Super Frank Lampard

[evissy]

Corners and freekicks are a great way to make a difference in games. We are getting all the negative effects of it. Can't defend them, can't score them.

[Droopy]

Ever since we froze Cahill, I can remember only one goal from defender from set pieces/corners - Rudi against Manure and it was a terrible mistake by Pogba. Our defenders suck. Christensen's been here for 3 foking years, how in the world has he managed not to score once? 

[chi blue]

7 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Common denominator is a keeper who doesn't come for crosses or dominate the box.

Yes but he stays on his line and is a fantastic shot stopper!!!!! And good with his feet as well, seriously though, how or who went and watched this keeper before we signed him. Most ridiculous signing we have made considering the money we spent on him.

[Spiller86]

29 minutes ago, chi blue said:

Yes but he stays on his line and is a fantastic shot stopper!!!!! And good with his feet as well, seriously though, how or who went and watched this keeper before we signed him. Most ridiculous signing we have made considering the money we spent on him.

Haven't you seen his passing chi blue? That is what makes a keeper worth 70mil these days. You're just looking at it all wrong. Claiming crosses and marshalling your defenders at set pieces is just out dated thinking.

[coco]

1 hour ago, chi blue said:

Yes but he stays on his line 

he's super glued to the line, thats why he couldnt come off when Sarri tried subbing him.

[icecoolguy22]

When we had Zouma playing, he's in the the 6 yard area heading out all the high balls. He's not perfect, but he's been dealing with a lot of them. With Christensen playing, we got no chance in zonal marking ( or man marking for that matter). I don't know what's going on with Zouma and Tomori, unless they are both injured, really don't get it why all the sudden Christensen is playing, after that shocker of a game against Everton where he couldn't head anything.

[jack_super_class]

30 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

When we had Zouma playing, he's in the the 6 yard area heading out all the high balls. He's not perfect, but he's been dealing with a lot of them. With Christensen playing, we got no chance in zonal marking ( or man marking for that matter). I don't know what's going on with Zouma and Tomori, unless they are both injured, really don't get it why all the sudden Christensen is playing, after that shocker of a game against Everton where he couldn't head anything.

Because Lampard still has no idea who is best CB partnership is, thats why he keeps changing it and also to give them game time to keep them happy.

[jack_super_class]

6 hours ago, Droopy said:

Ever since we froze Cahill, I can remember only one goal from defender from set pieces/corners - Rudi against Manure and it was a terrible mistake by Pogba. Our defenders suck. Christensen's been here for 3 foking years, how in the world has he managed not to score once? 

If i remember correctly under Conte he had several chances to score and missed them all.

[dkw]

18 hours ago, ducavis said:

Why though? We lack creativity and someone to finish chances. If it fails we take the hit and they go back to their clubs in May. I just don’t feel we have enough to see us over the line and there are 3-4 teams lurking around that 4th position.

If we drop points against Arsenal, I fully expect us to do something silly like paying £80m for Zaha & £45m for Dembele which sounds crazier than my alternative.

Because it rarely ever works, bringing in a creative player at this point in the season is a complete waste of time, especially form a different league. It will take them 3 or 4 weeks to get up to speed with the league, tactics etc. By which time its April, and if they arent playing well then questions will be raised as to why they were taking other players places. 

[Slojo]

17 hours ago, Argo said:

In fairness a striker at the level of what Higuain/Eto'o brought would be a decent alternative to Tammy.

So there's the option there if need be, we shouldn't panic buy a player just because we can. Seems Lampard is doing the Klopp thing of waiting until the right player comes along and to hell with the short term hit, which is the right thing to do.

If we drop out of top 4 we miss a chance of obtaining Sancho, think about that. 

[Slojo]

7 hours ago, Droopy said:

Ever since we froze Cahill, I can remember only one goal from defender from set pieces/corners - Rudi against Manure and it was a terrible mistake by Pogba. Our defenders suck. Christensen's been here for 3 foking years, how in the world has he managed not to score once? 

Christensen is the worst header of the ball I've ever seen, he's missed absolute sitters since being here, I wouldn't count on him scoring a goal. 

[Argo]

19 minutes ago, Slojo said:

If we drop out of top 4 we miss a chance of obtaining Sancho, think about that. 

And if we fill his place with another player we miss out anyway.

Furthermore, I still think we will make it with what we got, it's not like the chasing pack are producing title winning form.

[Zeta]

Disappointing that we just don't seem to be learning from our mistakes. These games are so predictable, you just know we're going to pass it around slowly and struggle to break teams down then lose to a set piece or cross. 

