City remain below chelsea in the table...Guardiola out?

1 hour ago, The Brit said:

Want to clarify. No problem with constructive criticism. It’s the ‘Lampard out’ brigade who pipe up whenever chelsea lose I get frustrated with.

Brit, a lot of those would love us to go back to "Sarriball". Perhaps they're right?

Another 86 sideways and backwards passes across a 15 yard square in midfield and perhaps we'd be ripping teams to pieces.

Same tactical failings as last season  I will reserve my opinion until I see how we approach West ham.

Seems like we struggle against any decent competent opposition.

2 minutes ago, just said:

Brit, a lot of those would love us to go back to "Sarriball". Perhaps they're right?

Another 86 sideways and backwards passes across a 15 yard square in midfield and perhaps we'd be ripping teams to pieces.

Yeah I miss those 6-0 defeats at Man City and 4-0 at Bournemouth. 

36 minutes ago, big blue said:

I think that unbeaten has carried some false hope if im honest. 

We havent beaten a decent side all season, certainly not a top 10 side. The result in sevilla was great although it was largely 2 b teams with little to play for. 

We have scored a decent amount of goals, but alot have come from set pieces and penalties. From open play, I still dont think we have found much fluidity.

Werner and Havertz currently make morata look prime drogba in terms of fight and aggression, both have offered very little, and take zero responsibility to earn a result at the moment. 

On the plus side, we have improved defensively, Werner and Havertz can and will only improve, we are still yet to put out a full strength attack for a consistent run of games.  

Title talk was massively reaching, we are a new side, with an inexperienced manager, and group of players that need to gel. I think we will do well to replicate last season in all honesty, especially with the added threat of spurs to the top 4 places. 

Just one thing when it comes to Werner, he worked his ass off in the last 5 games as a winger, he could miss a clear-cut chance and then run full sprint for the next few balls like a machine.

But after so many games working so hard off the ball and not getting anything out of it, his aggression and energy levels have fallen. Imagine having several players trying so hard like Werner did, Mount plays with high levels of aggression every game as well but he also isn't doing that well at the moment.

They probably wonder where did things go wrong. At least Giroud and Kante can be happy with their own efforts since they did their job.

I wouldn't mind if Lampard were to set up the team for counter-attacking and just pressing in our half, maybe even from the very next game since otherwise we will be once again just playing into the hands of the opposition that has no problems with sitting back and waiting for their chance.  

3 minutes ago, The Brit said:

Yeah I miss those 6-0 defeats at Man City and 4-0 at Bournemouth. 

Indeed. And of course Sarri was in charge for a 2-1 defeat at ........... Wolves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

26 minutes ago, just said:

Brit, a lot of those would love us to go back to "Sarriball". Perhaps they're right?

Another 86 sideways and backwards passes across a 15 yard square in midfield and perhaps we'd be ripping teams to pieces.

Don't knock Sarriball , I could go make a brew take a quick trip to the loo and return knowing the ball had just crossed the half way line by the time I got back. Now I have to cross my legs and go thirsty

Think Lampard really got find out by 2 of the more experienced managers in the last 2 games, and today he just pressed the wrong button a few times. Unlike Ole, Lampard just doesn't have the proven options like Cavani or Pogba off the bench to save the day. In  a game like today, he had to play ugly and dirty to get the points, and like the players he came up short.

34 minutes ago, just said:

Indeed. And of course Sarri was in charge for a 2-1 defeat at ........... Wolves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a 1-0 lead in that game too. In fact the game tonight reminded me a lot of that.

It seems to me that both Conte and Sarri have had to make changes to keep our season on course, looks like Frank needs to now too. 

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

You sound like Sarri. We'll see if it works by the end of the season. Mount is doing a semi-Kante role instead of Kante now anyway...

I just don't get it... 

Last season you loved Kante despite it being Kante's worst ever season in terms of performances. This season you can't stand him even though he's having Conte's Kante vibes, he's in a pure defensive role and he's doing an excellent job. He's got his mojo back, he's even passing much better. 

It's like you just do this for the sake of being controversial. 

 

28 minutes ago, charierre said:

Don't knock Sarriball , I could go make a brew take a quick trip to the loo and return knowing the ball had just crossed the half way line by the time I got back. Now I have to cross my legs and go thirsty

You can keep laughing about Sarri ball, (and don't get me wrong I prefer Lamps by far) but Sarri still won a trophy and thumped Arsenal 4-1 in the final. 

So it wasn't all that bad. 

12 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I just don't get it... 

Last season you loved Kante despite it being Kante's worst ever season in terms of performances. This season you can't stand him even though he's having Conte's Kante vibes, he's in a pure defensive role and he's doing an excellent job. He's got his mojo back, he's even passing much better. 

It's like you just do this for the sake of being controversial. 

 

I was supporting the change that Lampard did at one point because it gave us wins, this change isn't exactly making us look that good against better teams at all so that's a totally different thing.

Kante is playing really well, he's doing what Lampard wants but I'm just saying that Lampard isn't getting the best out of our players right now even if Kante looks great.

The common phrase I've seen was "we need Kante to protect our backline" OK so he has been doing that but... We have no real buildup, no real plan to attack, it's all just being opportunistic.

It's like last season when the whole team is without a plan but Kovacic makes 1 run, gets fouled and yea he stole the show, he looks so good, but the team lost... That is Kante now, he looks great, but we lost. 

