7 minutes ago, Old Shaggy said:

I just want to be smashing teams 4/5/6 - 0, just like City and pool seem to do with ease. Depressing watching Liverpool smashing Norwich by 4 goals when you know we'll scrape a 2-1 win after struggling with Norwich's high press for most of the game.

Norwich is the game I'm most confident about, they leave a lot of space in behind, it will be Sheffield United that could potentially cause us some headaches out of the promoted sides, Wilder is really good modern manager.

Edited August 11, 20196 yr by Argo

23 hours ago, dkw said:

Quadruple. 

If we win just the quad and no super cup, I'm switching teams.

But seriously for me just 4th and no cup is a decent season all things considered, we just need to survive and set ourselves up for next season.

The alternative would be dropping out of the CL in group stages but winning the EL again to secure qualification that way, but depending on league position that might spell the end of Lamps' as our manager.

1 hour ago, Dixons said:

We won't win the league or be relegated, but apart from that I have no idea how good or bad we'll be.

The defence has been poor against mediocre teams in the pre- season games and who knows how well the strikers will do, so at this moment in time it's completely up in the air in terms of what to expect.

In ever other season under Roman, a season without a trophy and top four would be judged a failure, but imho, that would be unfair this season.

This will be 3 consecutive seasons without a title challenge, No way will Roman be willing to wait years more for our youngsters to progress to the level needed to be the level of players we need, so it's crucial the young players take their chances this season, otherwise I fear Roman will splash the cash and bring in big money players in their positions.

What I hope for is to see us start building a team that plays with pace and movement. Playing without fear home and away against every team. No more setting out trying not to lose.

So. top 7 with a couple of our youngsters really making their mark, looking good enough to go forward with next season, would be fine by me!

 

 

Pretty sure I read comments from Lampard saying you can't expect to go out every game playing attractive, attacking football ("good luck with that" were his words). 

He mentioned setting up accordingly, and sometimes that would mean playin g more defensively.

Despite the fact that every other season since Mourinho left the first time has been labelled as a 'transition season', this is the first one which actually feels like that. I.E. Our primary objective for the season is to leave ourselves in the best position to challenge next season rather than target any specific trophies this time around.

So a good season would be:

- A relatively settled first XI and squad, ideally with a few of our youngsters in the mix.

- A clear idea of where we need to strengthen next summer, targets identified and hopefully snapped up quickly and efficiently.

- A clear idea of who isn't needed or who Lampard doesn't fancy.

- A couple of statement wins against certain high-level opposition - Liverpool and Man City are the obvious ones, but a CL performance or two to remember would do wonders. Six points against Tottenham goes without saying.

- [Ideally] Champions League qualification to put us in the best position to strengthen again next summer. It will be hard enough to attract whoever the flavour of the month is in one year's time without being able to promise Champions League action.

More minor/specific:

- Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi rehabilitated and back in the squad without any unnecessary loss of momentum or ability.

- A couple of new, funny songs which aren't just Sloop John B re-hashes. ("Lewisham Ballack" sounds good).

- A really serious surge from one of our youngsters to suggest they might fulfill their world class potential. 15 goals from Mason Mount for example, Abraham to be unquestionably first choice, Reece James to show himself to be a big-game player (think Ashley Cole vs Cronaldo).

- Jorginho and Kovacic to be twice as good as last season, suggesting that the problem was perhaps with their instructions rather than their ability...

^^ what he said

2 hours ago, GhostOfDembaBa said:

Pretty sure I read comments from Lampard saying you can't expect to go out every game playing attractive, attacking football ("good luck with that" were his words). 

He mentioned setting up accordingly, and sometimes that would mean playin g more defensively.

I'm not expcting/wanting that way of playing this season, because we've simply not got the players to play like that at the mo. But if we're ever going to get back to competing with City for the title, we'll need to build a team that goes to places like City, setting out to win the game. The old Jose way of trying  to do little more than spoil and park the bus, just wont cut it these days.

Edited August 11, 20196 yr by Dixons

9 hours ago, Argo said:

I disagree, we have a bunch of experienced serial winners and now some of the best youngsters in world football complimenting them, in absolutely no world will finishing 9th behind a Wolves team with Europa distractions and Leicester/Everton sides who have lost key players be a success. Furthermore if we are finishing in that position that would suggest the young boys are nowhere near ready for us which will likely result in a Roman supermarket sweep (possibly alongside an Allegri appointment) to avoid a repeat.

