Watching his presser before Luton right now and my word does he look knackered. 

Called out Twomey for his negative pieces in the Athletic lately as well.

17 hours ago, ozboy said:

I support the idea of a long term manager. It would be great if it was Frank as he is an absolute club legend not just with performance as a player but for his character. But I still wish he would have cut his teeth somewhere else as a manager so he would have a track record to fall back on when the things go wrong. 
Can you imagine bui=yomg a player with one season at Derby where nothing of consequence was achieved and making him a star player at Chelsea? Would never happen. 
what ever you think about Sarri and Conte and Mourinho and Ancelotti they had excellent track records before and except for Sarri after Chelsea. 
I know Guardioa didn’t have much background either so it can be done but if Frank had actually got Derby into the premier league it would be better. 

The style that Conte brought and the Style that Sarri brought were very clear. Look at what Ancelotti has done with Everton in a short space of time. Everton aren’t going to win anything but the supporters are likely a lot happier than they were. 

I agree and as I said the other day, Pep had more grounding than we realise, he spent time prior to Barcelona learning from a "mentor" in Mexico.

5 hours ago, Slojo said:

Because we're playing much better now? I would say the last month of performances have just been as bad as Sarri-ball at its worst. 

You nailed it, The last month!! And you want our manager sacked, Dear o Dear our fanbase these days

17 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

With Kante back I expect to see Frank utilise 4231 more. I haven't voted because I prefer to see what the majority think without my input. I think being a new member on here may mean I lack credibility on here but I'd like to think I'm one of the voices of reason.

Seems simple to me, the football is bad now no question but Frank has us in the last 16 of the ucl I think we all expect to win the next 2 rounds of the fa cup and whilst the league position isn't great we are literally at the half way mark.

I think its fair to be conflicted and want better football, whilst also wanting Frank to succeed. For me Frank needs to do what he did last season and show us he is flexible, one of the reasons we heralded him was because he showed tactically he could adapt to the opposition 433, 4231, 343 (3421). With more players he should have more flexibility yet he has been more rigid this season. I believe Frank has the tools to get us out of this slump and so I'm actually in the let him stay camp for now....assuming he shows us he can adapt to his players not just force them to play one way.

I hope you are right but I am dreading the next round in the CL and Norwich away in the FA Cup is a wee bit of concern too.

14 hours ago, Wearyourblue said:

I think Pulisic's struggles are due to our tactics, he seems to want him running in early to leave overlapping space for Chillwell. Our system right now congests the flanks too much, winger play doesn't matter much in our current system, it's just hold the ball up for our outside defenders to run forward and around them, then pass the ball to the outside back for the cross in and hope.

I think FL like Mount a lot but has no idea how to use him, and it's hurting the whole squad. The question that must be asked of Mount is if he were on United, City, or Liverpool where would he play? I think the only answer is deeper on the field - and to cut our pressing on everything, and do it only in a coordinated way, picking moments. If our wingers stay wider they have more space to work, our outside defenders don't have to overlap so far up the field so often, and we are countered less.

I agree about Pulisic and he needs to get the ball earlier when he still has space in front of him but for some reason over the last few weeks Chillwell has always played the ball square or backwards rather than down the line for Pelusic to run into.

6 minutes ago, pcmacca said:

I hope you are right but I am dreading the next round in the CL and Norwich away in the FA Cup is a wee bit of concern too.

I must have missed Norwich beating Barnsley 😉. Not to mention us beating Luton for that matter.

Edited January 22, 20215 yr by forbzy

33 minutes ago, chi blue said:

 

Quote

Quote

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 20215 yr by Argo

5 hours ago, Bob stark said:

We have been beaten by good/decent team

Everton, Arsenal, city, Leicester. 

This has been the story this season. 

Sorry but I have to disagree. The story of the season PL is that we haven't beaten any good team in the PL nor looked like doing so.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Half decent keepers don't let that in, it was almost straight at him. I've seen Mendy face similar shots and he just plucked them out of the sky with minimum fuss.

It was going across him and rising as it hit the bar and went in. Plucking it out of the sky ? Thats a stretch, and a huge stretch, even for a tall keeper like Mendy. Maybe with faster reflexes Kepa coud've got a hand to it (with no guarantee of keeping it out given the power in the shot).

