Captain Azpilicueta Defends Chelsea Youngsters After Mourinho Jibes
12th August 2019
Mourinho claimed new Chelsea boss Frank Lampard was wrong to pick inexperienced youngsters Abraham and Mount against a leading Premier League team like United
- Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta insists Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount will live up to their potential after stinging criticism from Jose Mourinho following their 4-0 thrashing at Manchester United
- The former Chelsea manager said he was surprised proven veterans N'Golo Kante, Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso started on the bench as United ran riot at Old Trafford on Sunday.
- Lampard expressed surprise at Mourinho's comments and Azpilicueta made it clear he didn't agree with the assessment of two of Chelsea's more highly-rated academy graduates
LONDON, United Kingdom- Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta insists Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount
will live up to their potential after stinging criticism from Jose Mourinho
following their 4-0 thrashing at Manchester United.
Mourinho claimed new
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard was wrong to pick inexperienced youngsters Abraham
and Mount against a leading Premier League team like United.
The former Chelsea
manager said he was surprised proven veterans N'Golo Kante, Olivier Giroud and
Marcos Alonso started on the bench as United ran riot at Old Trafford on
Sunday.
Lampard expressed
surprise at Mourinho's comments and Azpilicueta made it clear he didn't agree
with the assessment of two of Chelsea's more highly-rated academy graduates.
"If they are
here it is because they deserve to be. They are fighting in every training
session. We trust in them," Azpilicueta said.
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"All the boys,
they train to play for the Chelsea first team since they were young and now we
have a massive opportunity to create a fantastic group, to learn from every
game.
"Obviously
everyone would like to start in a better way but we have to face the reality
and become stronger from it."
Abraham and Mount
started brightly at Old Trafford, the former rattling the post, and Chelsea
were perhaps unfortunate to be trailing at the break following Marcus
Rashford's penalty.
But they collapsed
in the second half, making it a miserable first Premier League game in the
dug-out for Chelsea legend Lampard.
Azpilicueta has
urged Chelsea to draw a line under the Manchester meltdown as they head to
Istanbul to face Liverpool in Wednesday's European Super Cup final.
"We know that
Chelsea always fights for everything. When you don't win, the questions around
get more and more but we have to cope with it," he said.
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"We know that
playing for Chelsea requires your best effort in every game so we have to learn
from the game.
"We know that
we can improve. We have to face it, take the responsibility and move forward.
We have a trophy to fight for on Wednesday against a good team and we have to
be ready for it."