Frank Lampard was left surprised after learning Jose Mourinho had criticised Mason Mount for his performance in Chelsea’s 4-0 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
The Blues boss endured a baptism of fire on his managerial debut in the Premier League as he watched his young side capitulate at Old Trafford.
Lampard made some bold selection choices, handing starts to academy graduates Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham.
And former Chelsea boss Mourinho, who was working as a pundit for Sky Sports, singled out the pair for criticism.
He said: “You look to the performance of Mason Mount, the performance of Tammy Abraham, you look to the performance even of [Andreas] Christensen and for matches of this dimension you need a little bit more.”
Mourinho added that Lampard should’ve started N’Golo Kante and questioned the decision to leave Willian out of the squad.
But the Chelsea manager clearly didn’t agree with his former boss, when asked about the comments in his post-match press conference.
Lampard said: “He didn’t like the performance of Mason Mount? Is that what he said? Did he? wow.
“Well, I can’t drag players out of the medical room to play if they are experienced or not, so these are the players that played in a game that we were clearly the better team for 45-60 minutes.
“What was evident that we made individual errors that led to four goals out of their five shots. So there’s the harsh reality for us.
“I don’t have to be too concerned about what anyone else says, pundit-wise or anyone, they have to speak.
“At the same time, what’s clear is the squad is what we’ve got and I believe in it.
“If we go in at half-time two or three-one up, as we probably should have done if we were more clinical and maybe had a stroke of luck here and there, the game would’ve been completely different.”