I think it was Del Bosque that was commenting about Sergio Busquets once, he said that when you're watching the game you don't see Busquets at all, but when you're watching just him, you see the whole game.
Right now for us it's the opposite, we watch the game we see Kante, so that's maybe not the best sign for us, we're not doing that well...

 

2 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

I was supporting the change that Lampard did at one point because it gave us wins, this change isn't exactly making us look that good against better teams at all so that's a totally different thing.

Kante is playing really well, he's doing what Lampard wants but I'm just saying that Lampard isn't getting the best out of our players right now even if Kante looks great.

The common phrase I've seen was "we need Kante to protect our backline" OK so he has been doing that but... We have no real buildup, no real plan to attack, it's all just being opportunistic.

It's like last season when the whole team is without a plan but Kovacic makes 1 run, gets fouled and yea he stole the show, he looks so good, but the team lost... That is Kante now, he looks great, but we lost. 

I think it was Del Bosque that was commenting about Sergio Busquets once, he said that when you're watching the game you don't see Busquets at all, but when you're watching just him, you see the whole game.
Right now for us it's the opposite, we watch the game we see Kante, so that's maybe not the best sign for us, we're not doing that well...

 

Gol we have plenty of build up and we were doing fine until Ziyech and Pulisic pulled out. That's hurt us big time, don't get me wrong, we shouldn't have lost this game but it is what it is. I don't think the answer is to simply change Kante's position again, where he's currently at he's doing great. It's the best Kante i've seen in a long time, I say that as a big critic of him last season. 

32 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Gol we have plenty of build up and we were doing fine until Ziyech and Pulisic pulled out. That's hurt us big time, don't get me wrong, we shouldn't have lost this game but it is what it is. I don't think the answer is to simply change Kante's position again, where he's currently at he's doing great. It's the best Kante i've seen in a long time, I say that as a big critic of him last season. 

I'm not sure if Kante should change his position, I was just pointing out that he made assists playing more forward and getting more involved. I see him at his best when he has more freedom so it's more about his role but either way, our tactics do need more tweaks and fixes. 

We do have options, last season we had less of them and still managed to finish in top 4. But sticking with 1 set of players and to 1 formation isn't going to carry us to another top 4 finish that I'm sure of.

Just out of curiosity I looked into Wolves and they played in a different formation in 3/4 of their last PL games, they played now with 3 at the back, before that twice with 4-2-3-1 and once in a 4-3-3, they have 2 wins and 2 loses.
We played a 4-3-3 in all of our last 4 PL games and we have 1 win, 1 draw and 2 loses, that's with a better squad than Wolves that doesn't even have their most important attacker ever since the first of those 4 games. We should switch it up, specially now since we can't really play our strongest lineup.

Lampard out!!

Kidding, but what another frustrating game.  I don't know how in the space of 2-3 games we've gone from building something to the sum being far less than the parts.  Perhaps the warning signs were already there with our inability to get results against higher placed opposition.  Beyond that though, we're not even creating chances now.

Honestly I'm starting to wish we played in that pink kit more often as we get results.

One additional thought.  Perhaps we need to sit off teams a little.  Play deeper and tighten up.  From there, we can explode on counter attacks.  Right now we're falling into every teams trap with a low block and getting caught high up the field.

Deep breath .. 2 back to back losses isn’t good but happens... worryingly we didn’t create much.. teams have been pushing us wide and we have felt bereft of ideas.. lack of natural wide players is making it worse.. 

in an ideal situation Kai /mount should have done better.. we haven’t created or done anything with the ball in central areas.. 

the way I look at it ..

1) we need consistency from our forward players .. Werner on the left tries impossible balls too often he needs to keep it simple and stick to his game which is to run behind defences.. 

2)mount , havertz, Kova are playing the 8 role but their numbers are poor.. we need goals from them .. they aren’t doing well in the attacking sense..

 

hopefully we we turn it around in the next one.. ktbffh..

 

6 hours ago, Slojo said:

You can keep laughing about Sarri ball, (and don't get me wrong I prefer Lamps by far) but Sarri still won a trophy and thumped Arsenal 4-1 in the final. 

So it wasn't all that bad. 

Sarri had a fully firing Hazard. Teams as we know doubled up on him, this created space for others to exploit. Frank as of yet hasn't had the luxury of playing a fully fit first eleven that has played together long enough instinctively.

It’s abit concerning that we haven’t beaten a top 10 team this season. 

7 hours ago, PhilH930 said:

Honestly I'm starting to wish we played in that pink kit more often as we get results.

Only because the opposition are too distracted laughing at our terrible kit!

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

It’s abit concerning that we haven’t beaten a top 10 team this season. 

Neither did City until Wolves got into top ten yesterday.

Usually I would be worried but this season is so strange it's levelled the playing field.

12 hours ago, Slojo said:

It's unreal, I've literally never seen these people before. 

You haven't seen anyone on this forum literally or not. Sorry a bugbear of mine the use of the word literally what makes it worse it all stems from the literal retard Jamie Redknapp.

West Ham is an important game win and we possibly get back on track lose and it's a difficult holiday period 

11 hours ago, Slojo said:

I just don't get it... 

Last season you loved Kante despite it being Kante's worst ever season in terms of performances. This season you can't stand him even though he's having Conte's Kante vibes, he's in a pure defensive role and he's doing an excellent job. He's got his mojo back, he's even passing much better. 

It's like you just do this for the sake of being controversial. 

 

Some people are just like to be contrarians, it's their 'schtick'.