Super Frank Lampard

[evissy]

I have always felt Frank is good under pressure. Not sure if that is the case. But I have faith in him in that sense.

You can already see the press is ramping up the pressure on their questions 'you say they are indiviual errors but don't you take any blame' 'are you thinking about bringing in a defensive coach'. These kind of questions are small sticks under Frank's fingernails.

Lose the Palace game with another set of individual mistakes and defensive lapses and the questions are 3 times worse. Easiest way to avoid all that sh*t is just to win. 

So there is extra pressure to win that even though Frank knows where we are going. 

I have full faith in the direction we are going. Remember just weeks ago when Frank said the early season is a nightmare when you can't prepare, new guys come in and we have injuries. These results are very much in line with that and there is no hint of lowering expectations either. 

Onwards and upwards. 

[Brutos]

People keep banging on about preseason every team in the league had the same experience of you didn't get enough matches in that's on you. 

Everton had 4 players in similar to other teams yet they do not look as clueless as we do. 

I think we reach a point where it really doesn't matter how bad we play or how tactically clueless we are it will always be the players fault which reminds me of current politics....

[Argo]

7 minutes ago, Brutos said:

Everton had 4 players in similar to other teams yet they do not look as clueless as we do. 

How convenient you cherry pick one of the very few teams that aren't suffering from this unusual pre season to try and prove a point.

What about United who could quite easily have shipped in ten goals in their first two games?

What about Spurs who needed two red cards to beat part time footballers in Europa?

What about City who shipped 5 goals at home to a team who scored a grand total of 4 goals against the top 8 away from home in the whole of last season?

What about PSG who lost their opening two league games?

Heck, what about Bayern, the very best team in Europe who were on a 20 something winning run getting slapped 4-1 by Hoffenheim, do you seriously think that would happen in normal circumstances? Oh and did I forget to mention Dortmund lost to Augsburg 2-0 the same matchday?

We get it you don't like Frank, which is your right, but don't make out that the after effects of a disturbed pre season is a myth, it isn't and even both of last season's CL finalists are suffering from it.

[big blue]

51 minutes ago, Brutos said:

People keep banging on about preseason every team in the league had the same experience of you didn't get enough matches in that's on you. 

Everton had 4 players in similar to other teams yet they do not look as clueless as we do. 

I think we reach a point where it really doesn't matter how bad we play or how tactically clueless we are it will always be the players fault which reminds me of current politics....

That isnt true, us and wolves had the shortest break, and the shortest pre-season, compounded by 8 or 9 covid cases. 

We played 1 preseason game, Wolves didnt play any.

Spurs, Everton, Liverpool, Leicester, all finished their season 2 weeks before us, and played at least 4 preseason games. 

Is it any wonder the 4 teams involved in europe in August have been a little off the pace, and both Manchester teams had an extra week to prepare. 

You only have to look at past preseason tours, where we might play a team in the middle of their season, to see that match sharpness can be a real leveller. 

There are problems that were there all last season, but the idea is that the new players will fix most of those problems, when they are all intergrated and up to speed. 

If the problems persist, after the new players have settled and are playing regularly, then for me it will be down to coaching, because we have bought quality this window. 

[Argo]

4 minutes ago, big blue said:

You only have to look at past preseason tours, where we might play a team in the middle of their season, to see that match sharpness can be a real leveller. . 

It can sure throw up some strange one's, didn't we lose 4-1 to New York Red Bulls U18's few years back? 

[big blue]

2 minutes ago, Argo said:

It can sure throw up some strange one's, didn't we lose 4-1 to New York Red Bulls U18's few years back? 

Forgot about that one! Was thinking of that korean team we lost or drew with last season.

[Kev56]

8 hours ago, Deino said:

What does that even mean? We pass backwards and sideways more than we give the ball to our attackers

This is my biggest piss off. I’m sure FL wants flowing attacking football like we all do, but we seem to be a million miles away from that. I’ve brought this up many times and been told ‘it’s the modern game’. For me it turgid boring crap. Pass, pass, pass back pass, slowly move forward get near their box then either- a. Loose possession or -b pass pass pass back into our own half.

[Andy2461]

10 hours ago, SlantyTown said:

Wenger in.

f**k off troll

[Bluesince66]

maybe jody isn't the right number 2.

