Henrique

"Mason Mount 7 Intelligent performance from Chelsea’s likeliest source of a goal. Took aim several times and almost punished one poor Neuer clearance." I found this shit in a Guardian article with players rating. Im pissed! Anyone who thinks Mount had a "intelligent performance" and was "likeliest source of goal" dont have a clue about football. Anyone who thinks Mount is any good is hopeless.

"That Marty Mount kid is not good enough will end up at Gillingham".

He actually got worse when the team switched to back 4.

I hope the board make the right decision at the end of the season...

Add Reece James to that list.

Reece James by a country mile the worst in the pitch. I dont know untill when the myth that Mount, Abraham and James are great will last.

Reece James got exposed there. By far the worst player on the pitch.

I was impressive about his lack of quality today. Reality check. The worst performance Ive seen from a Chelsea player in a European game. Looked like a school boy playing against men.

I cant blame him for the result. The difference in quality is abysmal. Im more the concerned with the lack of organization, both defending and going forward. Im convinced Wolves and Leicester would put a better performance against Bayern at home than we did today.

Thats a fucking red! VAR in PL is a disgrace!!

This game is massive. The game that can decide Lampard's fate and essentially shape the team for the next season.

In some aspects of the Giroud is a better player than Abraham. I can't see Abraham scoring the same goals Giroud scored against Arsenal in Europa League final and the non goal he scored against United. In some games Giroud is the perfect striker you would inside the opponent area. His aerial game is terrific. I also can't see my man Abraham giving that assist Giroud gave Hazard in the same Europa League final.

Lampard was hired for 2 reasons: 1- Make fans excited for the new season. 2- Create positive headlines for Chelsea. At the end of the last season there was a transfer ban, we just lost Hazard and things didn't look good for this season. Lampard being a living legend was the perfect name to make fans get behind the manager and get off the back of the board. He was also more susceptible to accept the club demands, like throwing kids in the first team (something past managers refused to do). Suddenly a team that could't buy a single new player was the top team with the biggest amount of new acquisitions in the first: Mount, Abraham, Tomori, Reece James, Hudson Odoi. Instead of starting the season with your Girouds, Pedros and Alonsos, we had a new exciting team full of young talents. The fact Lampard is an english legend also made the press more friendly towards him, and the fact that all of the new kids introduced in the first team were also english kids made Chelsea a lot more sympathetic for the press. Perhaps it was the first time in Abramovich era that the press had some love for Chelsea. Even after defeats to City and Liverpool, they were still using adjectives like "brave" and "impressive" to describe the team's performance. In other years they would be using "toothless" or "powerless". In the pass it was United kids that got ultra hyped by the press after some good performances (Macheda, Januzaj), not it was Chelsea with Mason Mount. Lampard was even get praised for things that Sarri was criticized for, like using Kante out of position: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7720953/JAMIE-REDKNAPP-Frank-Lampard-debunking-NGolo-Kante-myth.html But even honeymoon has to end. The press is full with this kind of article in recent weeks: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8030543/MATT-BARLOW-questions-stop-Lampards-team-start-winning.html https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/feb/21/harsh-spotlight-shines-on-frank-lampard-as-honeymoon-period-fades https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/02/21/chelsea-falling-behind-tottenham-off-the-field-arms-race-importance/ Honeymoon is over for Mr. Frank. I always thought he was actually hired as a short term solution, I really doubt the board had a long term in mind when he was appointed. I can't seem him surviving in the job if he fails to get top 4, specially when 2 of top 4 teams are going to be Leicester and a team like Spurs, Sheffield or Wolves, all teams who didn't spend big and also have limited squads. Next 8 games will decide his fate.

But he managed to take Spurs to a UCL with an ultra limited squad. Trying to suggest Lampard is in the same level as Poch in terms of quality doesn't make much sense. Poch is the main reason Spurs became a "big" team. Before Pochettino there was not "big 6" talk. Since Spurs started to finish in top 4 on regular basis people started to consider them a "big" team. You might keep faith in Lampard because he is a legend, because of stability or whatever, but suggesting Poch won't a be a upgrade over Lampard is just refusing to accept facts. It reminds me of 8 years ago, when "Roberto di Matteo is better than Guardiola" was a very popular opinion in this forum.

Whats your point?

Atalanta completely destroyed Valencia at home...same team we lost to 0-1. But of course @Fernando will suggest Atalanta have a much better squad than Chelsea.

Mediocre season in terms of overall quality, home defeats to Southampton and Bornemouth, losing to Newcastle in the last minute after dominating the game, failing to beat 10 men Arsenal at home. It doesnt matter if you didnt expect a top 4, it was on the sight and he had to win those games. Poor squad management and lack of clear direction. The only positive thing about Lampard right now is having the balls to bringing young players.

