Blue Armour

Telling you Vesper, would prefer us to be the ones that do it. Tit for tat. Sweet revenge

Maybe not exactly the same profile, but I prefer one of our own. ;-)

Mourinho does have a point that Jurgen has spent more than 1800 days with his Liverpool squad, fine tuning it and shaping it to his image. The best results don't often come quickly. No one needs reminding that Klopp arrived in 2015, but till 2019 his Liverpool side were only finishing in the top 4 That's why I find it utterly laughable when people compare Lampard to Pep/Klopp and say we can't afford to give him time because the rest are proven winners. When the so-called best managers take that long to turn their side into title challengers, how can you demand Lampard to do it in less time?

Ole and United could also potentially share the same story after they complete their pending fixtures

Especially Mount The kid has really a good right foot, and he has a had a few good shots from distance that have turned to goals. Needs to do it more often

I made a similar point in the West Ham thread. You only need to look at United who were all doom and gloom earlier in the season, and are now seemingly ready to overtake. We can take solace that these 2 results happened in away fixtures, and is the same kind of chaos that can hit the other teams too.

Actually, Mendy turned into Kepa for the BOTH games. The big change so far this season, was our back four, who were meant to be at least reliable enough to secure clean sheets when it mattered. But NO,..in the 2 games where our attack has been lackluster, the GK and defense decide to do their worst. First with his unnecessary GK charge, and then later getting beat at the near post.

This is my biggest complaint against Lampard. His method for squad rotation, or lack thereof. Some players will always be in the lineup if fit, but then there is this flavor of the month policy, where he sticks with someone if they happen to be in good nick, until we fail a few games on the trot., and then moves onto the next flavor of the month. I saw this happen with Alonso, Jorginho and Giroud last season. The same is also true for our squad shape. He always described himself as a manager who isnt afraid to change shape depending on situation, but he gets caught in the trap of whichever formation brought the most recent success. Its like he gets comfortable with something and is reluctant to make adjustments to it. I've digressed here, but my problem with Giroud is not really regarding the player himself.

This is no fault of Giroud, and obviously we are benefitting from his goals, but I can't help but wonder if our team is becoming a bit lazy in terms of build up play simply because he is there on the pitch. In the past few games where he has started, all our passes have gone to the wide areas. Our full backs look to swing a high cross into the box at the earliest opportunity, negating all play through the middle. Even Chillwell, who in his first few games was looking to get into the opposition box to get on the end of low crosses from the opposite flank, etc.,..seems to hang back and lob a cross into the box to find Giroud. Then there's the fact that his lack of pace means, our pressing and buildup play is a bit slower as a consequence. Anyway the point is...starting Giroud in every game against every type of opposition is not the answer I think.

Well I hope not.,the last two could be forgiven in the sense that they were away games. Not winning a home game against West Ham, that too for a second season running, would be unbearable. Plus it will just put the whole team into a slump that will be difficult to get out of. Especially when you consider the fixtures that follow.

Its another 5 days until the Arsenal game

Already put the wolves game behind me, just like I did for the Everton one. We lost a couple of dodgy away games., so be it. Earlier in the season everyone was mocking United while we were cruising, and now they have a chance to go ahead Expect chaos to hit the other teams as well. Nothing is set. Let's win our next game.

I really hope that those mind games come back to bite both of them in their arses.

We took a gamble on Havertz and it failed. Don't get me wrong., I'm not complaining that we signed we him. We definitely needed a player of his profile and potential. But to think he was ready to become a regular member of the starting 11 and sending the likes of Barkley/RLC away on loan was a gamble that has paid off poorly so far IMO. He was unlucky with the covid infection, but there are so many times this season where he just doesn't know what to do with the ball and just ends up conceding possession. Looks like he is one of those players that needs to be slowly worked into the team and the league, unlike the likes of Hazard/Pulisic who were far more mature with their decision making, at the time of their debut

I couldn't see the Wolves game live, but watching the highlights, the game seemed symptomatic of our worst games from last season. Fail to put the game to bed, put more pressure on ourselves, and crumble when the opposition attacks. Even with improvement in defensive personnel, we are clearly subject to the same problems. Hopefully Ziyech makes a return, because he is crucial to the wing play we employ. Not enough attacking threat from the middle of the park...looking at Mount/Havertz/Kovacic. Said it before, but in hindsight we should have retained one of Barkley/RLC, if we were going to play 4-3-3.

Come on man, not Kante. He's probably the most crucial piece in our midfield. Why not Wily Caballero?

Question though.. At the start of the season, gauging all the top teams, I would have hands down agreed with you even with our investment in the transfer window. But with Liverpool and City the way they are, and Tottenham of all teams on top of the league, would you consider it acceptable not to at least challenge? Even if we were to disregard comparisons to other teams, you only have to compare us to Chelsea of the previous season and see how different the points total is. You would expect us to be ahead and not below. This team should be capable of a lot better., and that's why even after the past 2 shitty results, I'm not ruling us out entirely. On a side note....fucking Klopp seems to have jinxed us with his comments about being the PL title favorites. I think he knew what he was doing and it might have swayed the mood in our camp. Till that point we were just happily taking it game by game. The positive note is that I suspect we will remain within touching distance of at least one of Spurs or Liverpool even after midweek and next weekends fixtures. A win for Spurs tomorrow might be problematic, however. All Jose needs is a win over the closest challenger to seal his title charge.

Games against Southampton, West Brom, the first fixture against Seville, United and Liverpool dont count. The team lineup was only shaping up then and the switch to 433 happened midway through the first Krasnodar fixture, which we won. Bringing up the second Krasnodar is also unwarranted, because we played with a 3rd string squad for the match. The only poor performance is against Everton., and that game is completely different from the rest of the examples you mentioned

How convenient for City if that happens.

Wouldn't mind a 3-4-3 considering our lack of natural wide players. Take a leaf out of Everton's book. It would mean that Timo & Havertz can play a lot more central and rely on James, Chillwell to provide the width. Basically have our James and Chillwell push into midfield as wingbacks, keep Kante/Azpi/Silva/Zouma as the defensive shield. That being said, still favor 4-3-3 and I think that's what Lampard will start with again on Tue.

If you're okay with playing Havertz out wide again, that is. And if Pulisic is not fit., that's not going to happen

Hazard's mental attitude is still notches above. He arrived at the club at the same age, and while he had underwhelming performances in some matches, he almost never put on a "bad" performance. Anyway, not all players are the same. Havertz clearly has to mature as a player. As people have mentioned previously, with the 20+ yr old players in our squad, its likely that quite a few of them will go through rough patches like this before they become consistent. Today his head wasn't in the game.

Have a feeling that Lampard intended Werner to be our 4th winger. If you think about it, rotating between CHO/Ziyech/Pulisic/Werner especially when you can accommodate Tammy/Giroud/Werner in CF, and have Havertz as a spare,....that's not bad at all. Its just our freaky luck that all 3 of CHO, Ziyech and Pulisic became injured simultaneously. Can't make this up. Especially with CHO, who has been relatively unused this season. Best chance for him to start a few games, and he's out. That being said, we are fucked if Pulisic is not available for the Wolves game.

Before this game, a lot of us agreed that we needed to get results in fixtures against Everton, W Ham and Wolves in order to take advantage where others such as Liverpool, Tottenham and City could not. In retrospect, I expect we'll see the other teams also drop points in away fixtures now that crowds are returning to some of these grounds.

Where else would you have played him, and who else would you have played out wide?