Frank Lampard has backed Ross Barkley, claiming that the midfielder WAS his assigned penalty taker, and the missed spot kick against Valencia was not taken off anyone else.
He was speaking to BT Sport after the game, and while the interview was a little tense, he stuck to the story that Cesar Azpilicueta put out earlier in his player interview – Ross was meant to take it, and he just missed. As simple as that.
https://twitter.com/CarefreeYouth/status/1174070979699642368
Frank Lampard clears up any confusion about who the Chelsea penalty taker is.#beINUCL #UCL #CHEVCF pic.twitter.com/1epsews3Cu
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) September 17, 2019
Whether you believe it or not, there were clearly issues. Everyone was expecting Jorginho to take it, and Willian looks like he thought he was in the mix. If Ross was the chosen man, he was certainly hard done by having a group of interested participants putting their case forward to take it.
Perhaps there wasn’t an assigned taker at all, and Ross got there first and didn’t let go. That will be a lesson to the rookie manager.
There’s not much point dwelling on this, there’s a game to play this weekend and this slice of gossip will soon be behind us.
