1 minute ago, charierre said:

I haven't seen anyone calling for Lamps head. The young players will be inconsistent though have to be judged on what they produce like any other professional otherwise we are actually doing them a disservice on their abilities. They have been picked for the team on merit over more established players and will be praised when they produce,  unfortunately when they don't they have to expect criticism. That is part of the learning process. 

Again I agree with you. For example, it’s somewhat baffling to me that Mount is untouchable while Kova isnt getting selected - particularly disappointing for me as I’ve always been a big fan of Kova (yes I know they’re competing for different positions but you get my drift..?) 

2 minutes ago, mojo said:

another game painfull to watch and then hard pill to swallow. 

Another calculated loss mate ? Nobody won today, probably the only team around us to win will be Leicester tomorrow.

8 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Been saying it since we bought him, unfortunately that m massive fee means he has to.play every game

Geez people underestimated Tibo and how good he was at claiming crosses in particular. I reckon that's up to at least 10 goals we have conceded from crosses and corners that were wholly preventable by having a keeper not anchored to his line.

It's either very poor scouting for us to miss this or a cluster from someone who thought passing was more important than claiming crosses in the Premier League.

2 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Another calculated loss mate ? Nobody won today, probably the only team around us to win will be Leicester tomorrow.

I think Utd could upset Liverpool if they got a first goal

Only watched the 1st half on the road so caught it in a English pub in Santa Barbara  owned by a Manc guy. Me & the missus only punters in there. Just had a gut feeling it wouldn’t improve so got back on the freeway.  
 

Obviously Rudiger was not the missing piece of the defence, Kante as box to box midfielder just doesn’t seem to help the teams attacking just like under Sarri, he’s all over the pitch & gets more shots off & consequently more goals but there are better suited players out there for that role 

the keeper is just not good enough imo

not going to turn on Frank & Jody ever, they need 2-3 better players and a new better goalie or at least one who can come in & do a job while Kepa warms the bench to teach him a lesson 

out Pedro , Giroud, big Willy, Alonso & a CB/ Dave 

in another top striker, winger  left back & Centre back & a better back up goalie 

won’t be able to see this until the summer so let’s just enjoy the roller coaster ride 

 

1 minute ago, mojo said:

I think Utd could upset Liverpool if they got a first goal

I'd be fine with that. Bad enough that the f**kers look like they might break their hoodoo let alone doing it unbeaten.

3 minutes ago, Dean said:

Again I agree with you. For example, it’s somewhat baffling to me that Mount is untouchable while Kova isnt getting selected - particularly disappointing for me as I’ve always been a big fan of Kova (yes I know they’re competing for different positions but you get my drift..?) 

The breaking up of the Jorginho/Kovacic partnership is a bit of a mystery. Though I do wonder why Kante is keeping being picked in matches were you expect the opposition to'park the bus'. He has his qualities but technical ability isn't high up on his attributes. I do wonder if his perceived unsettled status reported in the press is behind keep picking him in games like this. As for Mount I think Frank likes his energy in being the first to the press.

One thing I do hope is Kane gets fit for England. I fear opposition fans and the media may destroy Tammy if he misses some of the chances he has for us. Far better at this stage in his career to be the player who comes in under the radar than the one who the unrealistic hopes of the fans is pinned on.

5 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Geez people underestimated Tibo and how good he was at claiming crosses in particular. I reckon that's up to at least 10 goals we have conceded from crosses and corners that were wholly preventable by having a keeper not anchored to his line.

It's either very poor scouting for us to miss this or a cluster from someone who thought passing was more important than claiming crosses in the Premier League.

Sarri reportedly tried to get him at Napoli when his buyout(18m) was more in line with his ability.Even Real pulled out of a deal on him at that price. No wonder the old git fcked off back to Italy if this was his parting gift.

Just now, charierre said:

Sarri reportedly tried to get him at Napoli when his buyout(18m) was more in line with his ability.Even Real pulled out of a deal on him at that price. No wonder the old git fcked off back to Italy if this was his parting gift.

Says how little he understood about English football. Although to be fair he has to put up with Sczesny now so with any luck he might want to take Kepa to Juve!

