Frank Lampard has responded to RB Salzburg boss Jesse Marsch's claims that the Chelsea manager told him he did not rate Christian Pulisic 'because he was American'.
Marsch made the claim after a chat with Lampard during pre-season a year ago, adding the perception of American players is they are technically and tactically 'not very aware'.
Responding to that, Lampard said: 'I did read the comments and was surprised Jesse had managed to read my mind as well as he thought he did. He's recounted the conversation wrong.
'It was a game against Salzburg where we played and Christian scored two goals in pre-season.
'Jesse came up to me and said "what a talented player", which I knew, and I agreed with, and I spoke about how it is exciting for us to see how he can develop.
'That was the conversation. Jesse managed to put it across slightly differently.
'I played in America for 18 months and I would never underestimate the desire American soccer players have, to learn and improve and take on information and understand the technical side of the game. So when you have that, which Christian has along with incredible talent, it was never in doubt for me.'
Lampard has also resisted speaking to his players about who is Chelsea's chief penalty taker after only four hours' sleep following their long trip home from Russia.
Jorginho, using his trademark hop-and-skip motion, missed his second spot-kick of the season as the Blues beat Krasnodar 4-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Timo Werner scored a late penalty of his own, however, after Jorginho had been substituted.
'I left it for today because they slept for four hours,' said Lampard, whose side face Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday. 'I have no problem with either taking penalties and not just those two, we have many more at the club.
'With Jorginho, if you're going to take penalties as regular as he does, and I did, you're going to miss some. I've got no worries with his confidence and he shouldn't lack confidence.'
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