Pep/Klopp is the modern version of SAF. Years ago the argument was: "SAF stayed "X" season with United without wining a single trophy. Eventually the results came." This was used as proof that managerial stability is key to success, and that eventually the good results would always come. This argument started to die after Wenger showed us the other side of managerial stability: sometimes if you don't sack the manager, season after season he will just collect failures after failures, and it also died after United didn't show the same patience they showed with SAF back in the day: the days when United could wait 7 years for a manager to bring a big trophy are long gone. Now Pep/Klopp are the role model, specially Klopp. People will try to see a Klopp pattern in Lampard: 1st season will be a mess, full of bad results, but in Lampard's 3th season we will be strong on Europe again, in his 4th season will win win it and will fighting for PL trophy, and in 5th season we will easily win PL breaking records in the process.

It might opinion it doest matter what the expectations were before the season. Liverpool fans expected to be 25 points clear of City at this point? No. But if somehow Liverpool bottle it and City win, it will be disaster and devastating for them. Nobody would say: well, finishing 2nd behind City was considered the expected result before the season. Before the season nobody expected us to get into top 4, but the in the real season Leicester is a top 3 side and Everton, Wolves and Sheffield are all fighting for the top 4 finish and those teams didn't spend big and they don't have better players than Chelsea. For me it completely invalidades the narrative that Lampard is overachieving and that is okay to finish outside top 4, because the season is showing that a top 4 finish was a realistic target with the current squad. Again, I'm talking about the real season, not what we thought about the season before it even started.

Lets be honest, late February, the team is a mess on the pitch. Players who were not even making the bench out of nowhere are selected to start games. Players who were in good form are benched for no good reason. Players in bad form start game after game. Forget Lampard the player. Lampard the player is a living legend. Lampard the manager is easily the worst manager of Roman Abramovich era. Today's result is irrelevant, and VAR was a disgrace but Lampard got it wrong both in tactics and team selection. 2 most used arguments to back Lampard are: 1- The team didn't sign anyone and the squad is not good enough, so Lampard is overachieving. 2- Guardiola and Klopp also had terrible first seasons when both were hired by City and Liverpool Lets check this arguments: 1- The number argument is probably the most used, and the one that makes mad!! For one simple reason: Spurs, United and Arsenal also have limited squads and they didn't make any big signings in past 2 transfer windows, and when a say "big signings" I'm not talking about the amount of money, but the quality. Arsenal biggest signing was David Luiz, and United biggest signing was Maguire. But lets forget about "big six teams". Right now Leicester is 9 points clear, and Sheffield is only 2 points behind. But of course, @Fernando will probably suggest Leicester have a much better squad and that Sheffield have better players. 2- If you want to bring Klopp and Guardiola first seasons in Premier League into discussion, feel free, but I don't see the point of comparison since Lampard previous managerial experience is: a single season as Derby County manager in Championship where he finished 6th in regular season !! Again, Lampard previous managerial experience is a single season as Derby County manager in Championship where he finished in 6th in regular season. Both Guardiola and Klopp were already considered one of the best managers you one team could hire. There is no much point in continuing this discussion, because who believe Lampard is the right man just want to bring things to support their point of view despite the evidences. Pochettino is free in the market, and Nuno Espirito Santo and Brendan Rodgers are just better managers than Lampard. If Lampard indeed become a great manager in the future I will be the first to admit I was wrong, but I don't think thats the case here. Yes, the team is 4th right now and might end in 4th, but I will use an argument people used a lot in this forum to support managers: "you can't always look at results". Even if the team finish inside top 4 I don't expect great things from Lampard next seasons, because the team played a good football for like 10% of the season. Even when the team is winning there are a lot of problems there, like team conceding silly goals or almost throwing easy victories. I think there few games this season where we could say "wow, what a performance". Next season is set to be a wasted season if he still is the manager by the started of 20/21 season.

Off sides are off sides, but Maguire not getting a red and that Zouma disallowed goal is a proof its just a myth the idea that VAR made football more fair, if anything its a tool for corruption.

-Manager.

Worst thing about that Maguire/VAR decision: it will overshadow the poor quality of football and Lampard bad decisions in starting XI: Willy and Batshuay.

Christensen is a pathetic defender. Zouma is a better player in every aspect.

Willy at fault for that goal. He looked like those players that have to play as goallie when the GK received a red and there is no sub left. Pathetic. Lampard is a fool for benching Kepa.