[Slojo]

1 minute ago, Argo said:

And if we fill his place with another player we miss out anyway.

Furthermore, I still think we will make it with what we got, it's not like the chasing pack are producing title winning form.

Not every signing in the January window is bad, i'm not sure why it's resorted to panic buying, you buy players to upgrade, for potential, or to give you options, they're not all panic buys. We bought Bakayoko, Morata and Drinkwater in the summer, not January. 

We really shouldn't finish this season with Azpi as our LB, it's evident we need a new LB so we should get one and not miss our only chance this season. We miss out on top 4 there are consequences, and signing Jadon Sancho will no doubt become 10 times harder. 

[Slojo]

The reason I'm talking about Jadon Sancho is because it reminds me of the Hazard situation. If we weren't in Europe, I seriously doubt Hazard would have come of here. I know he said "The Champions of Europe" but Joe Cole made it clear Hazard wanted to come here for his own development, we were desperate for new fresh attacking players to replace an ageing side and we were in Europe. 

Right now, all these top clubs are in for Sancho and a lot of the rumours are saying Sancho wants to be here, just like it was with Hazard. Sancho was a Chelsea supporter and he gets on with a few of the Chelsea boys here and he's a massive Frank Lampard fan. 

If we don't get into Europe, I fear we could miss out big time, and that's a setback right there. Obviously, it's not a given, but Champions League is very important to attract the best players, right now we are getting handed top 4 on a silver platter, teams around us keep losing, we can't let this slip. 

[Argo]

5 minutes ago, Slojo said:

The reason I'm talking about Jadon Sancho is because it reminds me of the Hazard situation. If we weren't in Europe, I seriously doubt Hazard would have come of here. I know he said "The Champions of Europe" but Joe Cole made it clear Hazard wanted to come here for his own development, we were desperate for new fresh attacking players to replace an ageing side and we were in Europe. 

Right now, all these top clubs are in for Sancho and a lot of the rumours are saying Sancho wants to be here, just like it was with Hazard. Sancho was a Chelsea supporter and he gets on with a few of the Chelsea boys here and he's a massive Frank Lampard fan. 

If we don't get into Europe, I fear we could miss out big time, and that's a setback right there. Obviously, it's not a given, but Champions League is very important to attract the best players, right now we are getting handed top 4 on a silver platter, teams around us keep losing, we can't let this slip. 

Maybe this will be a post that ages really badly but I think we would still have a chance without it.

If he loves us as much as rumoured and wants to play with his pals (again as rumoured) would he be that shortsighted to go to United based on what could very well turn out to be 6 games?

I think while CL is a factor I don't think it's anywhere near as big as it use to be. Pogba, Kante, Luiz (twice), Jorginho, Kovacic, Auba, Pepe, Suarez even Zlatan all gave up CL to join a club out of it.

[big blue]

19 minutes ago, Argo said:

Maybe this will be a post that ages really badly but I think we would still have a chance without it.

If he loves us as much as rumoured and wants to play with his pals (again as rumoured) would he be that shortsighted to go to United based on what could very well turn out to be 6 games?

I think while CL is a factor I don't think it's anywhere near as big as it use to be. Pogba, Kante, Luiz (twice), Jorginho, Kovacic, Auba, Pepe, Suarez even Zlatan all gave up CL to join a club out of it.

Financially though could we afford it? 

Seeing Roman have to pump in another £250m, just to balance the books from missing out in a season, makes me question whether we can afford to pay a massive fee and wages should we miss out again. 

I agree it isnt the be all and end all with regards to attracting players. 

Surely there are players we could bring in that wouldnt necessarily take sancho's potential place. 

Someone like a ziyech would be a nice boost, and he could also play in the 10. 

[Davey Baby]

If Lampard thinks our defeat was all about finishing and that Kante played excellently then we really have to worry.

 

Kante was far from excellent and our defeat had f**k all to do with finishing.

[jack_super_class]

15 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

If Lampard thinks our defeat was all about finishing and that Kante played excellently then we really have to worry.

 

Kante was far from excellent and our defeat had f**k all to do with finishing.

We could still be playing now and we wouldn't of scored. We are so predictable and easy to play against.

[strider6004]

8 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

We could still be playing now and we wouldn't of scored. We are so predictable and easy to play against.

This is it and why I am a little bit concerned if Frank's words are to be believed that we have done all the training we can.  I was a little amazed at that as it was obvious to many of us our game was too  predictable.

