Seems to throw his hands in the air when someone doesn’t find him with a pass, does the same when his own pass fails to get to his intended as if the other player hadn’t made the right run

Jimmy is back!

Absolutely dreadful performance. It’s harsh to even point out players since all were sh*t, but Rudiger was so poor and so was everyone’s sweetheart, Kante. His performances in the middle is costing us. Too many touches on the ball, misplaced passes, no ideas what to do with it in possession, just a tremendous lack of quality...but he runs a lot so it’s ok. 
 

The less said about CHO, the better. 

That injury looks like it's totally killed CHO's game.

I'm not sure what Frank's done but our winning mentality has well and truly left the building. I'd be amazed if we finished in the top four losing to midtable mediocrity as consistently as we are.

Don’t know what Frank was thinking. Five defenders at home to Southampton? Plus, the wing backs are the two players who can’t cross? An out of form CHO starting over Mount and Pulisic? While a physically shattered Willian is trundled on again.

So many things wrong with the starting line up you have to wonder if Frank was just pulling names out of a hat. None of it made any sense. Put us on the back foot and we never recovered.

Frank will get a pass for now as he’s a club legend. But he needs to learn fast, and the club need to probably back him in the window.

Spurs game looking like a freak result. Celebrations afterwards now looking premature and a bit embarrassing. The losses are piling up and Frank is looking lost. 

Not good. Not good at all.

 

 

 

Seeing Jorginho and Kante on the team sheet in the middle today in a 5-2-3 / 3-4-3 was a bit of a warning sign for me. Especially with Azpi as one of the wingbacks. 

This was a mess today. As perfect as the match was against Tottenham, this was every bit as bad. 

The players, too were awful. 

Barely anything created. It's clear that teams who sit deep and defend in numbers are a big problem for the team. 

 

Frank needs a couple of transfer windows to shape this team.

We've got some very good youngsters but not enough experienced players prepared to roll their sleeves up.

Worse than that, we are seriously lacking in creative players.

The amount of passes or crosses that we underhit or overhit is shocking!

I mean real basic stuff that we really struggle with - if we saw a championship team do it we would probably turn over to a different channel.

If you'd have said to me at the beginning of the season that out of CHO, Tammy, Mount, James and Tomori
That CHO was the one I have the least confidence in, I'd have laughed. 

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

No, the results are proving that our manager lacks experience and at the moment is struggling to get the best out of players at his disposal. 

Only four days ago we were good enough to beat a much better side away. You're not seriously suggesting that Southampton, West Ham and Bournemouth have better squads than ours? 

Nope, not what I was suggesting at all. What I was saying is that our squad lacks the kind of players that can deal with physically stronger experienced sides that defend in numbers and have the enough about them to still trouble our keeper a handful of times. We did absolutely squat again today and could even possibly have lost by one or two more. At their place they looked to play and we managed a win. Not spectacular but the game was open enough for us to win it.

Spurs aside, the 'better' teams are open and let us play, but are better than us, so we tend to lose. The weaker sides are just physically stronger and well organised in large numbers in defence and we can't break them down. So that leaves us with weaker teams away from home to get most of our points.

Out of interest, how many clean sheets have we kept this season?

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

My biggest complaint has been how boring these games have been. Been really poor viewing.

This is how I felt when Sarri was in charge last season. Almost put the nail in the coffin in terms of watching Football as a hobby.

Yeah, it's frustrating right now. But we're doing the right thing. Need to persist with Lampard and the young team. Even if we don't get top four.

 

Super Frank needs to bare the blame for this failure. Starting with the starting XI, then with his subsitutions. For whatever reason, SFL & Jody Morris can't figure out how to get the best out of the team when at home

Edited December 26, 20196 yr by robdog

1 hour ago, Socrates said:

 

Spurs game looking like a freak result. Celebrations afterwards now looking premature and a bit embarrassing. 

No way is celebrating a victory against Spurs at their place embarrassing!

16 minutes ago, JoeyN said:

This is how I felt when Sarri was in charge last season. Almost put the nail in the coffin in terms of watching Football as a hobby.

Yeah, it's frustrating right now. But we're doing the right thing. Need to persist with Lampard and the young team. Even if we don't get top four.

 

Dont really care about the top 4 to be honest mate. Is more about the loss of money than anything else in not making the top 4.

The CL games have, in the main, been boring this season too. Both games against Lille, Ajax away and Valencia at home. Boring poor displays by both teams.

Losses happen. When we lose I want it to be after trying our hardest and giving a good account of ourselves, rather than this boring tedium produced.

Happy to give Lamps a few seasons and transfers to develop his own side. Not expecting any silverware for the next 2 and a half seasons at least.

Frank just needs to work out how to beat the lower in the table away teams that sit and defend, most of them are good at it seeing that every point lost is a slip in the wrong direction for them, but the losses are worrying, can suffer the draws a bit 

1 hour ago, Socrates said:

 

Frank will get a pass for now as he’s a club legend. 

 

 

And also because many people knew he had only one year of management experience in the Championship, so it was presumed he'd have to experience some on the job learning.  Just like we knew that would be the case having to use so many young players.  

Earlier decent results seems to have skewed the expectations some.  

We have top managers in the League and after a few matches you need to change your approach or they will stop you playing.

Tammy was poor or stopped today and we could not adapt with the players put out there.

2 hours ago, Socrates said:

Don’t know what Frank was thinking. Five defenders at home to Southampton? Plus, the wing backs are the two players who can’t cross? An out of form CHO starting over Mount and Pulisic? While a physically shattered Willian is trundled on again.

