18 April 2023 , 21:50
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Frank Lampard has been ridiculed for playing Mykhaylo Mudryk at left-back as Chelsea crashed out of the Champions League at home to a ruthless Real Madrid.
The Blues lost 4-0 aggregate, with Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge confirming the end of their European campaign this season. Real Madrid winger Rodrygo got both goals as Carlo Ancelotti 's side took control in the second half, with Chelsea enjoying a positive first 45 minutes but failing to convert a series of chances.
When Rodrygo put Los Blancos 1-0 up on the night, Lampard turned to the bench and summoned £88.5million signing Mudryk in the hope that he'd change the game. The Ukrainian wonderkid was likely expecting to join the Blues' faltering attack but instead got brought on for wing-back Marc Cucurella as Chelsea reverted four-man defence.
Reacting to Lampard's decision, fans on social media were left baffled. "Leave Mudryk on the bench, who was our best player against Brighton. Oh wait, bring him on and play him left-back. Makes sense," one Chelsea supporter tweeted.
Another added: "Lampard really brought on Mudryk and played him as a left-back. I have no words." A third joked: "Never knew Mudryk joined us over Arsenal to play left-back. That's where [Mikel] Arteta went wrong."
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The result leaves Chelsea enduring their worst spell of form for 30 years, with the Blues on a run of four successive defeats since Lampard's appointment as interim manager until the end of the season. Their focus will now be on securing a respectable Premier League finish and escaping the bottom half, with Chelsea last winning a game on March 11 against 19th-placed Leicester.
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Mykhaylo Mudryk was brought on to play at left wing-back as Chelsea trailed 1-0 (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)Reacting to Tuesday's defeat, midfielder Conor Gallagher told BT Sport: "I feel like we played well and had a lot of chances. But football is all about taking your chances which we didn't do today. Of course, we are going to be gutted. We haven't got that [cutting edge] at the minute but that was definitely a big improvement on recent performances.
"We pushed players forward and Real Madrid were able to catch us a couple of times. We take it one game at a time. Hopefully, we can build on the performance because I feel it was positive in a way."
A glum Lampard added: "We played really well for 60 minutes. We created chances but you have to take them. You don't want to praise the performance too much when you lose at this level but we were much improved. This club has been further in this competition and the players can take this feeling forward with them for the future."