RB Salzburg manager Jesse Marsch has claimed Chelsea boss Frank Lampard had doubts about Christian Pulisic because he is American.

Lampard awarded Pulisic the No10 shirt for this season.

But Marsch claimed he had to put Lampard straight when speaking on Extratime Radio: "The perception in Europe, mostly, is that the American player is willing to run, willing to fight, has good mentality, but technically they're not very gifted and tactically they're not very aware and their experiences aren't very big.

"But we're seeing that change. We're seeing more and more of these players develop themselves.

"Even Frank Lampard, when I spoke to him in preseason a year ago now, I was talking to him about having Christian Pulisic and he was kind of like, 'Yeah, he's got a lot to learn so we'll see how he does'.

"I said to him, 'Listen, he was at Dortmund, and they had a high level of tactical thinking, of playing, and he was very successful'.

"I could see right away that Frank Lampard's idea of Christian Pulisic was shaped a lot by the fact that he was American and not that his football education came a lot from what has happened in Germany. Since then, I think Lampard has learned that Pulisic is a lot better than he gave him credit for."