Argo

Quite ironic Conte has now chased two signings from his second season transfer windows here given he was constantly using those windows to justify his failings that year.

I think the issue with the CB's run deeper than with them personally. While I fully accept they're not the best set of defenders in the world they haven't been dealt a good hand, remember even JT himself looked pretty pants in similar circumstances (AVB's highline). Firstly Lampard keeps chopping and changing. We had a decent record in the Autumn with Zouma and Tomori and apart from set pieces we looked pretty solid, why did we mess with that so soon? Likewise before the break Zouma and Rudi were forming a solid partnership and we kept back to back clean sheets (pretty easily as well). Pick Zouma with either Fik or Rudi (as they're the pairs that have worked) and stick with them. Also there's Kepa's form this season and our wastefulness at the other end, again for all our defenses bad moments, how many times now have we dominated a game only to drop points due to one or sometimes both of those factors? It puts a lot of pressure on the defense knowing they can be good for all bar one moment of the match and that still not be enough far too many times. If we can sort one or both of those issues out all of a sudden the problem isn't even half as bad. That said I do want upgrades on them at some point but I think better attack and Kepa upgrade will help improve things a lot quicker than buying new CBs.

City have Fernandinho (and wanted Jorginho as his successor), PSG have Verrati, Real Madrid have Modric and Kroos, Barcelona have De Jong who's Busquets long term successor (the latter won his place over more "traditional DM" Keita and box to box Yaya), De Jong was also by far the most crucial player to the Ajax team that became a story in the CL. The only real exception to the rule are Liverpool. If not a regista a player who can dictate from deep helps a lot. Also it's not just in terms of dictating and playing out that having a regista gives you a tactical edge, it's also in their ability to naturally drop between the two centre half's basically giving the team the chance to seemlessy switch between 433/343 at the drop of a hat, City especially do that a lot, for reference look at the build up to their 2nd goal against Burnley the other week.

Usually after a bad result has particularly annoyed me I eventually look at it in a bit more context and feel a bit better on refection, not today, if anything it's got me even more wound up. The main reason being it was totally avoidable, I have got a bit of stick for being critical despite the three wins last week but I was doing it for a reason and that was because I could see a night like this coming from Mars. Even if we got away with it last night (which we nearly did as Giroud should have scored near the end) I still would have felt worried as it was only kicking the can down the road, make no mistake this was coming, if it didn't happen tonight it would have been Bramal Lane or Selhurst Park (possibly even Watford at home), still could be if no lessons are learned! If that was our best line up I'd suck it up until there's a chance to change things, but it wasn't, EVERY SINGLE PLAYER who was part of that incredible smashing of Everton (which was probably our best and most complete performance since the same fixture in Conte's title season) have been available since the restart, why haven't we seen that lineup (exception being Pulisic in instead of Pedro) again? and worse than that, why has the catalyst for that display only been seen in 50 minutes out of position in 4 games? That game (and the Liverpool game) were beautiful, it looked like we finally found our best core of players, best system, the style of play was mesmerising and it didn't even last another game, ripped up for sh*t on a stick football where a player that wasn't even playing for us that afternoon is now having to bail us out constantly, just how? Another thing really annoying me are the CB issues. I'm not Zouma's biggest fan but him and Rudiger were slowly forming a really good partnership before the break, WHY THE HELL HAS THAT BEEN TINKERED WITH? I'm one of the minority that think while our CBs will never be world class (apart from potentially Fik) they've been dealt a bad hand with Kepa's form and constantly being rotated about, pick Zouma with either Fik or Rudi keep them there and all off a sudden things won't look too bad. Don't get me started (again) on Kante always being picked AND playing 90 minutes no matter what, it was bad enough earlier on in the season but Frank still hasn't learned his lesson. The fact he's still being selected means either Lampard genuinely thinks we're actually better with him in the team despite all the evidence and metrics saying otherwise or he's playing him because of what he was/is at his very best. I hate being critical of him (Kante) as he's one of my favourite all time players for the club and I'll always appreciate the difference he made when he arrived but that's one thing with me, I'm so club/team orientated that I don't have trouble letting my head rule my heart (Drogba is my all time favorite and i was against him returning in 2014). Also with Mount in the side, we don't even miss Kante's engine as much as we use too. Then there's the regista issue. Some people don't seem to want to embrace the idea of a regista because they're all on the "traditional DM" idea and can't be moved, but it's actually one of the most important positions in the modern game, having players who can dictate from deep at a high level are absolute gold dust in the modern game, we've got not only one but two and neither are being played, and in favour of putting a box to box player there (therefore neglecting his best attribute), that's Mourinho lite. Frank's a young manager so I will give him the time to fix this sh*t especially as I have seen serious promise with him (if this was an experienced manager pulling this I'd be going full Claude) but if these tactics and selections are the "new normal" then *yikes*.

I disagree, he had a quiet winter period but September/October he was fantastic as he was post Christmas until he got injured again, in one of his recent games against Arsenal he created around 5/6 clear chances. All the metrics I've seen back up what I feel and are pointing to a top top player (if he avoids injuries). Also I don't think he's a darling with the fans these days, I think there's a bit of general resentment with him (not by me personally) ever since the contract issue.

CHO does, it's why i'm partly hoping Ziyech plays CM/CAM for us.

Add a (hopefully) injury free Hudson Odoi to the mix.

I think a major issue with Kante is we will get 6-7's out of 10 but the Kante we saw under Conte and at Leicester just doesn't appear in possession based 3 man midfields. His niche is a 2 man midfield in counter attack set up's with a sitter behind him. He's still a good option to have despite that but he absolute shouldn't be an undisputed starter (same with Rudiger).

Actually @Gol15 instead of this back and fourth i've got a better idea. It's quite clear that your preference is to see Kante as a sitting DM long term, so how about you explain why and give us detailed reasoning. What do you see watching him in that position that makes you think it can work long term and we can get back to competing for the title?

You haven't created any argument. Your "reasoning" behind Kante carrying on being selected is we shouldn't change a winning team, but then totally contradicted yourself when another example was brought up.

Ah the old "i've lost the argument so i'm going to start name calling".

The best way to protect the defense is keeping possession and playing on the front foot.

It was an issue similar to how it is for City, it's there but winning most weeks so don't matter as much. On another note my expectations for the season and how i'm assessing Lampard have changed. Before the return i would have not had a negative word to say if we finished anywhere in the top 7 because i assumed we would carry on with the building process and if that came at the expense of top 4 then that's f**k it, bigger picture. However now we've resorted to sh*t house selections and tactics, he has to justify that by getting results, so top 4 and the Cup final.

God, now i know what it must be like trying to converse with Ty from AFTV.

I'm more worried that he's tinkered with working formula's not once but twice. As much as our set plays need improvement were they a big deal in the Autumn when we won 9 in 11? Were they a problem vs Everton and Liverpool pre lockdown? Zouma and one of Rudi/Tomori together. Jorgi/Billy, Kova, Mount midfield. Go back to what was working so well for god sake. Go back to the team that looked promising and go from there. If we lose top 4 due to growing pains then f**k it, our ultimate goal is to build a side to challenge City and Liverpool and the longer these sh*thouse selections get rolled out the more regression we make on said ultimate goal.