10 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Breakfast, lunch and dinner! It’s the only way to keep warm on this rain soaked, freezing cold sh*t hole of a country!

Or you could emigrate to the centre of the Mediterranean

Think the first 11 are tired and stale. This team has played the majority of games and needs freshening up. Get some rotation in

Just noticed  @Floyd25 has a line going through his name on all his comments.. he hasn't actually quit has he? I tried to send him a message but it wouldn't let me. I actually feel kinda bad here. Anyone know him personally to get him back on

I think that means he is banned, Malta Blue.

Maybe the mods will give him another chance after sitting in the sin bin for a little while (not my decision).

2 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

He needs to change the shape then, because at the moment he’s bringing nothing to the party except giving the ball back to the opposition over & over again.

I think the problem began when he dropped Tammy.  Yes, great Giroud scored 4 against an ordinary Sevilla team that we static, and he's picked up a couple of goals but Giroud does not offer runs down the channels like Tammy does, his game is to hold it up and hopefully clean up the scraps around the box; but when he plays the options are less IMO as we tend to play it out wide to get the crosses in for him throughout the entire game and we know not all of those are successful, whereas Tammy is more versatile and mobile and can pull defenders out of position to create the gaps.  Frank needs to go back and have a rethink and put Giroud back on the bench for the last 15-20 minutes.  

Edited December 15, 20205 yr by CFCCAN

1 minute ago, CFCCAN said:

I think the problem began when he dropped Tammy.  Yes, great Giroud scored 4 against an ordinary Sevilla team that we static, and he's picked up a couple of goals but Giroud does not offer runs down the channels like Tammy does, his game is to hold it up and hopefully clean up the scraps around the box; but when he plays the options are less IMO as we tend to play it out wide to get the crosses in for him throughout the entire game and we know not all of those are successful, whereas Tammy is more versatile and mobile and can pull defenders out of position to create the gaps.  Frank needs to go back and have a rethink and put Giroud back on the bench for this last 15-20 minutes.  

Very good observations. I made the point on Saturday about how athletic a centre-forward Calvert-Lewin is for Everton. Similar to how Drogba played, he can hold the ball up, win most aerial battles, and also has the pace and movement to run the channels. And now he is scoring goals.

Extremely hard to find a player who can do all those things consistently well.

2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Excellent idea, let’s bring in Alan Curbishley.

Wouldn't be playing like this under Brendan 

Edited December 15, 20205 yr by CFCCAN

1 hour ago, Malta Blue said:

Nothing wrong with farting, especially when your in bed with your partner, give him or her a Dutch oven ?

Didn’t see the game, went for a pre London tier 3 lockdown curry , sounds like I was the lucky one ?

Blimey Malta, Dutch ovens and do I remember you sorting out Giroud’s sperm from your lady’s wotsname ? You know how to spoil a girl 

Edited December 15, 20205 yr by Paddy

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Think the first 11 are tired and stale. This team has played the majority of games and needs freshening up. Get some rotation in

Alonso!!!! Drinkwater!!! Kepa! go for it.   Although I think Jorghino would offer some creativity going forward and keep things ticking over

27 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

I think the problem began when he dropped Tammy.  Yes, great Giroud scored 4 against an ordinary Sevilla team that we static, and he's picked up a couple of goals but Giroud does not offer runs down the channels like Tammy does, his game is to hold it up and hopefully clean up the scraps around the box; but when he plays the options are less IMO as we tend to play it out wide to get the crosses in for him throughout the entire game and we know not all of those are successful, whereas Tammy is more versatile and mobile and can pull defenders out of position to create the gaps.  Frank needs to go back and have a rethink and put Giroud back on the bench for the last 15-20 minutes.  

Its an interesting point. I thought Tammy was doing well in our decent run. Giroud only got a runout as part of squad rotation but then kept his place after the super performance at Sevilla. I think Giroud as far better than Tammy off the bench too.

Personally though I think we have missed Ziyech more than anything. His creativity was a big part of our nice mini-run. Pulisic hasn't really had a decent run in the team for a while due to injuries but should improve with games. But we have really missed those amazing crosses and passes that Ziyech has in his locker. When is he back?

2 hours ago, loz said:

Unlike Kovacic I aim to please! 

Why do you have this weird agenda against Kovacic? Even if you don't highly rate him, he's still a good player. It's just odd... It usually comes from the types of people who rate Eric Dier as a footballer and think football is like it was in the 80's, be 6'0 and physical phwaorrr, stick a tackle in lad gawan!! 

