Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley has revealed Frank Lampard to him and his teammate Mason Mount during preseason games to improve their goalscoring ability.

Lampard is searching to strike the right balance in a team shorn of the goals and assists of Eden Hazard and unable to raid the market because of a transfer ban.

According to the former Everton star, the Chelsea told them them to express themselves “on the pitch, take risks, don’t be too safe, shoot, try and create chances.”

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola and former had earlier seen similarities between Ross Barkley and Frank Lampard in the area of being dangerous in the box.

Meanwhile, Lampard is trying to bring Barkley and other creative midfielders at Stamdford Bridge to the level of scoring as many goals as possible by asking them to trust their instincts and embrace risk.

This advice is, of course, very important to a team shorn of the goals and assists of Eden Hazard and unable to raid the market because of a transfer ban.

‘He’s been saying, “Express yourself on the pitch, take risks, don’t be too safe, shoot, try and create chances”,’ said Barkley.

‘It is something I can do and it’s what he’s been putting across to me in training and the pre-season games. You don’t want to play in your shell, you want to be off-the-cuff sometimes to take chances and make something happen.

‘That’s what players like myself, Mason and Ruben, when he’s back, want to express on the pitch. You can’t be too worried if you take a risk and whether it’s not going to come off. You have to try to make things happen. I’m looking forward to taking my chances.’

After only three Premier League goals in 18 months at Chelsea, Barkley hopes new manager Lampard will revive the creative side of his game which so impressed when he burst from the academy at Everton.

‘He was one of my idols as a kid,’ said the 25-year-old Barkley. ‘I was always watching Match of the Day and you saw him every week scoring goals.

‘Now he is our manager and it is brilliant for all the players. He’s a legend of the game — the highest scoring midfielder in Premier League history and so we are going to take all he has to give us. He will help all the midfielders.

‘I’ve been playing a bit further forward. He’s told me to think like a striker, especially as a No 10, but to help out defensively and work hard off the ball.”

Barkley, deployed mostly in a No 10 role under Lampard, scored in a pre-season friendly at Reading on Sunday.

Mount replaced him at half-time and was on target twice in a 4-3 win which hinted at plenty of goals despite the exit of Hazard.

‘We will all step up to the plate,’ said Barkley. ‘You have to fill in. Everyone in the squad understands that he was a great player but he is gone.

‘He has new challenges now and we have to replace his goals and create the chances. Last season when Eden wasn’t playing we still won games, we still created chances.

‘We know he is an exceptional player but we have exceptional players in the squad and young players like Callum Hudson-Odoi who is coming back from injury and we have signed Christian Pulisic.

‘We have wingers who can create from tight positions, players who can shoot from distance and strikers — young and experienced — who are hungry for goals.’