Chelsea manager Frank Lampard handed minutes to a number of Chelsea academy players and graduates last night in their 2-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester United.
Marc Guehi started at centre back and played the whole 90 minutes, whilst Billy Gilmour started in centre midfield and was replaced by Mason Mount midway through the second half.
Neither player looked out of place and Guehi was actually one of the Blues better performers on the night.
Gilmour battled well and didn’t really do a lot wrong, but he struggled at times alongside two other centre midfielders who are too similar to him in terms of style of play.
The Scotland under-21 international was playing more advanced than the other two, but he seems to be more comfortable in a deeper role as he doesn’t really have that creative spark yet.
But he can be proud of how he played and he didn’t look any worse than any of the ‘senior’ players on display last night.
Gilmour has been reflecting on a learning curve on the Chelsea website.
He said:
“I learned a lot. It was a massive step for me, and for Marc [Guehi] as well. It was a totally different match to Grimsby. Coming into this game we had to be on it, and we thought we played okay.
“I was hoping for a win which we didn’t get, which is gutting.
“Second half we were a totally different team. We changed formation in midfield with a two and a one, I was the one and had a bit more freedom to try and get on the ball.
“We looked more dominant on the front foot, we played very well and then just a great free-kick separated the two teams.
“I was playing against McTominay who is a Scotland international. I wanted to put myself up against him and I thought I was okay against him.
“That’s the standard I want to be at really. It would be a big moment for me to represent my country at full level, but I just need to keep doing what I’m doing.
“Hopefully I get another opportunity at Chelsea this season, but obviously there are a lot of a great midfielders in the team, Jorginho, Kovacic, great players. I am looking up to them and taking parts of their game and trying to put them into my game in training.”