And it's not as if Kovacic is sh*t off the ball either, he gets stuck in and works hard. I just don't understand the criticism you and numerous others have with him. 

1 minute ago, Slojo said:

Why do you have this weird agenda against Kovacic? Even if you don't highly rate him, he's still a good player. It's just odd... It usually comes from the types of people who rate Eric Dier as a footballer and think football is like it was in the 80's, be 6'0 and physical phwaorrr, stick a tackle in lad gawan!! 

And it's not as if Kovacic is sh*t off the ball either, he gets stuck in and works hard. I just don't understand the criticism you and numerous others have with him. 

It's just as you always thought Slojo. We all hate him. Loving the sweeping generalisation thrown in there too. Always helps a point of view.

 

 

2 minutes ago, just said:

It's just as you always thought Slojo. We all hate him. Loving the sweeping generalisation thrown in there too. Always helps a point of view.

 

 

Probably because it hit too close to home I imagine. 

It's always "physical" this, "physical" that, it's not the 80's anymore. You can be a good footballer while being under 6'0 or not having a great amount of pace. 

At least with Jorginho I can understand, his style of play can't be adjusted or adapted to, Kovacic however, will adapt to a system and work extremely hard. With you I think it's more due to the fact Barkley didn't end up being this world class player you were telling everyone he was 2 years ago because he's built like a brick sh*thouse, so you've took that out on other players. 

Just now, Slojo said:

Probably because it hit too close to home I imagine. 

It's always "physical" this, "physical" that, it's not the 80's anymore. You can be a good footballer while being under 6'0 or not having a great amount of pace. 

At least with Jorginho I can understand, his style of play can't be adjusted or adapted to, Kovacic however, will adapt to a system and work extremely hard. With you I think it's more due to the fact Barkley didn't end up being this world class player you were telling everyone he was 2 years ago because he's built like a brick sh*thouse, so you've took that out on other players. 

Superb.

Moving away from football slojo, I'd love to know more about you as a person.

1. What do you do for a living?

2. Do you have a girlfriend?

3. Is your name really Jo?

1 minute ago, just said:

Superb.

Moving away from football slojo, I'd love to know more about you as a person.

1. What do you do for a living?

2. Do you have a girlfriend?

3. Is your name really Jo?

1. Software Engineer, 2. Yes, 3. No.

But seriously, I'm just asking him a question becaues I think it's weird. You call me Kante's biggest critic, yet I've done nothing but sing his praises for months now. Why couldn't people do the same with Kovacic? He had a good season, he's still playing well and is a great squad player to have. Okay he wasn't any improvement today, but he's usually reliable and offers something different. 

But it's the same people who constantly slagged him off in his first season that just won't let it go, I just find it really weird, that's why I'm asking the question. If a player proves me wrong for the right reasons, I'm usually pretty happy and very much so admit I'm wrong. 

Literally I have no idea how to describe today's performance. Let's say it was even worse than on Saturday...

Although the defence is looking sloppy again (even Chilwell and Silva had a bad game) the main concern is creating chances. Pulisic was good in the first half, but when switched to right wing he completely disappeared from the game. As for Werner's position I think we can all agree that Frank has made a mistake. Havertz was poor again, he just doesn't seem to be physically strong enough in my opinion.

The midfielders were uninspired to say the least (credits to Kante who did a great job defensively again). And the problem is, as someone had mentioned earlier, an actual lack of rotation at those positions. Barkley/RLC could sometimes come up with something when subbed in and now we don't have those options. Maybe Jorginho should start the next game because we need some creativity urgently.

It is easy to blame Frank for these two defeats, especially for this one where he should have changed the approach to the game. Anyway a tough few weeks are coming up and we have to get our spirits up as soon as possible. West Ham on Monday is a must win.

4 minutes ago, Slojo said:

1. Software Engineer, 2. Yes, 3. No.

But seriously, I'm just asking him a question becaues I think it's weird. You call me Kante's biggest critic, yet I've done nothing but sing his praises for months now. Why couldn't people do the same with Kovacic? He had a good season, he's still playing well and is a great squad player to have. Okay he wasn't any improvement today, but he's usually reliable and offers something different. 