But the worst moment of the game for me was not any of the goals but when a liverpool freekick passed across the goal and a yard away from kepa and the defence shouted for him to collect it but he stayed frozen to his line. 

4 hours ago, Osgoodwasgood said:

I don't want it to seem that im obsessed with Defending Frank, but if I feel its valid I will fight his corner.

Every manager that comes in is expected to work with whats on the table, Frank has his own Blueprint for how he wants his side to play.

Apart from Silva and Chilwell, all the other players in the defensive third of the pitch(in my opinion a vital catalyst for his Blueprint) were already at the club.

I appreciate that when he arrived and given that we were under the transfer ban, there were several areas that the club felt needed strengthening and accordingly splashed 200m.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I don't feel that the 200m they spent has addressed all of the deficiancies, 90m on Havertz, 50m on Chilwell is a large chunk of that outlay, would it not be a sensible idea to perhaps further invest on the areas where we are particularly weak, CDM and CD before dispensing with his services and not fully knowing whether his blueprint would have worked.

I wish he would explain his blueprint to everyone else.

6 minutes ago, pcmacca said:

I agree about Pulisic and he needs to get the ball earlier when he still has space in front of him but for some reason over the last few weeks Chillwell has always played the ball square or backwards rather than down the line for Pelusic to run into.

Thats been the story of our attack for few years now. Afraid to lose the ball more than the desire to attack the box. 

20 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Watching his presser before Luton right now and my word does he look knackered. 

Called out Twomey for his negative pieces in the Athletic lately as well.

Not nice. 😞

1 hour ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Behind Reece James, wanted to develop and we didn't stand in his way.

I also believe there is a better right back than both of James and Lamptey just about to break through from the Acacemy - Livramento. He has pace, can cross the ball with pace and can also defend properly, not leaving forwards to have free headers and shots.

24 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I must have missed Norwich beating Barnsley 😉. Not to mention us beating Luton for that matter.

You didn't but I was only responding to someone who strongly suggested the next 2 rounds of the Cup were in the bag so he meant that Chelsea had already beaten Luton and then I predicted it would be Norwich afterwards.

7 minutes ago, pcmacca said:

I also believe there is a better right back than both of James and Lamptey just about to break through from the Acacemy - Livramento. He has pace, can cross the ball with pace and can also defend properly, not leaving forwards to have free headers and shots.

As good as Livramento has been this season for the youth team there is a huge difference between youth football and the Premier League.

Reece James is easily the best RB in our squad currently and I believe in a couple of years time he will become the best Right Back in the Premier League, unfortunately he was underwhelming against Arsenal and Leicester but I am putting that down to fitness more then anything else.

5 hours ago, Argo said:

But going by your logic that we have no entitlement to be top half, surely that also applies to being top 6 (which we were under Sarri all season long) or competing with one of the best teams at the peak of it's powers (which we actually done in the clashes either side of that 6-0)?

Then here below you were moaning about Sarri (while we were in 6th position with a game in hand) because you believed we were going to finish 6th and fail to win the Europa League, so if people criticising and wanting a change while In 8th and on a run of 3 wins in 10 are (according to you) being a spoilt brat and FIFA brigade amoung other pleasures then wouldn't that (at a minimum) also apply to criticising and wanting the manager out when we're 6th (with a game in hand at home to Brighton to take us 4th) and on a run of 6 wins in 10 as we were at the time of this post? (disclaimer: i don't think that just using your metrics)

That has an awful lot of similarity's to some of the comments you've been shamming lately. 

As much as I don't agree with Yorkley's stance atleast he's been consistent with it through every manager, you're criticising and name calling people for doing exactly what you were doing and more this time two years ago. Oh and have I forgot to mention our current team are much stronger than that one? even factoring Hazard.

Now I've got nothing but respect and admiration for your dedication to the club down the years and while sourcing out that post I really enjoyed reading some of your nostalgia postings about the club, but I'm sorry your double standards on this are absolutely shocking!

