Frank needs to take a leaf out of Jose's book and play some more experienced players like Alonso and Giroud over these young guys. Maybe then we can scrape a 1-0 win after holding on to dear life for the last half hour

33 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

Frank needs to take a leaf out of Jose's book and play some more experienced players like Alonso and Giroud over these young guys. Maybe then we can scrape a 1-0 win after holding on to dear life for the last half hour

42 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

Frank needs to take a leaf out of Jose's book and play some more experienced players like Alonso and Giroud over these young guys. Maybe then we can scrape a 1-0 win after holding on to dear life for the last half hour

Eventually he'll see sense 

23 minutes ago, robdog said:

I prefer not to speak 🤐

At this stage, really couldn't have asked for any more and I bet even Lamps himself is pleasantly surprised at just how well things are going.

Under Sarri, so much was masked by our two world class players - Hazard and Kante. Let's face it with no Hazard last season it would have been bang average. Can't believe that Lamps has put a squad together where we are no longer reliant on one or two players and everyone is now contributing and playing a part.

We are so much better to watch and with all these youngsters it's just sheer joy watching it all unfold. And it's refreshing to hear so many pundits and ex-pro's waxing lyrical about us rather than being only to happy to have a dig and stick the knife in as they have in the past.

Happy Days are here again!!

i think the beauty of SFL's management is how the simplicity of play he encourages.. and how most people seem to know the role they have to play.. typically depending on which area of the pitch there are two options for each player.... its not that difficult to predict what our team will do once they reach a particular part of the pitch..  though stopping it is another..

If you look at the state United, Spurs and Arsenal are in right now, those three teams in particular were rubbing their hands at this and laughing about it. We are currently in a great position thanks to Frank, what a job he has done so far, I never saw this coming. 

Most of the time former legends coming to manage their clubs doesn't work, this doesn't appear to be the case. What impresses me most is not just our wins, it's how well we play, you look at those other 3 teams I mentioned, they can't play football to save their lives, Arsenal went life and death with Palace and had to score 2 set pieces, we absolutely destroyed them, their only clear chance was a set piece. 

We are currently playing amazing football, but we just need to be more clinical and sort out that set piece defending. 

Also, I'm sick of international breaks, they've done us dirty this season, if Kante gets injured again I'm going to be so pissed off. 

If you think that Frankie was a fabulous player, who played under some fabulous coaches, also being intelligent, articulate, and a great footballing brain, he was always destined to be a good un, next couple of years are going to be scintillating to watch under his stewardship.

Edited November 10, 20196 yr by Ballack & Blu

Enjoying the ride. Some painful defeats along the way but a joy. 

So many players have improved it's almost unbelievable.

Jorginho is more positive and dictates the games now

Kova is more dynamic and it makes a world of difference to his game

Pulisic was never the type to shoot on sight or went for goals. He used to be Hazard-lite and a bit too nice at times

Mount wasn't this industrious

Zouma had low confidence

He gave the youth a chance and they've repaid him quite well for now

 

While I argued long and hard in favour of Frank's appointment, I never saw this coming. I thought Frank would bring the club together, he would lift morale, and he would introduce the kids. I also thought we would struggle with the ban, without Hazard, with an inexperienced team and an inexperienced manager. I thought we would end up nearer the foot of the table than the top. That was my prediction. How stupid that looks now. With Spurs, Arsenal and Utd all struggling we have a real chance to surpass expectations and get that top four spot. Frank has done brilliantly, I think better than we all imagined. He's getting the better of seasoned experienced managers, like Dyche, Hodgson and Nuno. More than that, we're playing great football, with 5 or 6 kids featuring every week. It's incredible really. We've played a lot of teams in the bottom half and we have real tests to come, and a win against a big team would do Frank and these kids a lot of good, but right now it couldn't be going any better. Well done to all involved.

