Frank Sinclair made a pretty good point as he commentated on the Chelsea game for Sky Sports tonight. Ross Barkley made such a huge scene about taking the penalty that he absolutely had to score it. He made it a situation where he would be the absolute hero or the villain.
I would go one further and say his antics turned the odds against him in terms of scoring the penalty. It became such a big deal that it heaped incredible amounts of pressure on himself.
Of course he went on to miss the spot kick, and it now means Frank Lampard has an almighty mess to deal with. It looked like Jorginho was the designated penalty taker but Barkley decided he was the one taking it.
READ MORE: Video: Barkley misses late penalty for Chelsea vs Valencia after refusing to hand the ball over to Jorginho or Willian
Lampard tried to calm the situation by saying Barkley was the designated taker as confirmed by this tweet quoting The Telegraph:
Frank Lampard has backed Ross Barkley over his penalty miss that cost #Chelsea a Champions League draw against Valencia, confirming the midfielder was his team’s designated taker. (@TeleFootball) https://t.co/4pbJP8i8aF
— Chelsea HQ (@Chelsea_HQ) September 17, 2019
The problem for Lampard is it seems a lot of the fans aren’t buying his explanation. It’s a remarkable comedown when you consider how positive things were after the win at Wolves on Saturday. They won a tough game, the youngsters excelled and the future looked truly bright.
These fans took to Twitter to express their frustration and show how quickly things can change in football:
FYI Mr. Lampard… Stop the lies cos I know these boys can get u sacked. Stop the lies Frank. Stop the lies. https://t.co/f5kdvhdQap
— Kwabena POKU (@KwabenaPoku) September 17, 2019
Wtf is running on Lampard’s head… I hope he and that crazy Barkley will have to leave the club soon, I don’t know why He confirmed Barkley that never had impact in the team. A useless player as the penalty taker smh#chelseafc
— Yusuf Mubarak (@mubby_kay01) September 17, 2019
Lampard said Barkley is the first choice penalty taker… has to be the worst of all that you have witnessed/heard today ?????
— SHYAM (@shyams002) September 17, 2019
Lampard needs to stop being sentimental..Barkley doesn’t even deserve to be on the Chelsea’s bench talkless being a penalty taker..That guy is as useless as the letter P in the word Psychology”l
— Mr Ayodele (@ayodele_23) September 17, 2019
Barkley did not take every penalty over Jorginho in preseason. Check preseason. Lampard is protecting his playe. Check logic.
— dre. (@driizzyDreee) September 17, 2019
Shows how inexperienced and naive he is as a coach . Both Barkley and lampard are def clueless ….
— ash (@hlaba2) September 17, 2019
A penalty is such a golden chance to score I’ve never understood why players make it harder for themselves with this sort of behaviour or things like stupid run ups.
The implications for this could be massive for Chelsea this season too. They are in a tough group with Valencia, Ajax and Lille so taking points from their home games was so vitally important.
Their next two games are way to Lille and Ajax, if they fail to win either one of those games then qualification will look highly unlikely.