25 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

The last game we lost but you could see a lot of positive things: 

Our possession can end up having the ball in the final third very fast.

Even without taking shots we managed to almost walk inside past the goal line, sadly Emerson shot right at their keeper.

This is the best version of Zouma that has ever been, he was really great. Eh? His passing & distribution was shocking - ditto Rudiger

When Kovacic came on he made an important tactical foul for a yellow card, that was really missing from our players and it looks that we won't allow fast breaks through the middle anymore.

Dave is putting overall better crosses, so is Emerson. Neither are currently good enough. James is our best crosser and should be right back + we need a new left back.

Our bench looks stronger now as we have the options with Tomori,CHO and Mount can play as a winger as well, the only weak sub looks to be Batman.

Fair play to you for looking for the positives but I just can't see positives of losing to a much depleted Bournemouth side who we should frankly be beating comfortably.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Fair play to you for looking for the positives but I just can't see positives of losing to a much depleted Bournemouth side who we should frankly be beating comfortably.

 

 

But hey, we can't play worse than that...Only better!

We've been playing Sarriball for a while now. Early on we were much more direct. To be fair Frank has fielded us 4-3-3 which is not optimal against a deep sitting opponent.

We were always going to hit some kind of wall with this squad. Young sides always go through periods of losses and periods of wins. Part of learning. Liverpool has those low days like they did last game and still won 2-0. We are a couple of seasons away from that...a couple of signings as well...

Hope we don't lose the next 3 matches. There will be some major pressure on then..

Have a feeling we will buy in a couple of players and expect Frank will start dropping Mount for Barkley and RLC when they are fit, Mount for a while was un-droppable yet think Frank has realised we need other options.

The Spurs match is an interesting one for me, they can carve us up on the counter attack yet what happens if we sit back.

It’s such a refreshing change, seeing us give the manager patience rather than calling for him to be sacked.

Yeah he’s loved dearly by all of us, so that plays a big part but still, nice to see us giving him time.

"We've been playing Sarriball for a while now. Early on we were much more direct. To be fair Frank has fielded us 4-3-3 which is not optimal against a deep sitting opponent."

4-3-3 main benefit is against deep sitting teams. That's why Barcelona has been a 4-3-3 team for so long, we don't play with our Wide players wide enough, we are pinching them in to much for overlapping backs, Pulisic isn't wide enough and Mount is too wide and they end up on top of each other. I see us playing a 4-2-3-1 much more than a 4-3-3.



"Sarri left a sinking ship let's be honest, so how are we underperforming? All of our senior players were underperforming last season and now they're a year older. A looming transfer ban and losing our best player who used to pretty much win us about 30 points a season on his own.

You really expected us to get top 4 before the start of the season? Reaaaalllllyyyyyyyyy? "

Not at the beginning of our season... but once I rated Tammy Abraham, I think last years team with Pulisic / Abraham, is better than with Hazard / Morata. Throw in Jorginho, Kovacic, and Kante had a year of experience in the midfield. I'd be shocked if Sarri didn't leave because he felt he would have unfair expectations with the transfer ban... even Frank basically made them commit in contract to lower expectations... but the boys we brought in, were probably just as important as what we would have bought. I don't think we would have addressed our 9 in a better way than Tammy. I may be the only one... but I'd prefer Tammy with Higuain compared to Giroud / Bats

59 minutes ago, Wearyourblue said:

"We've been playing Sarriball for a while now. Early on we were much more direct. To be fair Frank has fielded us 4-3-3 which is not optimal against a deep sitting opponent."

4-3-3 main benefit is against deep sitting teams. That's why Barcelona has been a 4-3-3 team for so long, we don't play with our Wide players wide enough, we are pinching them in to much for overlapping backs, Pulisic isn't wide enough and Mount is too wide and they end up on top of each other. I see us playing a 4-2-3-1 much more than a 4-3-3.



"Sarri left a sinking ship let's be honest, so how are we underperforming? All of our senior players were underperforming last season and now they're a year older. A looming transfer ban and losing our best player who used to pretty much win us about 30 points a season on his own.

You really expected us to get top 4 before the start of the season? Reaaaalllllyyyyyyyyy? "

Not at the beginning of our season... but once I rated Tammy Abraham, I think last years team with Pulisic / Abraham, is better than with Hazard / Morata. Throw in Jorginho, Kovacic, and Kante had a year of experience in the midfield. I'd be shocked if Sarri didn't leave because he felt he would have unfair expectations with the transfer ban... even Frank basically made them commit in contract to lower expectations... but the boys we brought in, were probably just as important as what we would have bought. I don't think we would have addressed our 9 in a better way than Tammy. I may be the only one... but I'd prefer Tammy with Higuain compared to Giroud / Bats

I disagree, even though Abraham is 5x the player than Morata, Hazard is world class and can win us 3 points just on his own.

God he was such a joy to watch. Miss him terribly.

16 hours ago, Wearyourblue said:

"We've been playing Sarriball for a while now. Early on we were much more direct. To be fair Frank has fielded us 4-3-3 which is not optimal against a deep sitting opponent."

4-3-3 main benefit is against deep sitting teams. That's why Barcelona has been a 4-3-3 team for so long, we don't play with our Wide players wide enough, we are pinching them in to much for overlapping backs, Pulisic isn't wide enough and Mount is too wide and they end up on top of each other. I see us playing a 4-2-3-1 much more than a 4-3-3.