3 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

While I argued long and hard in favour of Frank's appointment, I never saw this coming. I thought Frank would bring the club together, he would lift morale, and he would introduce the kids. I also thought we would struggle with the ban, without Hazard, with an inexperienced team and an inexperienced manager. I thought we would end up nearer the foot of the table than the top. That was my prediction. How stupid that looks now. With Spurs, Arsenal and Utd all struggling we have a real chance to surpass expectations and get that top four spot. Frank has done brilliantly, I think better than we all imagined. He's getting the better of seasoned experienced managers, like Dyche, Hodgson and Nuno. More than that, we're playing great football, with 5 or 6 kids featuring every week. It's incredible really. We've played a lot of teams in the bottom half and we have real tests to come, and a win against a big team would do Frank and these kids a lot of good, but right now it couldn't be going any better. Well done to all involved.

The way we're seeing off these bottom half teams is what gives me the confidence we will eventually challenge, quite possibly as early as next season.

Up against City and Liverpool we will have to be near perfect against sides outside the top 7 (and probably win all top 7 home games aswell which will probably kill us a bit as far as this season's concerned) and the way we have approached these games since September have been excellent. Brighton, Newcastle and Palace could barely breathe coming here (did any of them create anything in those games? Brighton hit the outside of the bar but I can't think of anything else) and away from home we have despatched Saints, Burnley and Watford with minimum fuss (would have been no fuss if VAR didn't decide to give Watford a phantom spot kick)

21 hours ago, Nibs said:

At this stage, really couldn't have asked for any more and I bet even Lamps himself is pleasantly surprised at just how well things are going.

Under Sarri, so much was masked by our two world class players - Hazard and Kante. Let's face it with no Hazard last season it would have been bang average. Can't believe that Lamps has put a squad together where we are no longer reliant on one or two players and everyone is now contributing and playing a part.

We are so much better to watch and with all these youngsters it's just sheer joy watching it all unfold. And it's refreshing to hear so many pundits and ex-pro's waxing lyrical about us rather than being only to happy to have a dig and stick the knife in as they have in the past.

Happy Days are here again!!

Plus the fact, much as I loved Eden Hazard and what he did for us, sometimes single handedly, it is also quite refreshing to go into an international break without Hazard hanging his ar$ehole out to Real Madrid again.

You can tell that none of our lads see this as a stepping stone. These boys want to play for each other, want to play for Frank and want to be Chelsea heroes.

On 09/11/2019 at 21:09, Gol15 said:

Why is he not playing him?

Oh my God - what is he doing?

He made a mistake coming to Chelsea. 😐

He needs to leave right now and get some minutes or the USMT is finished. :[ 

Oh... Wait.

What's this...? 😛

 

(How quickly things change in football.

A month or so ago it was all doom and gloom for pulisic according to some. A month ago Kurt Zouma was being blasted from every direction and even being racially abused by 'fans' (scum).

Now these two, along with Kovacic, are looking like the top three strongest performers. )

 

The fans are living in a dream world atm.

I don't think anyone could have realistically wished for a better first third/quarter of the season. 

Young club legend as a manager. Likeable with club, rival fans and media.

Giving the youth chances to shine and instilling confidence in players who looked out of sorts. 

Second in the league and playing good, attacking, enjoyable football with a young squad. 

It could take a downward turn at this point with the busy period approaching but hopefully with the decent amount of rotation already and his willingness to use others when he can it will minimise the extent of any dip that could be approaching. 

(Rudiger, Christensen, Loftus-Cheek all returning should help as well.)

Worth pointing out that after 12 league games we have a 9 point gap over Arsenal, 10 over United and 12 over Spurs.

That is quite a handsome lead. If we maintain it puts all the pressure on them when we play them.

Frank and Jody have put a real identity on this team. We play fast, incisive passing football and chase down everything. Its hard for the opposition to retain possession and it wears them down. Palace defended well in the first half but the Kovacic, Willian and Abraham move was just too quick for them. Passing between the lines and quick movement will open up most teams so lets see if we can repeat moves like this further down the line.