He's a rocks amd diamonds keeper. Pulls of these amazing reflex saves that makes everyone forget that he concedes easy goals from crosses and corners. His numbers have been in the bottom 5 keepers in the Premier League both seasons he has been here too.

I think he could surpass Torres as our worst ever value signing at this rate.

 

9 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

I'd be fine with that. Bad enough that the f**kers look like they might break their hoodoo let alone doing it unbeaten.

The last thing we need is United closing the gap behind us,  Hoping for a big Scouse win and for us to wreck the unbeaten run when we play them !

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

We've only won 5 out of the 15 games he's played in, lost 8, had a good win against Burnley when he was injured last week, and suddenly it's back to the sh*thouse, that can't be a coincidence. 

 

To be honest, I don't blame Kante for these losses. He's not a terrible player. He's just not being utilized appropriately. The bigger blame goes to Lampard for not able to get the best out of Kante.

 

1 minute ago, Spiller86 said:

Says how little he understood about English football. Although to be fair he has to put up with Sczesny now so with any luck he might want to take Kepa to Juve!

He's a rocks amd diamonds keeper. Pulls of these amazing reflex saves that makes everyone forget that he concedes easy goals from crosses and corners. His numbers have been in the bottom 5 keepers in the Premier League both seasons he has been here too.

I think he could surpass Torres as our worst ever value signing at this rate.

 

The fact that you have Torres in your profile picture while constantly saying that he's our worst signing looks funny to me...I know it's not an argument, you can still be happy for that particular goal and still think he's our worst signing at the same time, but you're looking great as a poster because of it in ways I can't really explain ?

4 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Says how little he understood about English football. Although to be fair he has to put up with Sczesny now so with any luck he might want to take Kepa to Juve!

He's a rocks amd diamonds keeper. Pulls of these amazing reflex saves that makes everyone forget that he concedes easy goals from crosses and corners. His numbers have been in the bottom 5 keepers in the Premier League both seasons he has been here too.

I think he could surpass Torres as our worst ever value signing at this rate.

 

The problem also, is that our back.up keeper is a disaster waiting to happen

5 minutes ago, haviet1 said:

 

To be honest, I don't blame Kante for these losses. He's not a terrible player. He's just not being utilized appropriately. The bigger blame goes to Lampard for not able to get the best out of Kante.

 

True Kante  as defensive midfielder is brilliant, the headless chicken role he played today is a waste

 

 

 

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Hence why i said any of the managers in the roman era would have been in trouble with these results. Frank is a lucky boy, cos at the moment he looks out of his depth.

The guy is in 4th been given a transfer ban and playing a youth team he is hardly out of his depth 

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

He needs to start dropping Mount 100%. 

CHO has had two decent games beforehand though, it was a good move to play him this time, unfortunately he had a poor game. 

I agree but we just don’t have the players atm. If he plays Jorginho & Kovacic (which he should) then he is left with Mount or Barkley for the CAM position. Barkley is awful in CAM. You could play Pulisic there when he’s back but then that leaves Willian & CHO playing every game as wingers. Not ideal.

We need Reuben back fit and new players. Unfortunately we’re just going to have to scrape through until summer I think. I’d rather we do that than buy average players just because we need them. Maybe an older striker that can play 3rd choice when we get a Werner level player in the summer.

14 minutes ago, rtwelch said:

You could play Pulisic there when he’s back but then that leaves Willian & CHO playing every game as wingers. Not ideal.

 

 

I think Lamp has some flexibility here.

If he wants to try Pulisic as CAM, that mean he has Willian, CHO, Pedro, and Mount as 4 options at wingers. Mount had a very serviceable run as LW earlier on in the season.

 

I thought Mount was really poor today but might have been better if Ross had played with him like last week. Kante also was not the player for this game in the role he was asked to do. 

I don't think there is a problem in the squad as noticed all the subs seemed to be up for having a go just shame we left it so late for the changes.

What a frustrating, gut wrenching match. I just didn’t see us losing it, but nevertheless it’s a bit of the same old story. Struggle to break teams down, changes come too late, fragile at back (particularly in goal in my opinion).