[bisright1]

31 minutes ago, Bluesince66 said:

maybe jody isn't the right number 2.

On what grounds do you judge that? This opinion keeps cropping up and its complete nonsense. Same as Azpi shouldn't be our captain. 

No one can even have an opinion on those two things because you have to actually be in the team to know how that is working. It's just complete guesswork. 

I can criticise Lampard for putting out a team i disagree with. I can criticise Zouma for not clearing the cross last night. But no one can criticise an assistant manager for ... ? 

[coco]

This thread has completely separated the wheat from the chaff. Now we just need a good strong wind to come along.

[Frankie8Lampard]

2 hours ago, Argo said:

How convenient you cherry pick one of the very few teams that aren't suffering from this unusual pre season to try and prove a point.

What about United who could quite easily have shipped in ten goals in their first two games?

What about Spurs who needed two red cards to beat part time footballers in Europa?

What about City who shipped 5 goals at home to a team who scored a grand total of 4 goals against the top 8 away from home in the whole of last season?

What about PSG who lost their opening two league games?

Heck, what about Bayern, the very best team in Europe who were on a 20 something winning run getting slapped 4-1 by Hoffenheim, do you seriously think that would happen in normal circumstances? Oh and did I forget to mention Dortmund lost to Augsburg 2-0 the same matchday?

We get it you don't like Frank, which is your right, but don't make out that the after effects of a disturbed pre season is a myth, it isn't and even both of last season's CL finalists are suffering from it.

Couldn’t have said it any better. People are really downplaying the effect of a lack of preseason.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Frankie8Lampard

[Imran_CFC]

I think it comes down to what peoples expectations are if you are in the camp that you believe we should be right up there challenging and all our signings should be singing off the same hymn sheet immediately & miraculously our defense should be sorted considering we've brought in a new LB, CB and GK then Lampard needs to be sacked.

Alternatively if you see this as a project where we gradually see the team improve and when I say team I include Frank Lampard in that statement. So far this season we have not seen much of an improvement but it's only been 4 games where it's clear to see that we are still yet to see a settled 11 or even a settled formation. The likelihood is we will experience another season without silverware, but the target should be minimizing the gap to the top and finishing top 3. By all means if we are massively underperforming and languishing in the bottom half of the table ask those questions of the Manager but not 4 games into a new season where we've signed 6 new first team players.

I am fed up of the merry go round of Managers coming and going, we have a man here who is in the infancy of his Managerial career who clearly is learning on the job. If anything I think a priority should be to get an experienced number 2 around him as I think our whole management team lacks experience.

[dansubrosa]

Yeah the shed end forum has been infested by absolute bellends. Hopefully we will have a clear out and return the forum to how it was before.

[Hessleboink]

Long-time lurker -- felt compelled to post considering the trashing Lamps is getting from some posters. I think he'll need a lot more time this season before we can fully judge him. I'm not sure if it's a fitness thing, but we seem to be playing a bit more pragmatically this season without seeing any defensive improvement, which is a concern.

Yesterday, we really struggled to play the ball into either Giroud or Mount. I'm hoping (and expecting) another dimension to the attack once Ziyech and Pulisic are back. Despite all the money spent, the midfield looks very unbalanced. Mount, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic all seem to have a glaring weakness to their game, which makes picking a balanced midfield 3 very difficult. As much as I like Mount's off the ball work, I think it's quite likely that Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante is still our most balanced midfield 3 (at least, until we sort our defence out). But this presents massive issues when you look at the signings of Havertz and Werner. It will be interesting to see what formation Lampard has in mind, and that really could be make of break for him. I think a lot of us are coming around to the idea of Rice now, but it's baffling that he'd be left until last in that case.

Does anyone else worry that our passing/attacking patterns looked crisper in Lampard's first 6 months in charge? Could this be a hangover from Sarri's methods?

Edited September 30, 2020 by Hessleboink

[opinionsarelike]

36 minutes ago, Hessleboink said:

Does anyone else worry that our passing/attacking patterns looked crisper in Lampard's first 6 months in charge? Could this be a hangover from Sarri's methods?

Fully agree. Sarri (Failed Bank Clerk TM) got the basics down pretty well given that he only had a year (and a relatively short pre-season as well). We pressed very well, we played out from the back very well to the point that other teams stopped pressing us altogether and we had pretty much always the correct amount of distance between our lines. Mind you, this was with more or less the same group of players.