But it's the same people who constantly slagged him off in his first season that just won't let it go, I just find it really weird, that's why I'm asking the question. If a player proves me wrong for the right reasons, I'm usually pretty happy and very much so admit I'm wrong. 

That's all fine slojo but sometimes you need to step back and accept it's just someone's view, that they see things differently from you. It doesn't automatically mean they hate a player and always want them to fail. You can't always batter them into submission with your own "opinion crowbar" whenever they post, no matter how often you hit them over the head with it. 

PS. Very sorry about the Software Engineer day job. I've never met a Software Engineer that ever came out of their bedroom before, let alone had a girlfriend. Unless she was inflatable.

20 minutes ago, just said:

That's all fine slojo but sometimes you need to step back and accept it's just someone's view, that they see things differently from you. It doesn't automatically mean they hate a player and always want them to fail. You can't always batter them into submission with your own "opinion crowbar" whenever they post, no matter how often you hit them over the head with it. 

PS. Very sorry about the Software Engineer day job. I've never met a Software Engineer that ever came out of their bedroom before, let alone had a girlfriend. Unless she was inflatable.

It's not just that, it is because it's the same group of people who strictly didn't like Kovacic in his first season, including you (which is fine, Kovacic wasn't impressive in his first season, he was pretty average for a lot of it). But his 2nd season he was much better, I just don't get why the same people who disliked him then, still dislike him now. It's fair enough if you don't highly rate him, but you have to respect him surely. He works hard, doesn't mind when he's benched, always offers something different to the game. Him and Kante did a brilliant job against Spurs, and he helped Kante out a lot with N'dombele when he was wrecking our team in the first 20 minutes. 

I'll say it again, I find it very weird. Jorginho I do understand, he has never found his footing here. A good few months of performances but he's usually let himself down. With Kovacic it's entirely different, why all the dislike? I can only boil it down to the ffact that he isn't over 6 foot or has blistering pace. I get the impression that the same people who still dislike him would genuinely prefer to have Eric Dier in the side just because he's a big bulky f**ker and likes to stick in a tackle, never mind the fact that he can't play football and is one of the most frustrating Spurs players for their fans. 

A Software Engineer is a very lazy job, luckily (or unluckily for me) I have to go to my office still, even during COVID. So, I've never really got the benefits, people who stay at home though, do usually become quite lazy and easily distracted. 

Edited December 16, 20205 yr by Slojo

20 minutes ago, loz said:

Not a chance did we deserve a draw. We bent over and presented our arses for them to firmly rogered as soon as we went one up. It was awful. 

Wolves fully deserved that win. As soon as they upped their game our midfield bar Kante stopped playing and even he was loose with  possession on too many occasions. 

Havertz and Kovacic offered nothing other than encouraging Wolves to think they could win it. 

Werner either has to be in the centre or be on the bench. It's pointless starting him as a wide player. I'd rather we shoved a winger from the youth team on than watch Werner look look like a St Mirren reserve. 

 

I would have thought that having lived in Scotland for so long would have made you used to defeat?

Disagree on Kova?i? - I think he moved and showed for the ball with more purpose once he came on. Not saying much I suppose considering the alternative was our plague-stricken Teuton, who would sooner hug a Tottenham fan than crack a smile.

I did hear someone say that Werner should play through the middle, if for no other reason than his touch is so bad that it should be the last one of any play we make.

At this point, I am simply hoping that Super Frank will demonstrate what he did in every other part of his career: an indifferent start, followed by an improbable rise to world class based on work rate and charisma (and later, experience) alone.

The players didn't lose the ability to win and manage a game so effectively overnight.  Fatigue, injuries, lack of width, players out of position, away games, mistakes, punished mistakes - they all contribute.  The level of the team has collectively dropped.  It is so frustrating to watch as post Newcastle and Sheff Utd it started to feel like we were building something.

It has been said in this thread many times, but perhaps 4-3-3 is not the way to go without wingers.  I am also a believer that we are slowly diminishing any confidence two high flying Germans had by playing them out of position.  Without width our midfield has lost passing options, and its just all a little predictable.  Also, Jose gave the league a perfect blueprint/reminder on how to defend against Chelsea - the low block.

We're in a self-inflicted rut by some poor management and mistakes.  Time for some accountability and correction.  We are much better than what we just saw, much much better.  I expect immediate improvement, and we have to resolve this issue with wingers constantly being unavailable.  It will disrupt any sense of rhythm. 

