Former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen has criticised Ross Barkley after the midfielder missed a penalty in the Blues’ Champions League defeat to Valencia.
Barkley had the opportunity to level the scores late on as Chelsea were awarded a penalty kick, which the 25-year-old smacked against the crossbar – following what appeared to be discussions with a number of his teammates over who should take it.
Having come off the bench in the game, it seemed clear that Barkley’s insistence that he would take the penalty had not sat right with some of his teammates, as he appeared to gesture to Willian he would do so just moments before he cannoned his shot off the woodwork.
Speaking on BT Sport, Gudjohnsen felt that Barkley did not help himself nor his team by creating a scene over the taking of the penalty.
He said (via TalkSPORT): “It’s almost disrespectful to your teammates to do something like what Ross Barkley did this evening.
“I’m pretty sure it’s clear who is the penalty taker before the game.
“Just to create all the fuss, the tension between your teammates and yourself and then go on to miss the penalty, you just put yourself under so much more pressure than actually just taking a penalty.”
Frank Lampard insisted Barkley was Chelsea’s designated penalty taker after the game – though while that may make Gudjohnsen’s comments seem harsh, that in itself is arguably something of a surprise.
Excluding shootouts, Barkley has only taken five penalties, missing two of them. Meanwhile, Jorginho has only ever missed one out of the 14 he has taken during a match (according to Transfermarkt).
Jorginho also scored from the spot in Chelsea’s Super Cup defeat to Liverpool – though Barkley only entered the game following the Brazilian’s equaliser.
But if we assume that he was down to take the penalty in the first place, it could be argued that Barkley’s teammates created more of a disturbance before his unfortunate miss.
Chelsea fans – who should be your penalty taker? Was Barkley right to take the responsibility? Let us know in the comments section below!
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