Lampard to discuss penalty duties after Jorginho miss
London, Thursday @PeopleDailyKe
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard will speak with his players before deciding whether Jorginho remains the club’s penalty taker after the Italian missed his second spot kick of the season in their 4-0 win over Russian side Krasnodar in the Champions League ahead of their Saturday afternoon visit to Burnley for a Premier League fixture.
Jorginho, who missed from the spot against Liverpool in the Premier League last month, hit the post with a penalty in the first half with the game goalless in Krasnodar on Wednesday.
“Jorginho has had an incredibly successful rate of scoring penalties in his career, particularly at Chelsea,” Lampard told reporters.
“My feeling is when you take as many penalties as he does, there can be periods when you miss one, and sometimes there can be periods where you miss one or two. I experienced that as a player.”
Jorginho was substituted by the time Chelsea were awarded another penalty, which Timo Werner dispatched in the 76th minute. “Timo Werner, I know he’s very capable to take penalties,” Lampard added.
“We have other players that can as well, so I’ll talk with the players afterwards to see how we move forward.”
Callum Hudson-Odoi, Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic also got on the scoresheet as Chelsea sealed their first Champions League victory of the season in front of owner Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich has been unable to attend matches at Stamford Bridge because of UK visa issues.
“I always feel the support of the owner of the club, whether he’s here at games or not,” Lampard said. “A couple of my staff members spoke to him, but by the time I came out in the warm-up he wasn’t around.”
Burnley have won one of their 12 Premier League matches against Chelsea losing eight and drawing three.
Meanwhile, Lampard said he expects Hakim Ziyech to prove his value after the Moroccan star scored his first goal for the club in Wednesday’s 4-0 win away to Krasnodar.
“Hakim Ziyech has worked really hard to be fit, and I was very excited to get his quality in the team,” said Lampard.
“I thought his performance was very, very good when you consider he hasn’t started a match since March, when the Dutch league finished.”
Ziyech joined from Ajax for a reported £37 million ($48 million) in the summer but missed the beginning of the season with a knee problem.
The 27-year-old had made three cameos as a substitute before earning his first start in Krasnodar a journey of some 3,500 kilometres from London.
“It’s been frustrating for him and for us. His injury has meant he hasn’t been able to start, but what I’ve seen in training and what I knew we were signing is a player of immense quality with personality to receive the ball and find assists and goals,” said Lampard.
“We saw a lot of glimpses of that today, and he will get better.
“We brought him in to do a job, maybe people have forgotten a bit because we signed him in January and he missed the start of the season, but tonight he showed he is here.”-AFP
