Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel has hailed the impact made at Ewood Park by manager Mark Hughes.

He told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph: "One thing that Mark has done, and it's obviously been a long building process because he has never had the luxury of spending £40 million in one summer, is build a squad that is absolutely fantastic, and he's been building it on purpose from day one when he walked in.

"I'm sure he's still not done with wanting to try and build it and better it.

"The other thing he wants to do is make every single person in that changing room better players and better people, every day they step out on that training pitch.

"Again, as a player with experience like myself, that's a great thing to see and it keeps me feeling younger around the place as well."

He added: "We expect to win now. We expect to get something at places like Chelsea.

"Our training sessions have a buzz about them, we have a lot of very confident players in the changing room, and we also have players who if they do make a mistake, or have a bad game, they are capable of bouncing back in the next game, because that's what the character is like.

"It's another good thing to see and I haven't seen that fully at this club, throughout the squad, since the last time we finished in sixth place (under Graeme Souness) a fair few years ago."