Frankie8Lampard

I guess it depends on the striker the board/Frank are looking for. From the players we have been linked with, it seems they are looking for someone already established versus someone that has potential and will possibly grow into a top player. AKA a quick fix until the end of the season or until we actually find someone worth spending big on. Dembele and Cavani look like the only established strikers that you can get for a reasonable price this window unless you are willing to go out and spend money in the 100million range. Not that I support this strategy, but that looks like the direction they are going. The rumours about Cavani's costs also have me concerned.

Wow that's really expensive! I'd rather we go into the rest of the season with just Tammy then pay that kind of money.

Tbh! That's close to what I said in the league prediction thread earlier. Everyone challenging for top 4 is so poor that its almost impossible to tell if the tables will remain like this or they will change. Last season, for example, I didn't think we were going to finish 3rd but everyone was so sh*t it turned out to be a good chance once we were able to pull just two or three wins together. Ill be curious to see the point tally at the end of this season compared to last season for everyone below city and liverpool.

Im switching from 4th to 3rd - 6th. We are as sh*t as the teams around so at this point it is a lottery depending on several factors such as whether we will spend in january, whether they will spend, whether we will pick up form, whether they will pick up form etc. Even Leicester is starting to drop form so we can finish as high as 3rd or as low as 6th depending on those factors. In a way, it reminds me of last season.

Yeah definetley at fault for both of them now that I'm recalling the other goal. If we are going to panic buy I hope at least the board just go all out and spend. No point going down the Drinkwater and co route again.

I blame him for the second goal. He had the chance and time to kick the ball out of play or upfield so that Tammy could get treated but instead decided to keep the ball in play as if we were the team looking to score. That's not even mentioning his poor performances. It's looking like we might have to panic buy a LB before the window closes, unfortunately.

We had a good thing going before the International break and ever since Frank started tinkering, the balance and rhythm of the team has been upset. Now I don't even think things will revert back to the way they were if he switched things back. Its going to be a mountain to climb for the rest of the season if we keep playing like this.

I used to write off Kepa as not being part of the problem but now I think he is very much part of the problem. Time to start scouting for other keepers to sign and at least challenge him.

I dont think people are suggesting Tammy is better than him. I think people are just concerned that Tammy, after having a good first half of the season, will be dropped for Cavani. That is, the previous status quo of youth getting dropped for established players continuing. I personally don't see that happening and its going to be the other way around where Cavani will have to earn his spot in the team since he's the new signing. If Cavani can out score Tammy then he will rightfully deserve his spot to start and it will add a dose of healthy competition in our attack which is something we have lacked for the last few years years. Usually there's just one striker (or no striker) scoring and when he gets injured we are in trouble.

He wouldn't be my first choice as a back-up striker but if Lampard wants him then I'm okay. Last thing I'd want is for us to go on another cycle of the media going at each other about the board not buying a manager's targets. It happened two times out of our last three managers and the end product wasn't good.

I dont think he's being signed to drop Tammy. He's just being signed to replace Giroud who was on the bench. Cavani is going to be Tammy's back-up and not the other way around.

That's actually what came to my mind a few days ago. I wanted lampard to open the cheque book in January but looking at the options available, or the players other top teams are linked to, it doesn't seem like there are a lot of players available that will improve our squad

Frank's struggle to balance the midfield is becoming a major concern. It seems he doesn't want to play Kovacic beside Jorginho anymore and I'm wondering whether that has to do with him worrying about defensive frailties. My argument to that is that Kante in the team isn't even improving our defence because he is playing upfield on the pitch. I don't have the stats with me but I think we have conceded as many goals under Kovacic-Jorginho as we are doing under Kante-Jorginho/Kante-Kovacic. The difference, however, is that even though we conceded goals under Kovacic-Jorginho, we were scoring goals from every part of the pitch. Now getting one goal from our striker is even lucky. I'd rather we score 4 goals and concede 2 than score no goals and concede a late lone goal.

I don't think people are acting like clowns. There is a genuine concern especially since most of the games we've dropped points this season have all followed the same patter. We play great football, can't score, and then the other team ends up scoring on their only opportunity. It's completely justified for fans to criticize/complain.

No point blaming Kepa. This loss goes far deeper than Kepa considering the same thing has happened everytime Frank sets up with this kind of midfield.