Callum Hudson-Odoi’s start came in the UCL match against Krasnodar after a whole month. He has been well down the pecking order in Chelsea and as he got an opportunity, he repaid coach Frank Lampard’s faith by netting Chelsea’s first goal of the match. Chelsea emerged victorious as they put four goals past the Russian side.
Hudson-Odoi featured last in early October against Crystal Palace whose final scoreline was also 4-0 in favour of Chelsea. Perhaps there is a theme here with Hudson-Odoi featuring for the club.
Lampard believes that the goal in UCL will surely boost the confidence of the promising youngster.
“With Callum on the left I felt he deserved a chance to play. He’s trained very well recently, we have competition in those areas and we’re also in the middle of a very busy patch of games so we need input from all the attacking players.”
“We felt that today with Callum getting his goal, Hakim and Christian coming on for his goal. I was very pleased with those parts of our game.”
“The goal is clearly going to be good for his confidence. There were things I liked in his game today. His desire to run in behind the defence. Sometimes one v one, it didn’t go his way but I’m very pleased that when you play in the Champions League and get your goal. I know the feeling of confidence it can give him.”
“In terms of his injury, it hasn’t been flagged to me after the match that there is a problem so I assume and hope there is nothing wrong. I’m just pleased he had a good evening,”Lampard said as quoted by Football.London news.
The coach was full of praise about how Hudson Odoi tracked back to snatch possession and give support as well as trying to take players on one-versus-one.
With all that said, the Chelsea coach has enough reasons to applaud the performances of his young gun for the evening. Although one notable concern is the injury he picked up during the match. The cameras caught Hudson Odoi having his left leg wrapped with ice after he was substituted.
Chelsea should hope that the injury is not so serious as the condensed fixtures will need him as a backup for the upcoming matches and his form suggest that he should definitely start again.
