Antonio Rudiger had every faith that Timo Werner would transfer his ‘hard work’ from training into results on the pitch, speaking in the latest Chelsea press conference, which was covered by Football London.
Werner’s trials and tribulations have been extremely well documented following his grand arrival from RB Leipzig last summer.
Wasted chances, barren goalscoring spells, some bad luck, and a general lack of confidence have left a blotch on what was a previously unblemished CV.
But there is still a sense around Stamford Bridge from Thomas Tuchel and his teammates that the goals will return for the misfiring forward.
None more so than Rudiger, who shared a dressing room with Werner plenty of times on German national duty before they were united at Chelsea.
The centre-back witnessed his compatriot’s ability first hand on the training pitch and felt there was more than enough to drag him out of this ditch.
Rudiger said: “You all know that he is very quick and if he has space at his back, he will go.
“Obviously on the training ground he is hard-working and he is trying everything to turn around his situation.
“But he needs to be calm and just work hard and work in silence. Then whenever he has that chance on the pitch, have the hunger to score goals and turnaround the situation.
“Not to make himself panic – like, crazy in his head. He just has to be fine.”
Tonight’s Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid offers Werner another golden opportunity to reclaim his once prolific goalscoring legacy.
He is without a goal in five Premier League games and six in total counting the reverse fixture with Madrid last month.
In total, the 25-year-old is on a run of scoring just twice in 26 outings for Chelsea across all competitions.
That slate could be wiped clean if he hits the back of Atletico’s net later this evening.
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