Jamie Carragher has criticised Moises Caicedo for his “nightmare” debut for Chelsea in their 3-1 Premier League loss to West Ham on Sunday.
The Blues were the better side but James Ward-Prowse, making his Hammers debut, created goals for Nayef Aguerd and Michail Antonio, either side of Carney Chukwuemeka’s equaliser.
Enzo Fernandez had a penalty saved by Alphonse Areola and West Ham had to play the final 25 minutes a player down after Aguerd saw red.
Yet not only did David Moyes’ side cling on for a first win of the season, they wrapped it up in stoppage time.
While Chelsea’s £105million player missed a spot-kick, their £115million signing gave one away with Caicedo, on as a substitute, sending Emerson Palmieri tumbling and Lucas Paqueta converting the spot-kick.
And Carragher hit out at Caicedo – who turned down Liverpool for a move to Stamford Bridge this summer – on his Chelsea debut for making a “poor, lazy challenge” which led to the West Ham penalty that wrapped up the match.
The former Liverpool defender said on Sky Sports: “That man Caicedo has had a bit of a nightmare since he came on, you have to say.
“It’s a poor, lazy challenge. Emerson always knows he’ll get there before him. We all did watching it! He hasn’t started great since coming on.”
But former Liverpool team-mate Jamie Redknapp – who was also a pundit on Sky Sports – defended Caicedo’s debut over his lack of match fitness.
Redknapp added: “Caicedo hasn’t had any minutes for 60 days and you can see that rustiness. Only the manager knows whether he was ready and he isn’t quite there yet. He will get better. As it can only get better after giving a penalty on your debut.”
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino was still very upbeat about the Ecuador international after their loss to West Ham with the Argentine convinced Caicedo “will be a good player” for the Blues.
The former Tottenham manager said: “He was telling us he was ready, I think 30 minutes is good for him, many positive things and he is maybe disappointed but we need to move on and he will be a good player for us.
“I cannot change my speech after Liverpool we needed to believe in the process and we need to keep being clam and that is the process.”
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