Frank Lampard was given the chance to talk up Callum Hudson-Odoi after picking the 18 year old winger to start against yesterday, but as he has done several times this season he was very cautious in his praise.
“I thought he was good, really good,” Lampard told reporters in the press conference after the game in quotes carried by Football.London.
“The end product will come even more with Callum, another young player. So coming inside and getting his shots away, he was giving them a big problem so it was great to see and for the fans to see. Callum needs to carry on doing that,” he went on.
“There is the other side of the game, off the ball. He knows that he can get better at that, and he will do. There are glimpses today of some of the special stuff he has got,” he concluded.
Saying he was “good, really good” sounds like a compliment, and indeed it is, but given he was set up to call him brilliant or incredible or similar, it was notable he swerved the chance.
Then moving straight on to focus on the improvements he can make to his game defensively just goes to reinforce the point. Lampard is deliberately talking down CHO to try and stop too much of this praise going to his head.
That’s no surprise. Callum is one of the most hyped players on the planet, and all his incredible talent will be for naught if he lets it go to his head. So far he’s just been a humble kid working hard and it’s paid off. Lampard, someone who knows a lot about hard work, is just trying to keep it that way.