We should minimum be competitive in the top 4 race, if we make a fight of it and miss out (ala Arsenal last season) then fair enough, anything less then it's a major under performance given the quality of our squad.

You'd be fine if none of the young players excel as long as we finish top 4? 

Missed this thread earlier in the season and quite interesting looking back at comments and how things have panned out up to now.

As we all expected it has been ups & downs / good and bad, but taking into account the circumstances, I like the signs and feel the pro's far outweigh the cons. With some quality additions in key areas and releasing a few not good enough, I think we will be on track to challenge the dippers & City in seasons to come. I think we are where we deserve to be. We could be a fair bit better off points wise when you look at the games lost at home but then we have won games where we may not have expected to AND we made the knock-out stages of CL.

This season the dippers are way out in front and I can't see us getting higher than 4th but Top 4 is in our own hands although far from a certainty. Right now I'll be disappointed if we don't achieve it as although we haven't looked convincing at times, our 4th place rivals all look worse.

United - bit like us, do better in the bigger games, beating us, City and Spurs but they are more inconsistent and when they are bad they are shocking. Just hope OGS stays!

Spurs - the initial bounce factor from when Mourinho replaced Poch has well & truly ended and with Golden boy Kane now sidelined I just can't see them threatening (and we all know there will be worse times ahead when Jose loses the plot - can't wait!).

Wolves / Everton / Sheff Utd - can't be expected to challenge and all 3 would be happy with 5th or 6th, especially Sheff Utd whose fans would have probably taken 17th when the season started - unbelievable job by Chris Wilder.

Arsenal - currently 10th, below Palace and 9 points behind us. But I still think they could be our main challenger with the fire-power they have and the appointment of Arteta. With Aubamayeng, Lacazette, Pepe and I've been really impressed with the young Brazilian Martinelli - they should be scoring a lot more goals and winning games. Thankfully their defence is a shambles, marshalled by our old mate David Luiz, (Long may he stay) so hopefully they will continue to implode.

As long as we can address the issue of our home form - starting tomorrow v Burnley, then I am (almost) confident that 4th place will be ours and if the young players continue to develop and improve, we give a good account of ourselves against Bayern Munich and go as far as we can in the FA Cup, then I'll be happy with that. 

Onwards & Upwards with Lamps and Jody..............................

 

 

Edited January 10, 20206 yr by Nibs

18 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Missed this thread earlier in the season and quite interesting looking back at comments and how things have panned out up to now.

As we all expected it has been ups & downs / good and bad, but taking into account the circumstances, I like the signs and feel the pro's far outweigh the cons. With some quality additions in key areas and releasing a few not good enough, I think we will be on track to challenge the dippers & City in seasons to come. I think we are where we deserve to be. We could be a fair bit better off points wise when you look at the games lost at home but then we have won games where we may not have expected to AND we made the knock-out stages of CL.

This season the dippers are way out in front and I can't see us getting higher than 4th but Top 4 is in our own hands although far from a certainty. Right now I'll be disappointed if we don't achieve it as although we haven't looked convincing at times, our 4th place rivals all look worse.

United - bit like us, do better in the bigger games, beating us, City and Spurs but they are more inconsistent and when they are bad they are shocking. Just hope OGS stays!

Spurs - the initial bounce factor from when Mourinho replaced Poch has well & truly ended and with Golden boy Kane now sidelined I just can't see them threatening (and we all know there will be worse times ahead when Jose loses the plot - can't wait!).

Wolves / Everton / Sheff Utd - can't be expected to challenge and all 3 would be happy with 5th or 6th, especially Sheff Utd whose fans would have probably taken 17th when the season started - unbelievable job by Chris Wilder.

Arsenal - currently 10th, below Palace and 9 points behind us. But I still think they could be our main challenger with the fire-power they have and the appointment of Arteta. With Aubamayeng, Lacazette, Pepe and I've been really impressed with the young Brazilian Martinelli - they should be scoring a lot more goals and winning games. Thankfully their defence is a shambles, marshalled by our old mate David Luiz, (Long may he stay) so hopefully they will continue to implode.

As long as we can address the issue of our home form - starting tomorrow v Burnley, then I am (almost) confident that 4th place will be ours and if the young players continue to develop and improve, we give a good account of ourselves against Bayern Munich and go as far as we can in the FA Cup, then I'll be happy with that. 

