Chelsea boss Lampard continues to weigh up whether to install striker Timo Werner as his designated penalty taker, after Italy midfielder Jorginho’s miss at Krasnodar.
Jorginho had boasted a perfect return of eight goals from eight penalties for Chelsea before his two recent misses, the latest when striking a post in Wednesday’s 4-0 Champions League win in Russia.
Timo Werner scored a late spot-kick to open the question of who becomes Chelsea’s penalty taker, but Lampard believes Jorginho will not be affected at all by his two misses this term.
That’s the way @ChelseaFC ✊😊 pic.twitter.com/PpPoCulv1V
— Timo Werner (@TimoWerner) October 28, 2020
Advertisement
The Blues boss was due to talk to his players about penalty duties on Thursday, but delayed that chat by a day after their late return from southern Russia.
“I think with Jorginho if you’re going to take penalties as regularly as he does, and I did, you’re going to miss some,” said Lampard.
“And you might have a patch where you miss a couple, because of the level of goalkeeper, the pressure situation.
“It was not normal actually that Jorginho had such a great record, that made him sort of unique and stand out.
“So I’ve got no worries with his confidence and he shouldn’t have any lack of confidence for it, so I’m not concerned about that at all. But I will speak to him about it myself.
“I’ve left those chats today because they’ve only slept for about four hours, so it’s maybe not the best day for it.
“I’ve got no problem with either in terms of the penalty taking, and not just Timo and Jorginho, we have other possibilities at the club too.
“So it will be something I will broach before Burnley because it’s important as we’ve seen with history that we need it to be very clear going into the game who are the designated penalty takers.
Start your Thursday with the boss' reaction to our fantastic win in Krasnodar last night! 💪💬
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) October 29, 2020
“But my confidence is in both of them, and I’ll have a nice little open chat with both of them, and others, if needs be.”
Chelsea will make the Premier League trip to Burnley on Saturday keen to build on three-straight clean sheets, including Wednesday’s comfortable victory in Russia.
Thiago Silva will come back into contention having been rested for the Krasnodar trip, while Kepa Arrizabalaga will have a late fitness test on his shoulder injury.
Chelsea boast almost a clean bill of health at this point, but boss Lampard revealed his frustrations with the Premier League voting against continuing with five substitutions per match into the new campaign.
“The ball was certainly dropped when the Premier League turned away from having five subs,” said Lampard.
“These are unprecedented times in terms of situations for football. It will carry on, it’s not going anywhere in the short term.
“The demands on players are huge for every club. I’m not just talking about my squad, I’m talking about every football player that is being asked to play day after day and the injury risk. It has changed the landscape.
“We’ll try to manage it as well as we can. We’re fortunate we have a big squad here. At the same time we want to do our best, the pressure is on and the players want to get the right results. It could certainly have a big effect this year, more than any other year.
“It will be a season like no other and none of us can control that. We can’t control the injuries that come upon us at different times.
“You can’t always read them whether they are impact injuries like (Virgil) Van Dijk, which was big news, or muscle injuries that we are seeing more of at this stage of the season.”