So many things wrong with the starting line up you have to wonder if Frank was just pulling names out of a hat. None of it made any sense. Put us on the back foot and we never recovered.

Frank will get a pass for now as he’s a club legend. But he needs to learn fast, and the club need to probably back him in the window.

Spurs game looking like a freak result. Celebrations afterwards now looking premature and a bit embarrassing. The losses are piling up and Frank is looking lost. 

Not good. Not good at all.

 

 

 

Easy to say in hindsight, but if Lampard had went 4 at the back and lost people would be saying it's stupid to disrupt a winning strategy after that Spurs performance. 

I completely understand it, we lost to Everton, Bournemouth and West Ham with 4 at the back, I don't think formation is the problem. 

I don't know whats more insulting, the result or the fact they rested their star striker and still won? Souhampton didn't even plan to get points out of this game, we just handed over to them by not showing up, again, third home game in the row. Lampard rotated the wrong players, if he had the chance, he'd take off both CHO and Emerson at HT, both players offered nothing. I get it you want rest Mount, Pulisic, but you got take it one game at a time, now we looked like complete fool. There's no backup for Abraham, he looked exhausted and the other 2 aren't getting any minutes. The blue print for beating Chelsea is out there, just make the game as slow and boring as possible, and Chelsea will forget how to play and eventually let 1 or 2 in.

If we are going to play wing backs they have to be able to create. Neither Emerson or Dave do that. Dave is a hopeless wingback, Moses was far better and always under rated by chelsea. Wingbacks need to be able to cut insides as well as outside. 
 

dave belongs in the back 3 in a back 5 system. Willian would be a great wing back in a back 5 with alonso on the other side. That would let us play mount with say pulisic. 
 

Rudigier and Kante were average today although Kante was better in h2. We really missed Kovacic. I was worried as soon as I saw the lineup. well we are still 4th but we need to find some structure for these press and park the bus opponents. Right now we are clueless. 

The formation was not the problem at all but how we kept the shape or lets say how we didn't keep the shape. At Spurs  the wingbacks stayed wide which gave us space for passing options but somehow today the players drifted inside, players went for the same ball and caught up with each other. 

Further we have to speak about Kante. Sarri wanted all us to believe he is an attacking midfielder and it kinda worked but his best season was under Ranieri and Conte which utilised him way different. Him and Jorghino reminds me of Matic and Fabregas at the end of their duo partnership. Doesn't help that Jorginho is no Fabregas. Don't get me wrong he is a very fine passer and i like his fight but he doesn't have the vision that Cesc had. Some of those balls Fabregas put forward were just amazing. 

 

 

 

Question: If Liverpool had Azpi and Emerson as their first choice full backs. How far ahead do you think they would be? The way modern teams play they the two most important positions on the field IMO. If you watch most of the games we play, teams condense the space with a low block and let our fall backs have the ball. Azpi in particular is targeted. He delivery is constantly awful, he's slow and often gets caught either out of position or looses possession. 

Hes not a modern fallback he is an aging fullback on the downgrade. Its pretty sad to see the decline

Hes been a legend at the club but he has to be phased out...I gather Reece James has a ankle injury so it mean no chance of a change soon.

 

Edited December 26, 20196 yr by stuartcar
spelling

Watching us play at home is such a chore. We look so poor...all the time.

 

It's telling that I have started to expect games to go this way. Huff and puff, do nothing, get hit on the counter. Lose. The amount of points we've dropped lately is alarming.

Agree with most of the comments about a lack of ideas in key creative positions, CHO’s lack of cutting edge, inability to break teams down at home etc. Today felt like a total and utter mess. Stadium wasn’t really buzzing, frustration from early on and performance was much the same. No patience on ball and just didn’t create anything. I was baffled by team selection. Alonso was excellent on Sunday - he should have been given another game against a team that would need breaking down as he gives us quality options in attack and Stuart Armstrong / Che Adams / anyone in the Saints attack should be easily handled, even with his defensive frailties.

We can’t unlock teams at home and recent stats are a serious concern for me (West Ham, Bournemouth, Southampton - no points, no goals scored). I suppose there is work to be done and we knew that from the beginning, but the shape of results earlier in the season had me excited that we might have been further ahead than we were. Looking like that’s not the case but hopefully we can fix this worrying patch. Not all about signing players though. We have quality but need to get the selection and tactics right to utilise what we have. As others have said, Lamps gets a pass for now - he says the right things and is very aware, let’s just hope we make (and see) positive change

8 hours ago, SFL82 said:

Oh come on we are 17 minutes in 

Guess I was right then.  You could see it a mile off, we were being harassed and contained in our own half, causing sloppy passing and basic errors.  It had the pattern as the two recent losses; Frank once again got in wrong IMO.  Why he stuck with 3 at the back based on the win last week against a different style opponent was mystifying.  We'll likely win or put in a good performance on Sunday......roll on January.

30 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

Guess I was right then.  You could see it a mile off, we were being harassed and contained in our own half, causing sloppy passing and basic errors.  It had the pattern as the two recent losses; Frank once again got in wrong IMO.  Why he stuck with 3 at the back based on the win last week against a different style opponent was mystifying.  We'll likely win or put in a good performance on Sunday......roll on January.

I quoted this in an earlier post but couldn't be arsed to find it. Truth is we call could see that we had started poorly, movement was poor, too many touches and our infuriating habit of constantly passing backwards when good options are available in the box. This has to be addressed at the earliest moment by the coaching staff or these results will be the norm. 

 

Disastrous defending again on multiple occassions. Being pulled out of position all over the place. We need to address that big time.