Onwards & Upwards with Lamps and Jody..............................

It's been interesting hasn't it. I didn't post in here either but we've absolutely outperformed expectations. I didn't think Frank should have been given the gig as he was too new, and to be fair he has had his ups and downs.

I'm still aghast at our defending and that really needs to be sorted, but for someone to come in and totally break the mould bring in Mount and Abraham and have them thrive. Improve Kovacic out of sight and get us into the top four without Eden Hazard (not to mention long injuries to Kante and Rudiger) and a transfer ban is a great achievement so far.

With the market available to us again I'm hoping we are shrewd and allow ourselves to build on what we have achieved so far.

Like Nibs I missed this thread too.

I said I thought we would achieve 4th this season and still see that as a possibility.

In fairness I think top 6 would be successful given the conditions under what Frank started in.

I would also think getting to the knockout stage of the CL would be good - achieved 

Now 1/4s of the FA Cup would be desirable, anything beyond a bonus.

I wanted a more entertaining way of playing and one that was more adaptable when needed - think this is still a work in progress so will go with 7/10 so far............

As the thread is 'current state of affairs' i would have to say that i would expect us to get 4th (although i still think Lister are an injury or two away from a collapse)
Having made the knockout stages of the CL a good showing against Bayern would satisfy me and going through against them would be a major achievement for Frank and the team.
Latter stages of the FA cup as long as we don't get the top two on the way.
We have i think excelled up to now, and dont we look like a really promising team going forward, none of this we're still in transition after three managers and 300m spent like Manure !!

Top 4 and quarterfinalists in all the competition is good enough for me. Any lower is subject to opposition.

I’d be disappointed if we don’t finish top 4, we’d have to do pretty bad to let one of United or Spurs back in top 4.

19 hours ago, chelseablueboy said:

Latter stages of the FA cup as long as we don't get the top two on the way.

I’m not too fussed about City or Liverpool, we’ve given them a run for their money when we’ve played them earlier this season and the boys are more mature now. We’ve beaten Ajax, Tottenham and Arsenal away so the ‘can’t beat top teams’ (if we still consider Arsenal one!) hoodoo is gone. 
 

We’re in a good place for top 4 but it’ll go to the most consistent team in the second half of the season which is nobody at the moment. Wouldn’t be unhappy if we finish top 6 still. 

I no longer think it's a case of being content with a top 6 place. We need to be making top four, simple as that, especially for financial reasons. Today the latest Deloitte financial results came out and Liverpool and City are on the tail of Man Utd, and Spurs have overtaken us and arsenal as the wealthiest club in London due to their CL run. Champions league is a massive deal these days and we cannot and should not be getting less than top 4 if we want to remain financially competitive.  

24 minutes ago, enigma said:

I no longer think it's a case of being content with a top 6 place. We need to be making top four, simple as that, especially for financial reasons. Today the latest Deloitte financial results came out and Liverpool and City are on the tail of Man Utd, and Spurs have overtaken us and arsenal as the wealthiest club in London due to their CL run. Champions league is a massive deal these days and we cannot and should not be getting less than top 4 if we want to remain financially competitive.  

Haven’t you heard the new song? Top 6 is fine, Chelsea’s gonna win the Champions League!

Beginning of the season, i thought we would be 6th at best, however Arsenal, Spurs, and United, have took there end of season inconsistency into this year, and thankfully we have had a number of players step up to put us in a good position. 

If we are still 5 points clear by the time the Champions League starts again, then im confident we can clinch a top 4 finish. 

Really tough few weeks coming up though, we generally have all the better teams to play at home, aside from liverpool amd Leicester, we just need to make home advantage count.

On 11/08/2019 at 12:46, PloKoon13 said:

Despite the fact that every other season since Mourinho left the first time has been labelled as a 'transition season', this is the first one which actually feels like that. I.E. Our primary objective for the season is to leave ourselves in the best position to challenge next season rather than target any specific trophies this time around.

So a good season would be:

- A relatively settled first XI and squad, ideally with a few of our youngsters in the mix.

- A clear idea of where we need to strengthen next summer, targets identified and hopefully snapped up quickly and efficiently.

- A clear idea of who isn't needed or who Lampard doesn't fancy.

- A couple of statement wins against certain high-level opposition - Liverpool and Man City are the obvious ones, but a CL performance or two to remember would do wonders. Six points against Tottenham goes without saying.