Now our pressing consist of our attackers running one by one, hoping that their appearance scare the opposing defenders enough to boot it up the field. Our passing out from the back is beyond a joke, where our defenders treat the ball like lava and unless Jorginho plays (yes, I know he has other flaws), none of our midfield players have the ability nor bottle to make themselves available at all times. Lastly, the distances we have between our lines makes us look more like an AFL team, only that they play on a pitch that’s twice as big.

These are all the basic, simple principles that Lampard has to get right before we can even dream about anything other than becoming a Tottenham or Arsenal-like club, where we place in the top four and play some good football, but ultimately fail to compete for any honors due to the fact that we don’t do the basics well.

Yes, we are still waiting for a couple of attacking players, but at this rate we would expect them to score at least three goals every game, because every match we play turn into a game of Pinball where we simply doesn’t have any clue about how to control a game.

Edited September 30, 2020 by opinionsarelike

[strider6004]

A bank clerk that is harsh, I read he was a trader a world of difference in Banking.

I think we need better defensive midfielders, I noticed last night Kante got booked for pulling back his man.

I looked at Rice on the Youtbe clip he goes shoulder to shoulder with his man knocking them off balance and puts in winning tackle. None of our midfielders can do that.

He has an engine too.

We wont be able to challenge until we get a midfield balance and I think we need better defensive minded midfielders. 

 

[Ernie_blue]

With so many new players a lack of pre season really hurts.

[forbzy]

1 hour ago, opinionsarelike said:

Fully agree. Sarri (Failed Bank Clerk TM) got the basics down pretty well given that he only had a year (and a relatively short pre-season as well). We pressed very well, we played out from the back very well to the point that other teams stopped pressing us altogether and we had pretty much always the correct amount of distance between our lines. Mind you, this was with more or less the same group of players.

Now our pressing consist of our attackers running one by one, hoping that their appearance scare the opposing defenders enough to boot it up the field. Our passing out from the back is beyond a joke, where our defenders treat the ball like lava and unless Jorginho plays (yes, I know he has other flaws), none of our midfield players have the ability nor bottle to make themselves available at all times. Lastly, the distances we have between our lines makes us look more like an AFL team, only that they play on a pitch that’s twice as big.

These are all the basic, simple principles that Lampard has to get right before we can even dream about anything other than becoming a Tottenham or Arsenal-like club, where we place in the top four and play some good football, but ultimately fail to compete for any honors due to the fact that we don’t do the basics well.

Yes, we are still waiting for a couple of attacking players, but at this rate we would expect them to score at least three goals every game, because every match we play turn into a game of Pinball where we simply doesn’t have any clue about how to control a game.

Interesting point about Sarri. Although I didn't really see too many on this forum who were disappointed when Sarri left. Then again I think most of the people calling for Lampard to be shown the door were saying similar about Sarri, Conte,...They are nothing if not consistent.

[bisright1]

3 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Interesting point about Sarri. Although I didn't really see too many on this forum who were disappointed when Sarri left. Then again I think most of the people calling for Lampard to be shown the door were saying similar about Sarri, Conte,...They are nothing if not consistent.

I continue to believe we would have had a better season last year under Sarri. I didn't want him to leave. Things were improving, our attack was getting more fluid. We were consistently dispatching of every team home and away who were worse than us. The foundations were built. And then we had to start again. 

Sarri continues to be blamed for everything that went wrong and not praised for anything that went right. Hazard had his best season despite Sarri. RLC and CHO broke into the first team despite Sarri.  

Lots of our players have gone backwards since lampard joined. However I hope it's temporary. I wouldn't even think about getting rid of lampard during the season unless we clearly aren't competing for top 4. Anyone who does is probably the same people who asked for Sarri to get sacked after January. 

[dkw]

2 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

With so many new players a lack of pre season really hurts.

I dont think people realise the impact this is having, coupled with the daft timing of the international games and also the timings of getting the signings in. The whole thing is a difficult situation for any manager, let alone a pretty inexperienced one.

[Brutos]

11 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I continue to believe we would have had a better season last year under Sarri. I didn't want him to leave. Things were improving, our attack was getting more fluid. We were consistently dispatching of every team home and away who were worse than us. The foundations were built. And then we had to start again. 

