Frank Lampard’s first Premier League match as Chelsea manager did not go as planned yesterday, when his side came out with a 4-0 defeat away at Manchester United.
The Blues were arguably the better side, but came undone thanks to some cut-throat finishing by the home team.
Lampard made the decision before the match to use a number of his younger players, starting with Mason Mount, Andreas Christensen, and Tammy Abraham.
It was a decision that came under criticism from Lampard’s former Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho, who has managed both Chelsea and United, questioned Lampard’s decision to go with youth over experience in some key areas of the pitch.
Working as a pundit for Sky Sports, as reported here by TalkSport, Mourinho said:
“You look to the performance of Mason Mount, the performance of Tammy Abraham, you look to the performance even of [Andreas] Christensen and for matches of this dimension you need a little bit more.”
Lampard was understandably surprised by the comments from Mourinho, and was almost lost for words initially in his post match press conference when told what his former boss had said.
As reported by TalkSport, Lampard said:
“He didn’t like the performance of Mason Mount? Is that what he said? Did he? Wow.
“Well, I can’t drag players out of the medical room to play if they are experienced or not, so these are the players that played in a game that we were clearly the better team for 45-60 minutes.
“I don’t have to be too concerned about what anyone else says, pundit-wise or anyone, they have to speak.”
A firm, but absolutely fair response from Lampard there, who justified his selection decisions.
The Blues will want to quickly chalk this one off and look ahead to the next match, which is the small task of facing Liverpool!