You say it as you see it Argo, On Sarri, I wanted him gone because of the football I watched not sure if you go but £100 a game is an awful lot of money to watch the same dross he was churning out, with no future with a manager who you knew didn’t want to be here, I’m not saying Frank is going to be the next Brian Clough, but with the emergence of the youngsters, last season above expectations in what we did, this blip only being 6/7 weeks with us playing mainly higher league teams as well, people surely can have a bit more patience, regarding double standards, some people may stick to their principles through thick and thin, and no knocking that, me, I prefer to be more fluid and change as I move through life and become more knowledgeable and  my views and opinions change, my choice,  regarding name calling, I’m sorry but if me saying the Xbox brigade offends you youngsters, I suppose it was meant to, in a friendly sort of way! If you-young ones called me Grandad I wouldn’t take it to heart. 

34 minutes ago, big blue said:

With Sarri, as boring and turgid as some of those games were, (I think Southampton was probably the worse for me, barring the 3 horror shows), I always felt that he just needed time and the right personnel to have us playing how Napoli did, and lets be honest, his Napoli side were a good watch. 

Now with Lampard, he has nearly a whole 11 of players he either bought, or put enough faith in to bring through, and because he has no previous teams to compare to, its very difficult to see where he wants this team to go, and what he can do to get them playing how he wants. 

How can the club give him time and money, when there is nothing tangible he can put forward to argue he is right man to build and coach a world class team. 

They have already shown a massive leap of faith by hiring him, and backing him significantly in the market. Some of the most decorated managers in world football were never given this amount of support. 

I cant see the club rolling the dice again for another season, when there are proven coaches that jump at the chance of managing this group of players. 

Just believe 

1 hour ago, Osgoodwasgood said:

Im all for Gilmour Argo, and id pitch him in next to mount at the base of our midfield with Havertz in front, whether its because of a lack of height and Presence I don't know, but its one of the few permatations that have yet to be tried.

We played one of our best game last season using

Barkley - Gilmour - Mount 

In midfield against Everton, it was scintillating. 

59 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Watching his presser before Luton right now and my word does he look knackered. 

Called out Twomey for his negative pieces in the Athletic lately as well.

Not surprising. Frank himself basically said he finds sleep hard to come by when we lose and is like a bear with a sore head so Christine knows not to arrange anything if that happens.

The run we have been on not doubt has given him several sleepless nights.

3 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

We played one of our best game last season using

Barkley - Gilmour - Mount 

In midfield against Everton, it was scintillating. 

Pedro, Willian and Giroud also played that day.

Both Pedro and Willian put in a lot of running for us and not just offensively.

 

1 hour ago, pcmacca said:

I agree and as I said the other day, Pep had more grounding than we realise, he spent time prior to Barcelona learning from a "mentor" in Mexico.

What he did in Barcelona most average coaches would have achieved as well so let's not get ahead of ourselves here. In Mexico he didn't do much at all.

Over 64% are not so easy on the trigger which is a good thing.

8 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

What he did in Barcelona most average coaches would have achieved as well so let's not get ahead of ourselves here. In Mexico he didn't do much at all.

If you read into Pep's time in Mexico in depth, you will see that he learnt everything how he wanted to setup his teams for the future and he took that to Barcelona,  and when he became first team coach he immediately got rid of high profile names he believed would not fit the system. He has tweaked it many times since the original plan was there then.

I have just read Liam Twomey's article in The Athletic that Frank was referring to and it is damming. His Podcast about that game is also worth a listen

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-lampards-successor-will-speak-german-early-move/id1488401364?i=1000506010727

I don't think Frank should have risen to the bait though, it is never a great idea for managers to fall out with journalists. Grant is also mentioned, thankfully indicating that he won't be coming back to Chelsea any time soon.

56 minutes ago, pcmacca said:

You didn't but I was only responding to someone who strongly suggested the next 2 rounds of the Cup were in the bag so he meant that Chelsea had already beaten Luton and then I predicted it would be Norwich afterwards.

Fair enough ;). Personally I think Barnsley will beat Norwich, who are more focused on getting back to the Premier League. Barnsley could be a potential banana skin too, if we end up facing them. But lets worry about Luton first.