I’m also getting the feeling that Lamps banging on about us not being clinical enough is becoming a bit of a self fulfilling prophesy with our players. Many are young and I just don’t think him constantly banging on about it, to ensure he gets backing from the board, is helping confidence amongst the group.
Kepa is a massive issue for me - I just don’t see him saving us points. He’s fragile and whilst he might make a good save every now and again, I struggle to see how he elevates the team in any way. We’ve invested a lot in him so I don’t see the club making a change but it’s clear Frank isn’t happy with him either. We are a bit stuck here.

It’s not all bad and we have to remember we’ll have games like this with an inexperienced squad of players, but there are some things we are consistently seeing that would need to see addressed. We can’t give the team/coaches a pass forever but need to be patient.

Edited January 18, 20206 yr by Tony Tone

There are no excuses for sh1t like that, again. Our attackers just scared sh1tless in front of the goal, it's one thing if their GK had a great game, but we barely tested him, every decent chance was kicked a yard wide at least. The second striker is another huge issue, can't expect Tammy to score every game, after he came off we had nothing. James was the best player on the field, that's scary as nobody did anything, as soon as James off the good cross stopped. With Pullisic out, and Pedro gone from the first team, we have very little options out wide, Willian has this kind of game, and CHO just not there yet. Kepa should have done better with the last shot, it's bread and butter for a top GK to palm the ball away in situation like that, couldn't do it again. Why was Christesen playing again. everyone else was injured? Sure he was ok for 90 minutes, as soon as we needed to defend he gave away the corner needlessly, then came the final cross he was no where to be seen, leaving Rudiger defending against two. Sure, Rudiger could have done better do, but Christensen's inability to defend high ball and deal with pressure was well known, just because he got away with the Burnley game doesn't mean he fixed anything. It's ironic as soon as the rumour Christensen may leave, Lampard picked him two games in a row, and we aren't going to sign Ake, tell me that's just conspiracy theory. We need reinforcement, I don't like keen jerk reaction, but this game was not an one off, we are bound to see it happen again soon

4 minutes ago, Tony Tone said:

I’m also getting the feeling that Lamps banging on about us not being clinical enough is becoming a bit of a self fulfilling prophesy with our players. Many are young and I just don’t think him constantly banging on about it, to ensure he gets backing from the board, is helping confidence amongst the group.

I guess he has to front up to an aggressive media with his own reputation on the line and especially if RA decides his time is up. That is why he tells the truth as much as he can. I think it also helps the players in case he gets a replacement they will know why that was because at the top level they were not clinical enough.  

It's really quite amazing that we are still 4th in the league given some of the poor results we've had, especially those against teams in the bottom half.

Before the season started I would have said being in the top 4 would  be beyond expectations given the circumstances of a new manager, transfer ban and giving more game time to the younger players, something I think most of us wanted to see anyway.

The impression I'm getting though as the season progresses is that tactically we are falling short and it needs changing. Ultimately that responsibility is down to Frank and Jody and I hope we as fans can give them some patience to make the transition.

4th is still a fairly good position to be in.

That's 8 games we lost and most of them to poor teams. We can't lose 1/4 of the games and expect to maintain our stay in the top 4. Frank should have enough time to see that Jorginho-Kova partnership is the default go to midfield for now until he decides Kante's best position tactically. You can't have someone like Kante being AWOL in midfield and drift so far up he's basically a No. 10. He's Kante not Isco.

Our LB needs sorting out and the transfer ban is not an excuse anymore. 

I don't understand Willian. He basically has all the ingredients to succeed as a top level winger but plays based on mood. 

We desperately need a backup CF who can give us the edge and challenge Tammy.

I won't blame the defence as much because our defence this year always have that lapse in concentration at the final minutes. That's all to do with coaching

Oh you have to laugh dont you.

Same old Chelsea of late, always losing to sh*t teams.

All of our usual traits on show. A backline that can defend everything except set pieces.

A goalkeeper meant to be one of the best but fluffs a simple save to hand the opponent a winner.

A midfield woefully ponderous and lacking a cutting edge.

A forward line who always makes the wrong choice. Wastes attack after attack by taking far too many touches.

A manager not having the guts to go two up top to try and win a game we end up losing anyway through that cautiousness.

Another easy game lost due to our collective ineptitude.

Our games can be so boring and repetitive to watch. Only James made that game worth watching. Rest of the team, management include, garbage.