Claudio Ranieri has called on Tom Cairney to stop shying away from shooting and find his Premier League goal-scoring feet.

New Fulham boss Ranieri has nudged midfielder Cairney into a more advanced role, sitting just off target man Aleksandar Mitrovic.

And now the Italian has revealed he is cajoling Cairney not to spurn shooting opportunities in favour of keeping possession.

"He has to shoot more; he has the quality to shoot, he must improve," said Ranieri, ahead of Fulham's Premier League trip to Chelsea on Sunday.

"Try! It's no problem, try! I ask him during training 'shoot at goal, shoot at goal' but he passes and he passes.

"Maybe when he comes to me on the bench he will realise and say 'maybe it's much better if I shoot at goal'."

Cairney struck the Championship play-off final winner in Fulham's 1-0 victory over Aston Villa at Wembley that secured their Premier League promotion.

The 27-year-old is yet to break his Premier League duck this term though, leaving Ranieri intent on him adding top-level goals to his repertoire.

"He is a good player with a high quality, but I want more from him," said Ranieri.

"I want him to play as well in Premier League as he did in Championship. He scored a lot of goals there, and I want the same again.

"He makes assists but also he can score goals, these are important because he has very good timings to arrive, he has a good left foot and I say to him 'try, try' but, it's a little hard."

Former Chelsea manager Ranieri will return to his old Stamford Bridge stomping ground keen to build on last weekend's home win over Southampton.

And the 67-year-old remains convinced of striker Mitrovic's importance to Fulham's set-up, even if he has demanded the Serbian works harder off the ball.

Ranieri insists Mitrovic needs time to adjust to his new principles, but backed him to keep on scoring in the interim.

"I believe in Aleksandar, but I think he needs more and more, and time for him to understand my philosophy," said Ranieri.

"Until he understands, it's important he keeps scoring goals. He has to be very, very strong; I want him to improve his pressing, and that's it.

"And we have to try to make very good balls for him. Against Southampton we made three crosses and we scored three times."