"Sarri left a sinking ship let's be honest, so how are we underperforming? All of our senior players were underperforming last season and now they're a year older. A looming transfer ban and losing our best player who used to pretty much win us about 30 points a season on his own.

You really expected us to get top 4 before the start of the season? Reaaaalllllyyyyyyyyy? "

Not at the beginning of our season... but once I rated Tammy Abraham, I think last years team with Pulisic / Abraham, is better than with Hazard / Morata. Throw in Jorginho, Kovacic, and Kante had a year of experience in the midfield. I'd be shocked if Sarri didn't leave because he felt he would have unfair expectations with the transfer ban... even Frank basically made them commit in contract to lower expectations... but the boys we brought in, were probably just as important as what we would have bought. I don't think we would have addressed our 9 in a better way than Tammy. I may be the only one... but I'd prefer Tammy with Higuain compared to Giroud / Bats

Nobody before the season started was tipping us for top 4, and rightly so. Yeah for sure Kovacic and Jorginho have an extra year of experience which has proven to be essential for their performances now. But that wasn't a given now was it? I rated both of them, but I knew it was a possibility that both of them wouldn't make it here and wouldn't improve. Lampard has done a superb job, and I'm sorry but nobody was expecting Tammy Abraham to be as good as he is now, especially Mount and Tomori for that matter. 

And that's exactly the point, we have been overperforming, the transfer ban and inexperience has finally caught up to us, we can't grind out games when the going gets tough, we've hit that rough patch and the players sink their heads down. How many times do we come back from being 1-0 down? Not a lot. I remember years ago under Carlo Ancelotti in his 2nd season, we had ageing players and a huge lack of creativity and pace, but when we won games it would always be from going 1-0 down and we would come back and fight, that was due to our character, experience and leadership. Right now, it's the opposite, we've got so much pace and creativity but there's a serious lack of character and leadership, particularly experience, I hate to say this but I get so much 2006-2014 Arsenal vibes from this team. 

Here and there we have shown what this squad is capable of. We have a good squad. Most Prem managers would love to manage this Chelsea.

Mount has dropped in form and Kepa's made some serious errors. Some individual errors here and there.

We need to get back on track very quickly.

We are in a slump but we need to remind ourselves how exciting squad we actually have. Most of our top young players are 19-23 years old. Our senior players are 27-31 and among them some top quality footballers.

Players we can and should be looking to replace are Pedro, Giroud and Alonso. If we could replace them with the likes of Sancho, Werner and Chilwell we'd be set for years to come.

We have to understand the season for harvest is a couple of years away. Now we shouldn't look the results so much but enjoy watching our lads grow. For me it is very hard but I will try my best.

39 minutes ago, evissy said:

We are in a slump but we need to remind ourselves how exciting squad we actually have. Most of our top young players are 19-23 years old. Our senior players are 27-31 and among them some top quality footballers.

Players we can and should be looking to replace are Pedro, Giroud and Alonso. If we could replace them with the likes of Sancho, Werner and Chilwell we'd be set for years to come.

We have to understand the season for harvest is a couple of years away. Now we shouldn't look the results so much but enjoy watching our lads grow. For me it is very hard but I will try my best.

Okay I take back what I said, you're not a negative person. 

He tactically outclassed Mourinho twice now 

Huge tactical victory by Lampard, Spuds won't be getting any new dvds! Big win!

Masterclass today. How good is it to have a manager who absolutely gets what it means to the supporters to beat Sp*rs. I was close to welling up at the end.

Onwards & Upwards..............................

It's a good job I'm not a manager, I was against that formation. 

I was angry at Tammy for not closing the ball down or pressuring their defence, but then I realised that it must be tactics, because none of our players were running at their defenders, they were giving them the time to play a pass and my god it actually worked, they were awful. 

Spurs got battered from start to finish, absolute superb performance from Frank. 

Tactical masterclass by SFL today, to change formation, bring back Marcos Alonso and beat an in-form Spurs on their home ground was something special. 

27 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Lampard was leading the squad into a fine rendition of "Let's go fukking mental, let's go fukking mental" in the dressing room after the match 

Edited December 22, 20196 yr by Valerie

Absolutely stunning victory and am so happy for us and Lampard. 

Alot in here were expecting we would loose today, Lampard proved everyone wrong. 

Imaging with a couple of world class additions for next season we would be fighting for the title.

10 minutes ago, Valerie said:

It wouldn't surprise if Lampard was leading the squad into a fine rendition of "Let's go fukking mental, let's go fukking mental" in the dressing room after the match 

Remind me, what’s Netherland for let’s go f**king mental? Me Dutch is a trifle rusty 

2 minutes ago, Ewell CFC said:

Remind me, what’s Netherland for let’s go f**king mental? Me Dutch is a trifle rusty 

Fukking gestoord 🤣

What impressed me the most is the adjustments he made he is learning and like that. We will lose some sh*t games no doubt but we have the correct man in charge give him time.

I think Frank was the happiest man in the stadium judging by his celebrations at the end! No Spurs DVD this Christmas 

His celebrations at the end show just how in touch he is with the fans on the terraces.

Good programme on NBCSN at present 'inside the mind of Frank Lampard'