New Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, has said he is pleased with the performances of young players, after a 1-1 with Bohemians in Dublin in his first match in charge.
Michy Batshuayi handed Chelsea an early lead when he slammed the ball, before Eric Molloy equalised in the final minute of time.
With a number of Chelsea's first-team players yet to return for pre-season, Lampard named two separate XIs for the first and second halves with the likes of Danny Drinkwater, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Kurt Zouma all given a runout.
Among their better performers on the night, were teenagers Ethan Ampadu, Conor Gallagher, Billy Gilmour and 17-year-old Ian Maatsen.
"Fitness was our issue, obviously. We've been working them hard and worked them hard this morning, I wanted to stretch them and put them under pressure a bit as that's what pre-season is all about. The quicker we get to the level we want the better for us.
"It was good competition for us, we would have wanted the win obviously as you always do but it's not about that at this point, it's about individuals getting fit and pushing themselves to the limit and I thought some of the performances, particularly from the young lads were really good.
"I've been really happy [with their application]. I've got a way that I work, that we work as staff and we've brought that in, it's hard and taxing on the players.
"We wanted to get straight into them and we have to to get that level of fitness into our game and I'm pleased with how they've taken that on," Lampard said after the match.
Chelsea's next pre-season friendly, will be against St Patrick's Athletic at Richmond Park on Saturday.
Comments