Chelsea manager Frank Lampard caught a lot of heat for the first team he selected in the season opening blowout loss to Manchester United. Lampard didn’t start some of the more experienced players, and he left Christian Pulisic, a $73 million January signing, on the bench until the 59′.
The American, who Lampard said wasn’t ready for starting XI duty yet, was a non-factor in the league opening calamity at United. The 20-year-old ex-Borussia Dortmund winger did get the starting nod today though as Chelsea battled Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup in Istanbul, Turkey. Here’s the full XI below:
https://twitter.com/CFCborn/status/1161677220290715650
Striker Olivier Giroud and midfielder N’Golo Kante, key players who also didn’t start last time out, found themselves in the first team tonight. Lampard said after the match on Sunday that the pair simply weren’t fit enough for the first team.
Giroud opened the scoring in the match, off a phenomenal assist from Pulisic. Have a watch below and then look at this, what would have been brilliant, disallowed goal from Pulisic:
Pulisic and Giroud cut Liverpool open ? https://t.co/HsqnsBjHDw
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 14, 2019
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1161728880291590145
Sadio Mane would later level for Liverpool and that’s where we stand now, knotted up at 1-1 headed into extra time.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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