A strange match, open and either side could have nicked it.

• Villa scored after Grealish appeared to take out Christensen and the ref ignored it meaning we were short in the box and their extra man scored.
• Olly took his goal well from a decent Chilwell cross.
• Most of the players did ok bar getting yellows.
• Azpi for me had to be careful not to get a second yellow.
• Kante was decent though not his best and got booked, what I did like was a couple of times he took a shot when no-one else could do anything.
• CHO was ok yet unlike Arsenal where in one half he got down the right to the touch line and put in two decent crosses, one of which Tammy scored today he got just one in the whole match and it was not even on the touch-line. If he wants to play more he is not helping his chances by consistently refusing to take on his man and cut inside and pass to Kante!!!
• Also CHO never seemed to use the overlapping runner he preferred t cut inside with a sideways pass............
• Chilwell for me our best player and almost won us the match with that last minute volley.

The subs:

• Havertz did ok got involved and for the first time in ages looked competent until 40 secs to go when instead of jumping for the ball he just backed into his man conceding a freekick and giving Villa the last minute to apply the pressure - absolutely CLUELESS!
• One further point on Havertz with Olly off why when we are taking a corner is he at 6'3 standing on the edge of the box and not getting involved???
• Werner not really involved had one shot that went over the bar.

The Manager

• Wasn't sure about his team selection today yet they played well for most of the match.
• He made subs at a decent time.
• A point is not a disaster and he gets a 'buy' due to the Christensen injury when they scored yet still on borrowed time for me.

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

No muscle or drive in midfield; no one wants to shoot when they have a chance to do so

The midfield is the crux of it for me. We just don't have the right balance.

I think we only need one of Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic to play, They just don't offer enough in the system that Frank is trying to play to play two of them.

f**k knows why we let Barkley out on loan. He's exactly the type of midfielder we need in a 4-3-3.

 

I think we might as well try Gilmour as one of the three. Havertz simply has to play as the AM as well.

1 minute ago, Malta Blue said:

Like this....?

I would love to see somebody do that to Grealish ?

8 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

We obviously don’t as we’ve been sh*te and completely clueless offensively since losing Ziyech. 

We had Werner, Havertz and Abraham all on bench. Something is really wrong if we struggling to beat these teams without their key players. Ziyech has been a miss but we should with the quality we have, be able to beat majority of teams we play.

4 minutes ago, Browerkid said:

But villa had Barkley playing like Zidane playing that day. 

and we had 3/4 of our defence resting tonight.

Another bland performance lacking any real pattern or style. After a reasonable first half the players carrying the most threat, in Mount and CHO disappeared in the second half. I think that Lampard's substitutions and tactical reshuffles actually weakened us throughout and i fully expected us to get sucker punched at the end. They are a pretty decent mid table side this year and we struggled to match up to them. With the money spent and the apparent class of these world class international players it must mean that the management and tactics are below standard if we are still only mediocre.

I mean don't get me wrong McGinn is a decent solid player, but when the press talk about international star, generational talent, people's minds surely do not jump on the name John McGinn. So if we have the players, what it is then?

I would have brought Werner on but left Giroud up as well and had him winning headers for Werner to run onto. He's got a lot of pace and we don't really use it, except for tracking back on the wing which is not what he was bought for.

53 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

Is it? Sarri ball was boring but controlled possession looking for openings. 

This is uncontrolled looking to cross. 

Yep...there is the theory of SarriBall and what we actually witnessed.

Poor team selection in my opinion

Zouma has been fairly Consistent this season so why replace him with Christensen.

A midfield three of Kante, Mount and Giorginho gives zero creativity and thats what we got. Devoid of any ideas.

Callum played well, especially first half and was one of the few positives for me.

Do we not work on anything in training? How many corners were floated over that their keeper claimed easily?

Ive backed Frank and will continue to do so but im alarmed at how little we are able to alter our play and try something different.

 

Just now, Osgoodwasgood said:

Poor team selection in my opinion

Zouma has been fairly Consistent this season so why replace him with Christensen.

A midfield three of Kante, Mount and Giorginho gives zero creativity and thats what we got. Devoid of any ideas.

Callum played well, especially first half and was one of the few positives for me.

Do we not work on anything in training? How many corners were floated over that their keeper claimed easily?

Ive backed Frank and will continue to do so but im alarmed at how little we are able to alter our play and try something different.

 

I'd change your name; replace was with is

Take away an o in good

9 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I would have brought Werner on but left Giroud up as well and had him winning headers for Werner to run onto. He's got a lot of pace and we don't really use it, except for tracking back on the wing which is not what he was bought for.

This is the thing that has confused me most about bringing Havertz and Werner in. Why did we buy them at all if we aren't going to play them to their strengths? Havertz was not playing so deep this often and being asked to play with the ball with his back to goal at Leverkusen. Havertz was more about getting on the end of things and scoring goals. You would think Lampard of all people would understand a player like Havertz because he was the best in the game at doing that. As for Werner, 90% of his Chelsea career so far we have had him out wide and asked him to take players on and create chances. Werner is at his best either counter attacking similar to how Vardy plays or playing on the shoulder of defenders waiting for somebody to play him in so he can get a shot on goal. 

Chilwell seems to be the only player we have bought in and actually played him to his strengths.

