Lampard gives verdict on Jorginho’s penalty skip after Krasnodar miss

Jorginho TEAMtalk

Frank Lampard will talk to his players before deciding whether Jorginho continues as Chelsea’s penalty taker.

Jorginho missed his second spot-kick of the season as the Blues thumped Krasnodar 4-0 in Wednesday night’s Champions League clash in Russia.

Timo Werner blasted home a late penalty of his own, after Jorginho had been substituted, but the Germany striker’s fine spot-kick has raised the question of who will be preferred going forward.

Callum Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic all found the net as Chelsea swept to a fine victory in front of owner Roman Abramovich.

Lampard insisted he has no qualms with Jorginho’s trademark, skipped penalty run-up, but admitted he will weigh up whether the Italy midfielder will retain the Blues’ main spot-kick duties.

“Jorginho has had an incredibly successful rate of scoring penalties in his career, particularly at Chelsea,” said Lampard, with Jorginho now having missed twice and scored three times from the spot this season.

“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.

 

 

“I’ve got no problem at all with his style of taking them, because of the success he’s had, and Timo Werner, I know he’s very capable to take penalties as we saw.

“We have other players that can as well, so I’ll talk with the players afterwards to see how we move forward. But we have good penalty takers at the club.”

Chelsea sealed their third-straight clean sheet on a hugely positive night on the road, leaving Lampard happy – and also hoping Hudson-Odoi has avoided any serious injury.

The England winger was seen icing his left thigh having been replaced, but Lampard insisted there was no early news of a concerning nature about the 19-year-old.

“I think the goal is clearly going to be good for his confidence,” said Lampard. “There were things I liked in his game today, his desire to run behind the defence.

“Sometimes one-on-one it didn’t quite go his way, but I’m very pleased when you’re playing in the Champions League and you get your goal, I know the feeling of confidence that can give him.

“In terms of his injury, it hasn’t been flagged to me after the match that there’s a problem, so I assume and I hope that there’s nothing wrong.”

Chelsea owner Abramovich has been unable to attend matches at Stamford Bridge in recent times due to UK visa issues, but remains staunchly committed to the club.

Abramovich’s work in combating anti-Semitism and also community work across the coronavirus pandemic has outlined his determination to push Chelsea forward as much off the field as on it.

Lampard happy for Abramovich

Frank Lampard Chelsea TEAMtalk

Chelsea boss Lampard admitted it was a boost to the coaches and players that the long-standing owner was able to watch the Blues first-hand.

“I was aware that he was at the game obviously, which always makes us happy,” said Lampard. “I always feel the support of the owner of the club, whether he’s here at games or not.

“But to have him here is a nice bonus for myself and for the squad, and we are very respectful of him of course. I didn’t manage to see him, because before the game I was in the dressing room.

“A couple of my staff members spoke to him, but by the time I came out in the warm-up he wasn’t around.

“I’m very pleased we put on what I thought was a good performance with four goals and a clean sheet in his home country, and I hope it made him happy.”

Krasnodar boss Murad Musayev lamented his side’s late capitulation, insisting they had held their own in the early stages.

“I think we played well in the first half and had a few chances, but Chelsea scored a goal that nobody expected,” said Musayev.

“We had chances and on this level you need to score everything you make. The second goal was easy for them, and after that we didn’t have resources to come back.

“I’m happy with the 75 minutes that we played, but you cannot give away a game after a second goal.”