The Skipper

Our best defensive performance this season came against Palace (one of the best teams against top 6 teams) and we played Zouma with Silva - why are people just glossing over this? Zouma and Silva is clearly our best CB partnership as it stands?

We should really 6/6 this.

Disagree. I think we made the right decision because the market for defenders this summer wasn't great at all. We still spent £50m there with Chilwell. We need to improve at CB but there honestly weren't that many clear improvement s available. We have a ton of interesting young CBs coming through as well - no need to spend there for the sake of spending. It needs to be the right player. Only a top top CB improved us now.

Fair enough. Still would've gone for Zouma Tomori. And also I would've played Wily personally. I think we win this game with those two playing instead.

Mason Mount on the left, Pulisic on the right (both out of their natural positions), Christensen and Kepa were all Lampard's choices. These aren't forced changes sorry.

Why is Joe Gomez way better exactly? Remove VVD from that backline and you see be genuinely isn't any better. Gabriel isn't better than Zouma either imo, or he's certainly not shown that he is. Ruben Dias is good but again not a ground breaking signing and he definitely isn't a tier above Zouma just yet. I would actually argue that Zouma has been the most reliable CB we have by far under Lampard. He made a mistake today with a soft pass but honestly Kepa made an absolute meal of it anyway, and he was still our most assured CB. AC is meant to be the best passing CB but Zouma outpassed him. At CB, Zouma is probably the least of our worries imo.

Someone on here said that we've conceded 63 goals in 43 PL games under Lampard - there is clearly an issue with how we set up defensively.

My problem with Frank is that we're still making the same mistakes as last season, there's no improvement. Also, when you spend £230m, you're going to have more pressure and scrutiny. We should be criticising Lampard and how he sets his team up, the decisions he makes. Pochettino didn't spend this that's why it's different situations you're comparing. Chelsea also aren't Tottenham.

Harsh. Kurt is at least competent. Zouma starts at Arsenal, United, Spurs, possibly even Liverpool (Joe Gomez isn't really better than him apart from on the ball maybe?). I think Zouma will excel if he plays with TS btw. There aren't many better options than him in the market atm.

Tried to stay away from this thread but don't think Frank is ready at all for a real trophy challenging Chelsea squad. He still has a lot to learn and is so naïve with a lot of his in game management decisions, and he doesn't seem to be learning quickly enough. It's not surprising, this is only his third year in management. The question is, do we persist, allow him to grow? I'm still not seeing the blueprint in our game. I know we haven't had a lot of time this season but what philosophy, what system is SFL trying to implement? I'm not seeing promising signs just yet. Wish he had some more time at clubs that aren't exactly challenging straight away, so that he could hone his actual philosophy. He has a lot of talent at his disposal now, some managers would kill for it. He seems to be consistently getting outcoached by a lot of PL managers with less resources than him though. The questions is - do we give him that time to hone his tactical outlook (how do we even know this will be worth it?)

Genuinely feel like Wily at least gives the defence more confidence and is therefore automatically a better option.

I used to be a big fan but he's not developed as I thought he would. He's too error prone and lacks concentration and composure on his game that I don't think he'll ever fix. Also the more I see the more it seems like the PL is just too physical for him. I think he'd be far better off in Spain or Italy.

Zouma - Tomori would've been fine imo. A lot more solid than (anyone) - Christensen.

Playing him and Kepa at the same time it's not a surprise we were so shaky. Yet they both get given chance upon chance upon chance.

They aren't decent saves imo. Just normal saves you expect a professional goalkeeper to make. He's so bad that even those saves look decent because it's him.

I'm picking Wily. The team defends more comfortably when he plays, even if it's just slightly. We win today with Wily imo. I'll blame Frank for his horrible 2nd half management of the game too btw. We allowed Southampton to grow back into the game.

Genuinely reckon we win with Wily playing instead of Kepa today tbh.

Being "clean" on the ball isn't everything. Look at Christensen for example.

We've been so starved of a decent goalkeeper that people don't even expect him to make regular save or to bail us out at all. Christ. Kepa can do better in the first goal, could've done much better for the second. And the third... As a pro goalkeeper I'm expecting you to at least make a decent save out of it. It wasn't a difficult shot at all. The buck falls at Lampard's feet here yet again anyway. He decided to start Kepa and his in game management is genuinely horrible.

Standard saves. What you expect from a pro goalkeeper.

Don't play him again this season.

Think the club's interested possibly because of the money possibly involved. It stinks of Bayern doing their typical tapping up - don't understand why the club are entertaining this, we're not one of Bayern's German feeder clubs.

It's up to our club tbh. I think Callum is happy to stay but won't say no to listening to Bayern's offer. We need to be firm here either way.

Yeah I feel in games like this where we're clearly gonna dominate possession, he might not be as needed. Would still at some point like to see a midfield three of Havertz Mount & Kanté however.

Zouma x Silva is such a good CB partnership. Hope Zouma soaks in all of Silva's excellence. Another top top performance. So happy he's back on the right path. Looks like our best CB atm.