43 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

The players didn't lose the ability to win and manage a game so effectively overnight.  Fatigue, injuries, lack of width, players out of position, away games, mistakes, punished mistakes - they all contribute.  The level of the team has collectively dropped.  It is so frustrating to watch as post Newcastle and Sheff Utd it started to feel like we were building something.

It has been said in this thread many times, but perhaps 4-3-3 is not the way to go without wingers.  I am also a believer that we are slowly diminishing any confidence two high flying Germans had by playing them out of position.  Without width our midfield has lost passing options, and its just all a little predictable.  Also, Jose gave the league a perfect blueprint/reminder on how to defend against Chelsea - the low block.

We're in a self-inflicted rut by some poor management and mistakes.  Time for some accountability and correction.  We are much better than what we just saw, much much better.  I expect immediate improvement, and we have to resolve this issue with wingers constantly being unavailable.  It will disrupt any sense of rhythm. 

This is all true. We should also give some credit to Espiritu Santo, he read us like a book.

Wolves knew how we were going to play and they defended well and as time was passing by it felt like we were getting beaten, I hoped for that 1:0 narrow win but I knew that we scored out of nothing, that was our first shot on target and it went in and sadly it was just too many minutes left to be played...

I think that Lampard is really smart, so I expect that we change our way of attacking in the very next game.

If he does prepare the team well for the next match we will end up letting out all of the frustration from these loses onto West Ham 

8 hours ago, wizardous said:

Literally I have no idea how to describe today's performance. Let's say it was even worse than on Saturday...

Although the defence is looking sloppy again (even Chilwell and Silva had a bad game) the main concern is creating chances. Pulisic was good in the first half, but when switched to right wing he completely disappeared from the game. As for Werner's position I think we can all agree that Frank has made a mistake. Havertz was poor again, he just doesn't seem to be physically strong enough in my opinion.

The midfielders were uninspired to say the least (credits to Kante who did a great job defensively again). And the problem is, as someone had mentioned earlier, an actual lack of rotation at those positions. Barkley/RLC could sometimes come up with something when subbed in and now we don't have those options. Maybe Jorginho should start the next game because we need some creativity urgently.

It is easy to blame Frank for these two defeats, especially for this one where he should have changed the approach to the game. Anyway a tough few weeks are coming up and we have to get our spirits up as soon as possible. West Ham on Monday is a must win.

Christ I mentioned bringing on Jourinho for the second half last night to add some creativity, and the Lampard Gestapo on here went mental...it's clear it's not working and change needs to happen...whether that ne players, system or managers...

2 hours ago, doctorblue said:

Christ I mentioned bringing on Jourinho for the second half last night to add some creativity, and the Lampard Gestapo on here went mental...it's clear it's not working and change needs to happen...whether that ne players, system or managers...

I truly hate it when Managers & Coaches, say, "the squad is tired" or "we are suffering from fatigue" but without being biased, I think it is true of Chelsea. Frank hit upon a winning formula that served us well for 15/16 games, but you cannot continually pick the same XI without something failing. Great Managers know when to pick players, when to drop them, how to spot the signs of burnout etc and Frank has still yet to learn this skill, he is literally flogging a dead horse !!

We have had some injuries, arguably to the two most creative players in the squad, Pulisic and Zyech, as well as CHO out, Chilwell missed a couple, Kante too but nothing on the scale of Liverpool and City injuries. Therefore it genuinely may be fatigue of players like Mount, Werner, Havertz, Kante, James and Silva that is to blame for the dip in form. We obviously can't rotate them all at once, but with Giroud, fresh and scoring, and Tammy waiting, Werner should be given a break. Havertz has not looked fit all season and is a shadow of the player we signed, so rest/drop him. 

Then we are left with the "Frank is unquestionable" argument over who else to drop and who to bring in. I'm not getting involved in that, save to say that we have a top quality squad, with loads of experience in players who are probably champing at the bit to be given a start, it is 100% up to Frank to choose the who and when.

13 hours ago, Malta Blue said:

Go to Britain and get yourself a fry up. It's my favourite meal....proper bacon not American "bacon"... a side note. We tend to prefer Danish bacon to British bacon, Irish sausage, any eggs as long as they are fried. Most of an English breakfast is foreign but we made it and it's to die for

A fry-up is especially good when slightly hung over. It's definitely not good when massively hung-over, I've tried and had an intimate one-on-one with the toilet bowl shortly afterwards.