Chelsea boss Frank Lampard sent a classy message to Tammy Abraham after his penalty miss in the UEFA Super Cup clash with Liverpool.
The two Premier League giants couldn’t be separated after 120 minutes, as they played out a 2-2 draw in Istanbul and were forced to go to penalties.
The Merseyside giants eventually triumphed 5-4, with Adrian denying Abraham to secure victory for his side and deal a blow to the confidence of the Chelsea youngster.
However, Lampard was keen to look at the positives of the night and Abraham’s courage to step up and take a penalty in the first place as he praised the 21-year-old in his post-match comments below.
“I told him not to worry,” he said, as quoted by the club’s site. “The fact that he’s confident and wants to step up to take the fifth penalty is pleasing to me. I’ve been there myself, anyone can miss a penalty, but what I want is the confidence of a young player to turn up and do that.
“It’s part and parcel of being a player at the top level, which is what Tammy now is. These moments come and we have to be supportive of him because that’s football.”
Abraham is coming off the back of an impressive loan spell with Aston Villa last season, but he’ll be desperate to prove himself in the Premier League with Chelsea this year.
Based on the comments above, he clearly has the backing of his manager, and so he’ll hope to put this disappointment behind him as quickly as possible and open his account for the season when Chelsea take on Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Lampard was forced to rotate slightly in midweek given the congested fixture schedule, with Abraham dropping to the bench after starting against Manchester United last weekend while the Blues boss also noted prior to the game that he wanted to field the players who won the Europa League last season too.
Time will tell if either Abraham or Olivier Giroud get the nod against the Foxes, but it will surely be reassuring for the former to have the continued support of Lampard to help him bounce back.