Edited December 28, 20205 yr by Scott Harris

1 minute ago, Malta Blue said:

I'd change your name; replace was with is

Take away an o in good

Ha Ha, i might just do that, How we could do with him now Malta Blue.

 

Better performance from the boys, but still not good enough, created chances but not enough of them were clear cut, need more intensity in our game. We appear so one dimensional and unable to change things up. 

Edited December 28, 20205 yr by Dolfy52

8 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

The midfield is the crux of it for me. We just don't have the right balance.

I think we only need one of Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic to play, They just don't offer enough in the system that Frank is trying to play to play two of them.

f**k knows why we let Barkley out on loan. He's exactly the type of midfielder we need in a 4-3-3.

 

I think we might as well try Gilmour as one of the three. Havertz simply has to play as the AM as well.

Letting Barkley go was a mistake, he at least was attack minded even though he didn't get it right all the time.  There is just nothing in our midfield that offers anything in an attacking sense especially with Havertz just not finding his feet right now.   

I don't find any reason to blame Lampard, part from the decision to play Christensen. Other than that we deserved to win today, we had more than enough chances to win and we gifted them the equalizer. 

1 minute ago, Osgoodwasgood said:

Ha Ha, i might just do that, How we could do with him now Malta Blue.

 

If you know how to change your name let me know. I have recently discovered that my father in law has the exact same name on his Everton forum and I feel like an accidental  copy cat

Wow, the amount of salt and hipocricy in this forum never ceases to amaze me. Pinning this abyssmal performance and the lost points on AC, who was clearly hit by that diving c*nt, when that loss shouldnt have even gotten the chance to attack due to a clear handball, is just outrageous.

Given the knee jerk that we are witnessing towards a certain individual would make people blame the global warming, Trump, Bin Laden for our results but not the actual culprits behind this. D*mn...

For the first time ever I thought I saw why we bought Havertz.

Then, turns his back , sticks his arse out and backs into a Villa player in one of the most daft and funny moves I've ever seen in a football match !was

And can anyone explain what Jorginho brings to the team ?

Anyway, stick with Frank and the boys. Come on you Blues !

34 minutes ago, Zola_25Fan said:

Frank doesn’t have any other plans. 
 

Werner is f**king awful. Another Torres/Morata on our hands

Werner is top quality. He just needs to be managed properly.

I have no problem with players out of form, or a bad game. what we are seeing at the moment is players being played out of position to shoehorn them into the team.

The subs again by Frank were bewildering to me.... why was ollie taken off when he actually scores unlike Warner who at the moment couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo !, and how the f**k does Havertz get on before a dynamic Billy Gilmour is all beyond me when we need some forward impetus.

I know it won't be popular to say but this slow ponderous football and playing expensive players out of position won't be tolerated forever. Frank doesn't appear to be learning, but he needs to before it goes much further.

Frank is my second all time favourite player but as a manager he's looking out of his depth..

Please let me be wrong and have to eat bucketloads of humble pie soon.

20 minutes ago, STATS said:

We had Werner, Havertz and Abraham all on bench. Something is really wrong if we struggling to beat these teams without their key players. Ziyech has been a miss but we should with the quality we have, be able to beat majority of teams we play.

2/3 of those are completely out of form and seemingly very low on confidence for whatever reason. Tammy is at least scoring so why he didn’t come on I don’t know. 

 

13 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

If you know how to change your name let me know. I have recently discovered that my father in law has the exact same name on his Everton forum and I feel like an accidental  copy cat

You ask someone like @coco or @Mod Stark politely and then donate £20 to the forum. 

4 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

And can anyone explain what Jorginho brings to the team ?

@Gol15 has a PowerPoint presentation with lots of stats, graphs and pie charts...

3 minutes ago, Hensi said:

Wow, the amount of salt and hipocricy in this forum never ceases to amaze me. Pinning this abyssmal performance and the lost points on AC, who was clearly hit by that diving c*nt, when that loss shouldnt have even gotten the chance to attack due to a clear handball, is just outrageous.

Given the knee jerk that we are witnessing towards a certain individual would make people blame the global warming, Trump, Bin Laden for our results but not the actual culprits behind this. D*mn...

You tried to make a reasonable argument and brought in global warming and bin Laden. Nice one.

39 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

No muscle or drive in midfield; no one wants to shoot when they have a chance to do so; predictable football when you saw the team, any opposing manager worth his salt could defend that all f**king day; If Plan A doesn't work Frank has no Plan B in his pocket and scared to death to make changes unless he is forced to.  For an attacking midfielder who loved to get in the boxwith Frank  and score he sure doesn't play that way.   He hasn't got a 'team' right just a bunch of individuals who seemingly all have hit brick walls at the same time...God help us against City is all I can say...

Come on mate, it wasn't great but we've played some terrific football with Frank as manager, gotta hold our nerve.

4 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

2/3 of those are completely out of form and seemingly very low on confidence for whatever reason. Tammy is at least scoring so why he didn’t come on I don’t know. 

 

You ask someone like @coco or @Mod Stark politely and then donate £20 to the forum. 

@Gol15 has a PowerPoint presentation with lots of stats, graphs and pie charts...

But has he got a pair of eyes ?

4 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

You ask someone like @coco or @Mod Stark politely and then donate £20 to the forum. 

@coco or @Mod Stark can I please change my name to" Munkworth sucks" there is £20 here with your names on it plus a little extra to get yourselves a pint each. ?