and watch it and the Bridge looked like it was flying. It was one of those special nights,’ the three-time Premier League winner went on.
‘Hopefully that gives them a boost. They’ve got a lot of talent in that squad but the league is so hard..
‘You low at how established the Arsenal squad is now and Liverpool, with the power they have of Virgil [van Dijk] and [Mohamed] Salah and players. Even though Liverpool are bringing in more players, they’ve still got that spine of players that have done it before.
‘The challenge is big for Chelsea but, talent-wise, where they’ve got to from a couple of years ago… and when I went back there, you could see it a really difficult time for the club.
‘I think you finally see the steps being taken forward with the squad and what the manager is doing so I was pleased for him [beating Liverpool].’
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