Twice we might have scored with Willian and Kante through on goal yet we didn't and we appeared to just do the same thing down the wings cut inside look for shot that is not available and is recycled back to the defenders.

Barkley tried a one-two with Jorginho that nearly came off.

For me if we are going to try and cut-in and score we need a runner to pull away defenders and open a hole for shooting.

Sometimes I think Tammy should move a bit more from the centre to make him available for a one-two and lose his marking defenders.

We also have set pieces to improve on

Yes being clinical is an issue yet by God, so is invention and creativity and we seem to be lacking. 

 

[Brutos]

I said in few weeks or maybe a month back that am worried about Franks ability to effect the game from the touch line and he's proving me more often than not right more than wrong. I thought we turned a corner on him making tactical adjustments and have a PLAN B but he clearly hasn't because barring the Tottenham match which is a Derby he has shown very little signs that his tactics can work consistently so far. He looks absolutely clueless on how to deal with a low block time and time again it’s becoming so easy for teams to beat us, just get two bags of 4 stay compact , organised they won’t break us down and we will ABSOLUTELY get chances as they can’t defend either.

It's still early days in this project and he needs to be given time, but until he can come up with A PLAN B expect more of these defeats this season.

We have still in 4th because the rest are just as sh*te as us at the moment.

Also let's see him mould his squad to his liking and then see if we still have these problems after 3 years because getting better players aren't going to fix tactical ineptitude, that player will save you so often ala Hazard,but when that fails then what???

It's also worrying that he still believes Kante is playing excellent it's like he wants to prove a point that he's going to stick with this no matter what.

[Imran_CFC]

We as supporters need to exercise patience, we have a young inexperienced squad so therefore inconsistency was always going to be part of our season however at the same time we need to remember Lampard himself is a young Manager operating in one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

So far I would say he has done well with the squad he has at his disposal, we are in the top 4 and that is with 4 players who were playing in the Championship Last season & they have have been getting substantial minutes in each game. This is also without Hazard who was our best attacking player last season and alongside RLC, Kante, & Rudiger missing large parts of the season due to injury.

People have concerns about tactics but my view on this is that these are areas which Lampard will improve on through experience but what I think has most impressed me about him is his ability to be fluid with his ability to change tactics and formations if things are not going well. He changed things against Arsenal when we were being completely outplayed & he completely bamboozled Mourinho by changing our formation for the Spurs game. He just needs to identify his strongest 11 and get some continuity going so that players become more aware of what is expected of them when playing against highly organised defensive teams.    

[Argo]

I'm not impressed with a few things he's done (shoehorning Kante back in especially) and i expect progression year on year however all things considered he's been doing an excellent job so far in my eyes. 

[strider6004]

8 minutes ago, Brutos said:

I said in few weeks or maybe a month back that am worried about Franks ability to effect the game from the touch line and he's proving me more often than not right more than wrong. I thought we turned a corner on him making tactical adjustments and have a PLAN B but he clearly hasn't because barring the Tottenham match which is a Derby he has shown very little signs that his tactics can work consistently so far. He looks absolutely clueless on how to deal with a low block time and time again it’s becoming so easy for teams to beat us, just get two bags of 4 stay compact , organised they won’t break us down and we will ABSOLUTELY get chances as they can’t defend either.

It's still early days in this project and he needs to be given time, but until he can come up with A PLAN B expect more of these defeats this season.

We have still in 4th because the rest are just as sh*te as us at the moment.

Also let's see him mould his squad to his liking and then see if we still have these problems after 3 years because getting better players aren't going to fix tactical ineptitude, that player will save you so often ala Hazard,but when that fails then what???

It's also worrying that he still believes Kante is playing excellent it's like he wants to prove a point that he's going to stick with this no matter what.

Yes I caught someone making the Rooney at United point staying well past his best based on historic glories and comparing it with Kante's situation now, not quite the same though feels similar.

Kante seems a really nice chap yet is built for teams that kick the ball upfield and lose possession and he recycles it and gives it back to the playmakers. He does not fit a possession styled team.

[forbzy]

5 hours ago, dkw said:

Because it rarely ever works, bringing in a creative player at this point in the season is a complete waste of time, especially form a different league. It will take them 3 or 4 weeks to get up to speed with the league, tactics etc. By which time its April, and if they arent playing well then questions will be raised as to why they were taking other players places. 

Agreed. It would be a panic buy at best and I would expect about the same as we saw from Higuain last season. In the end we won the Europa and made it into Champs League in spite of Higuain, rather than because of his loan signing. Before him I can think of Pato, and Riquelme as similarly useless loans.