Sarri continues to be blamed for everything that went wrong and not praised for anything that went right. Hazard had his best season despite Sarri. RLC and CHO broke into the first team despite Sarri.  

Lots of our players have gone backwards since lampard joined. However I hope it's temporary. I wouldn't even think about getting rid of lampard during the season unless we clearly aren't competing for top 4. Anyone who does is probably the same people who asked for Sarri to get sacked after January. 

Sarri is the cause of our defensive woes, he's the reason Kepa is the way he is, Rudi has gone backwards along with Christensen. 

sh*t he's the reason Jorginho is here

Sarri's fault we conceded more Goals away from home than any other team...🧐

[forbzy]

13 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I continue to believe we would have had a better season last year under Sarri. I didn't want him to leave. Things were improving, our attack was getting more fluid. We were consistently dispatching of every team home and away who were worse than us. The foundations were built. And then we had to start again. 

Sarri continues to be blamed for everything that went wrong and not praised for anything that went right. Hazard had his best season despite Sarri. RLC and CHO broke into the first team despite Sarri.  

Lots of our players have gone backwards since lampard joined. However I hope it's temporary. I wouldn't even think about getting rid of lampard during the season unless we clearly aren't competing for top 4. Anyone who does is probably the same people who asked for Sarri to get sacked after January. 

It is hard to know for sure whether Sarri would have done as well given the loss of our best player in Hazard. There were indications that he was willing to integrate the youth players which would have been necessary given the transfer freeze. But some of this most promising younger players towards the end of that season (RLC and CHO) would have been unavailable for most of last season and we looked pretty turgid beyond those bright sparks and Hazard. Certainly one issue we have had is a lack of overall strategy from the club since we seem to change direction every year or so with a new manager. If Lampard goes we would likely have yet another change of direction and have to return to further rebuilding.

[abramovich]

2 hours ago, opinionsarelike said:

Fully agree. Sarri (Failed Bank Clerk TM) got the basics down pretty well given that he only had a year (and a relatively short pre-season as well). We pressed very well, we played out from the back very well to the point that other teams stopped pressing us altogether and we had pretty much always the correct amount of distance between our lines. Mind you, this was with more or less the same group of players.

Now our pressing consist of our attackers running one by one, hoping that their appearance scare the opposing defenders enough to boot it up the field. Our passing out from the back is beyond a joke, where our defenders treat the ball like lava and unless Jorginho plays (yes, I know he has other flaws), none of our midfield players have the ability nor bottle to make themselves available at all times. Lastly, the distances we have between our lines makes us look more like an AFL team, only that they play on a pitch that’s twice as big.

These are all the basic, simple principles that Lampard has to get right before we can even dream about anything other than becoming a Tottenham or Arsenal-like club, where we place in the top four and play some good football, but ultimately fail to compete for any honors due to the fact that we don’t do the basics well.

Yes, we are still waiting for a couple of attacking players, but at this rate we would expect them to score at least three goals every game, because every match we play turn into a game of Pinball where we simply doesn’t have any clue about how to control a game.

Very well put.

[opinionsarelike]

I am not one of the revisionists in regards to Sarri. Think he’s a very good coach, think he did a great job here; but given the way the relationship with particularly the match going fans got rough, he had to move on. That’s life.

Lampard was the correct hiring at the correct time. He did a very good job last year, albeit some of it due to the fact that he wasn’t Sarri (One Of Us TM). This is not that different to what Di Matteo did after Villas-Boas was here. I will say one thing as well, the players we’ve gotten now wouldn’t be here if Lampard didn’t sell his project well to Marina and Roman. Sarri, who wasn’t interested, nor Conte, who has the charm of a spoiled toddler, wouldn’t get Roman to buy him anything other than the bare necessities. This is a great ability to have as a coach.

Unfortunately, and this is my opinion, that’s his by a country mile best attribute; he’s a good talker. He says the right things at the right time. However, it’s time to put the money where the mouth is. Never mind trolls on Twitter or here, Roman will demand improvements, and improvements rapidly. The excuses will only carry him to a certain point, and if he gets Declan Rice (still think he’s completely mediocre and will have a career likened to Scott Parker, where he’ll eventually find his role in a Spurs-like team) i think he has to deliver one of BPL or CL this or next season.

Edited September 30, 2020 by opinionsarelike