Darren Bent questions Chelsea’s summer recruitment as Werner and Havertz struggle and says Frank Lampard must find a system to accommodate best players

Darren Bent has questioned Chelsea’s summer transfer business.

The Blues spent a combined £116million on Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, who are both struggling to adapt to Premier League football since their summer moves from Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig, along with bringing in the likes of Edouard Mendy, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva.

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Havertz has been benched for the past three games, having suffered from coronavirus, while Werner is on an 11-match goal drought.

Bent believes Chelsea boss Frank Lampard must pick a system to accommodate his best players amid a run of just one win from their last five games.

The former England striker said on Tuesday's talkSPORT Breakfast: “When they recruited some of these players like Havertz and Werner, surely they would have had a big whiteboard where they identified the areas they need to strengthen.

“And they did that. So you can’t get these players in and then go, ‘oh my God, where are we going to fit these players in?’

“That would have been done before you signed them.

“For me, they’ve got to find a system, find a shape and they’ve got to play players that fit the way they play.”

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Werner has been deployed on the left wing due to the goalscoring form of Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham.

The Germany striker was hooked off at half-time in the 3-1 Boxing Day defeat at Arsenal as Lampard criticised his work on and off the ball.

Bent insists Lampard will ‘lose’ Werner if his barren spell in front of goal continues.

He added: “We know how good Timo Werner is and how good he can be; we’ve seen it in flashes this season.

“But when your manager comes out and questions your work-rate off the field, because that’s what he’s alluding to, not giving them enough goal threat when they’ve got the ball, but when they’ve not got the ball, he was obviously talking about work-rate, shutting people down, working hard for the team.

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“So when you do hear that and you’re a new player, your confidence is going to be low.

“As a centre-forward it’s probably one of the easiest positions on the pitch to come out of a slump because you score a goal and everything is forgotten about.

“But the longer he goes on this goal drought and I’m sure at some stage he’s going to be out of the team, the longer that goes on, the more you’re going to lose him.

“So I like Werner and I think he is a very good player, but I don’t think he’s a natural goalscorer - I’ve said that before.

“But because of his movement and his pace, he will always get the opportunities to score goals.”