Frank Lampard - the Chelsea head coach - has admitted that he took the decision to leave out almost all of the club's young players from the match-day squad against Morecambe in an attempt to give his senior stars more first-team minutes.
The Blues head coach was expected to make wholesale changes to his starting line-up for the meeting with the League Two side, who arrived at Stamford Bridge aiming to pull off one of the biggest FA Cup shocks in recent history.
But much to everyone's amazement, Lampard opted to field a strong starting line-up, although he did make six changes to the side that was beaten by 3-1 Manchester City last weekend.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Antonio Rudiger, Billy Gilmour and Kai Havertz were amongst those to come in, but it still proved to be a far superior starting line-up than anyone could have predicted.
Aside from Faustino Anjorin being named on the substitutes bench, none of Chelsea's other young prospects were included.
Although they had featured in first-team training at the Blues' Cobham training base during the week, Lampard was not prepared to include them against the Shrimps, insisting members of the first-team squad were in need of more minutes.
“The youngsters have trained well with us but at the same time, sometimes you need to give first-team squad members a game to get some minutes," said Lampard.
Having fielded such a strong starting line-up, it is clear that Lampard knows he is fully aware that he needs to get his side back on track after a run of four Premier League defeats in their last six matches.
During that time, the Blues have won just once, defeating West Ham United 3-0 just prior to Christmas.
Though Lampard's decision to go with such a strong starting line-up could prove costly, particularly if any of them sustain any serious injuries, it could be a great opportunity for the likes of Timo Werner and Havertz to rediscover some confidence after poor runs of form.