I think one of the problems Frank will have is actually keeping a lid on the expectations and keeping the players in the moment. He can't let minds wander and must keep the focus on the next game. Its not so easy with the International break as most of the squad are away but maybe he can use this as a positive. Palace and Ajax will be further into the dim and distant and City will be just around the corner. City are on the back of defeat against Liverpool and will be wanting a win. This match is key to how the season will pan out and even though we would stay in the top 4 with a loss we would feel some hurt and it would highlight any faults we may, or may not have. A win would be very encouraging and no doubt start talk of catching Liverpool. Dare we dream?

Another potential problem Frank may encounter is player burn out. The energy levels our style of play requires are very high. We chase everything down when the opposition have the ball and to then go on an attack afterwards takes huge reserves of energy. I'm amazed at Willians levels at the moment but it wouldn't surprise me if he started to falter later in the season. I think we leave ourselves open if we change our tactics and sit back so we have to keep going. Franks management of the whole squad will be crucial and the fact we have some real quality coming back from injury is a positive. We will need the whole squad and rotation will become more important. Maybe CHO can play a bit more but I worry about Gilmour and Pedro.

Overall we are exceeding expectations so far and maybe we can continue doing this. I'm not expecting anything at the moment and am just enjoying the ride. Having said this top 4 is starting to look a possibility now and I just hope we can fend off complacency and burn out.

10 minutes ago, Andy North said:

Frank and Jody have put a real identity on this team. We play fast, incisive passing football and chase down everything.

Dare i say we look a lot like Liverpool? Which is a huge compliment as they are the best team in Europe currently.
 

12 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Dare i say we look a lot like Liverpool? Which is a huge compliment as they are the best team in Europe currently.
 

I nearly said that but haven't watched Liverpool that closely this season. Can Liverpool keep up the high energy performances? Do they have the depth of squad to rotate without losing quality?

They will probably have enough to go on and win the PL this season but if we continue to improve and buy well we could challenge next year.

4 minutes ago, Andy North said:

I nearly said that but haven't watched Liverpool that closely this season. Can Liverpool keep up the high energy performances? Do they have the depth of squad to rotate without losing quality?

They will probably have enough to go on and win the PL this season but if we continue to improve and buy well we could challenge next year.

I think they do unfortunately as they certainly did last season with their 98 points.

I agree with your second point, they will be too strong for us this season but i think we could very well have a real go at the title next season. That's much earlier than i expected when we appointed Lampard but he's that good.

32 minutes ago, Sindre said:

I think they do unfortunately as they certainly did last season with their 98 points.

I agree with your second point, they will be too strong for us this season but i think we could very well have a real go at the title next season. That's much earlier than i expected when we appointed Lampard but he's that good.

They have been very lucky with injuries these past 2 seasons though.. if they lost VVD and Mane for example they could start to wobble

3 hours ago, Sindre said:

Dare i say we look a lot like Liverpool? Which is a huge compliment as they are the best team in Europe currently.
 

But without the bent refs and w@nkfest of ex-player punditry

5 hours ago, Sindre said:

Dare i say we look a lot like Liverpool? Which is a huge compliment as they are the best team in Europe currently.

I think a fairer comparison to our team right now will be to compare a top team in their early stage of development as opposed to them now and with that mind I'd say we were more similar to City than Liverpool.

Like City early Pep we're dominating games due to the sheer strength of our midfield but games are becoming a lot more closer than they should be due to our failure to finish teams off and/or them taking their few chances. We will (like them) probably get 2/3 hammerings on the way but it will be for the greater good.

Liverpool early Klopp were the total opposite to what we are now, they thrived on the big games but they didn't have the creativity or the patience to break down parked buses which led to a series of avoidable dropped points.

Anyone see Jody Morris tweet in response to Jose’s comments? Not sure it’s wise right before City away. Plus our record in big games hasn’t been brilliant. Jose is somewhat right.