26th October, 2019
There was no question who Frank Lampard was most pleased for in the wake of Chelsea’s win at Burnley, with the boss singling Christian Pulisic out for praise following the American’s perfect hat-trick.
Pulisic became the youngest Chelsea player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League, so it was no surprise much of Lampard’s post-match sentiment centred on the 21-year-old.
‘I’m absolutely delighted for him,’ Lampard said. ‘There’s been a lot of talk around Christian because of the big price tag, the fact he’s a star in his country and captain of the USA national team.
‘I know his back-story and the pressures of a move like that. I also know that he’s played for his country throughout the summer and only had one week’s break.
‘I’ve tried to deal with it in the way I see best, which is to give him minutes. He has played games this season already but I’ve also got competition in that area and I need them all trying to perform when they get in the team. Christian has been doing that recently from the bench, he fully deserved his start today and it was a fantastic match-winning performance.
‘I know what a good player he is because I see it close up every day. There are obviously things that he has to learn and improve because he’s just turned 21 and it’s the same as all the other young players, but he knows that and he knows I’m driving that daily in training.
‘We need that from all our attacking players – to be a threat and play like that, have a ruthless edge about how they finish and he showed the full package.’