Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has told interim manager Frank Lampard to start Mykhailo Mudryk regularly between now and the end of the season.

The Ukrainian, who cost the Blues £88.5m, has only started six games since joining from Shakhtar Donetsk during the January transfer window and Hasselbaink feels it is about time that the winger was handed more minutes:

“He’s had it difficult. His first match, I thought ‘oh, he has got something’, and he has got something. But the Premier League is not an easy league to come in. It’s the toughest league around, and coming from where he came from, it’s a tough adjustment”

“He needs matches, and I agree, I’m a little bit surprised that he is not playing a little bit more. Now is the time to give him matches to be stronger for next year. The boy has got talent, it’s ‘can we get it out of him’?”

Hasselbaink was speaking before the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday evening. Mudryk was on the substitutes bench once again, but the 22-year-old did get on the pitch for the last 20 minutes.

While he did make some decent runs with the ball at the Emirates, Mudryk’s lack of end product continues to be a concern. When you pay that much for a player, though, you do scratch your head and wonder why he isn’t being given chances to make an impact, week in and week out.

The fact that Graham Potter also benched Mudryk does suggest he might not be doing enough in training but he can’t be any worse than the likes of Raheem Sterling or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who both performed poorly against the Gunners.