Frank Lampard has revealed the reason he refused to rush Christian Pulisic into the first-team despite the hue and cry from pundits criticizing him for not including the winger.

Chelsea fans were left raging on social media after Lampard decided to leave out Pulisic from his starting line-up to face Ajax.

Pulisic joined his Chelsea teammates in the summer after completing his £58million move from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea in January.

The American has not been active in the club’s first team. But things began to look good for him in Chelsea’s shirt with his stunning cameo in the Blues 1-0 victory over Newcastle last weekend.

He, again, came off the bench to play a major role in Chelsea’s 1-0 win away at Ajax on Wednesday night.

The 21-year-old came on for Willian after the hour mark at the Johan Cruyff ArenA and set up Michy Batshuayi’s winner with five minutes to play.

Pulisic latched onto a pass from Mason Mount on the left flank before running at Sergino Dest, where he then performed a series of step-overs and drilled a low cross into the box.

The goal gave Chelsea an impressive win over last year’s beaten semi-finalists, with the Blues now sitting atop their group.

And after the game, Lampard was full of praise for Pulisic, while explaining why he didn’t want to rush him into the first-team, report the Daily Mirror.

“The performance tonight and his last couple of performances off the bench show something of that of course, because he’s come on and made differences,” he said.

“In terms of handling him, I basically tried to shut my ears to too much of the outside talk.

“With a big player, there’s a lot said and if you listen to it all the time, you can wonder what you’re doing.

“I understood the quality of Christian. I understood his young age. He’s just turned 21 recently and it’s a big move for him.

“And I have other options for him in those areas. Let’s give him full credit.

“He wants to know what I want for him, what the PL is like, what his new team-mates are like, that’s not always going to be an easy road.

“I’ve just stayed calm with it, I see the big picture with him.

“I want him to be successful at this club because he’s a good lad, he wants to do very well, that’s very clear.

“Acting like he’s acting, training like he’s trained the last two or three weeks, playing like he’s played the last two or three weeks obviously makes me very, very happy.”