- [Ideally] Champions League qualification to put us in the best position to strengthen again next summer. It will be hard enough to attract whoever the flavour of the month is in one year's time without being able to promise Champions League action.

More minor/specific:

- Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi rehabilitated and back in the squad without any unnecessary loss of momentum or ability.

- A couple of new, funny songs which aren't just Sloop John B re-hashes. ("Lewisham Ballack" sounds good).

- A really serious surge from one of our youngsters to suggest they might fulfill their world class potential. 15 goals from Mason Mount for example, Abraham to be unquestionably first choice, Reece James to show himself to be a big-game player (think Ashley Cole vs Cronaldo).

- Jorginho and Kovacic to be twice as good as last season, suggesting that the problem was perhaps with their instructions rather than their ability...

He's ticked one off.

3 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

He's ticked one off.

Be fair here Plokkers. 

CHO has made his comeback and RLC will be soon, Reece James looking like a world beater and the ‘We’ve got Super Frankie Lampard’ song has a little joke at the end. Tick a few more off. 

7 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

He's ticked one off.

Looks like you might well be able to shout "bingo" by the end of the season ?

12 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Be fair here Plokkers. 

CHO has made his comeback and RLC will be soon, Reece James looking like a world beater and the ‘We’ve got Super Frankie Lampard’ song has a little joke at the end. Tick a few more off. 

Yep sorry, you're right. Let's see where we are so far:

- A relatively settled first XI and squad, ideally with a few of our youngsters in the mix. The youngsters part is 100% ticked off. The first part is still very much up in the air - I couldn't honestly tell you what Frank thinks our strongest XI is right now, or what formation he would ideally like to play going forward. Might start a thread about this actually...

- A clear idea of where we need to strengthen next summer, targets identified and hopefully snapped up quickly and efficiently. Ziyech is a good start - Frank has been pretty clear in his team selections that he thinks we need strengthening at left-back, up front, and quite possibly in goal.

- A clear idea of who isn't needed or who Lampard doesn't fancy. Definitely a few names on this list already: Emerson, Batshuayi, Giroud, Pedro. Could also add Alonso, Barkley and Kepa.

- A couple of statement wins against certain high-level opposition - Liverpool and Man City are the obvious ones, but a CL performance or two to remember would do wonders. Six points against Tottenham goes without saying. The two Tottenham games and the late comeback against Arsenal were magnificent to watch. Ajax away was a truly fantastic performance. I'll leave this one unchecked as I still don't think we've yet got a result against someone obviously better than us. The Bayern games will be a good test. We still have league games against Man City and Liverpool to come as well. Six points against Tottenham can be ticked off as previously mentioned - obviously when I wrote this Pochettino was still manager; José being in charge has made it even sweeter.

- [Ideally] Champions League qualification to put us in the best position to strengthen again next summer. It will be hard enough to attract whoever the flavour of the month is in one year's time without being able to promise Champions League action. So far so good, on course to achieve this one. City's CL ban would provide us with a useful safety net.

More minor/specific:

- Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi rehabilitated and back in the squad without any unnecessary loss of momentum or ability. Hudson-Odoi looks like he's about there but not quite in the form of last season. Looking forward to seeing Loftus-Cheek again. I'd rather we re-introduced him in a responsible manner and don't expect too much. I'd be happy enough if he was back and ready to fully participate after pre-season.

- A couple of new, funny songs which aren't just Sloop John B re-hashes. ("Lewisham Ballack" sounds good). Honestly couldn't say - I haven't made it down to the Bridge so far this season and didn't notice (read: too drunk) anything at Leicester away. It's been two years now and my 'Emerson' song (Elvis Costello - Alison) still hasn't taken off. There's no accounting for taste I suppose...

- A really serious surge from one of our youngsters to suggest they might fulfill their world class potential. 15 goals from Mason Mount for example, Abraham to be unquestionably first choice, Reece James to show himself to be a big-game player (think Ashley Cole vs Cronaldo). Looking good so far from all three I mentioned - Abraham is definitely first choice. I'm most excited about James - I think he has the highest ceiling of the lot. Sad not to see more of Tomori considering how well he started the season and how poor Christensen has been at times.

- Jorginho and Kovacic to be twice as good as last season, suggesting that the problem was perhaps with their instructions rather than their ability... Kovacic is arguably our most improved player from last season, at times he's been excellent. Still really not convinced about Jorginho, although he has been better than he was under Sarri.

Interesting read back now.