Blue Armour

On current form? maybe At 27? No.

Saw him in a compilation of best long range shooters in 2020. Is he pretty consistent with long shots? Would like to see him in a more central number 8 role at least few times if that's the case. Regular long range goals from midfield are something I've not seen from Chelsea in a long time

Reece James not being fit has kind of killed it for me. That, and Ziyech not being available. December looks like the month to fuck up Chelsea's season from the looks of it.

You know that's what this shitty side is planning. No wins in 7, and they will be raring to put things right against us at the Emirates. And Chelsea being in the mood to play Santa Claus this December, will be happy to oblige. Probably see the Arsenal players do a big team huddle at the start of the match like other tiny teams do. Honestly, we would do them a favor by putting them out of their misery next week. That would really make their management think.

Things looking terrible in time for this match. Modern football teams performances swing wildly with confidence levels. Liverpool winning against nearest challengers Spurs (in a game they could have easily lost or drawn), and not to mention the timely arrival of the Fifa awards (for Klopp etc), seems to have buoyed their confidence, and it showed in their result against Palace. Conversely, I've seen recent Chelsea teams of the past 3-4 seasons tending to 'give up' after a certain point in the season most notably when the team thinks that the title challenge is no longer realistic. This is followed by a slump, and before you know it, there's a chasm in terms of points between the first placed team and Chelsea. This month has been a SHITTY month of football. In a regular season, November tends to be our bogey month, but given the delayed start to the season, December sounds about right.

hmm.., maybe he was thinking about the 2010 world cup? I think Ozil was a revelation there, and primarily the reason why Madrid went for him and Khedira shortly after. He never won anything then, though.

Jeez...I wish there was at least one Chelsea friendly journalist that would actually ask him something more useful & genuine and make him think. These kinds of questions are just prompting to him to go on the defensive and give justification for what he has already done. I would be more interested about whether he can do something different., and shape the question differently.

Great read, and I think @MoroccanBlue and myself called it before the Wolves game. Playing a formation with a 3 at the back formation allows for Werner and Havertz/Pulisic play more centrally and closer to Giroud and rely on Chillwell/James for width instead. If Ziyech & CHO aren't back for next week, I would like for us to try it. Lampard keeps saying that he would not like to stick to just one type of formation. He needs to be more proactive and practice what he says, and not just change things after a poor run of results.

Then you should wait at least till we hit the midway point in the season. Do a more apples to apples comparison then. Not now.

That might be it, and yeah, we do need to hold on to Giroud. However regardless of what Giroud wants, I would imagine Lampard will rotate in the upcoming weeks with so many fixtures in quick succession. I wish that having a huge squad would not be so difficult to hold on to so many players. In previous successful seasons we got away with just Drogba and Costa, plus a backup striker Tammy might have the attributes to become a decent all round forward, but he is yet to convince against a top level defense. The game against Spurs showed how far he is in terms of fulfilling that role

Yes, and that goes back to Lampard's problem with just persisting with the flavor of the month. Ideally he should make adjustments based on the opposition, but he tends to stick with something until it becomes a dead horse beaten too many times. None of our strikers are versatile like Drogba or Kane, so we would need to constantly adjust the lineup based on opposition, rather than you use the same front 3 every time .

VERY interesting stats. Thanks for the share! We would need a bigger sample size (for Giroud starting) to be sure, but it shouldn't be surprising that's the case. Again, it's not all down to Giroud. Feel players like Mount and Havertz., should benefit from knockdowns provided by Giroud and create goalscoring chances for themselves. We're just trying to take the easy way out by pumping so many crosses into the box. Giroud's shortcoming is that he isnt so mobile. If there are physical CBs like Coady or those of Everton, he becomes less useful, as he wont drop too deep like Kane or move out to the wings like Drogba used to do for us at times and pump in crosses. The obvious solution is to have someone like Drogba up front, but that's easier said than done., lol.

Why do we always seem to catch these teams at the arse end of their bad run of form? I'll be fucking furious if we hand them another lifeline like we did for Everton and Wolves. Need to treat them like the team they are. Shit.

I would prefer we compare only PL seasons, and not other leagues simply because of the level of competition involved., but even if we do accept that Pep did all this, what does it mean? For example does it make Klopp bad given that he took longer to deliver a league title? Given time, he's also ended up churning out trophies and breaking league records. My point is you cant use comparisons with other managers at this stage of Lampards managerial career, and certainly not at this stage of the season. All this talk of other managerial candidates like Pochettino, etc. is premature. If the team is languishing in relegation spots, fair enough. Making a call at the end of the season is also fair, but not now. He can be criticized/judged, fair enough. I've been questioning him too. Just feel that all this talk of replacement managers is a bit premature. Especially given the point you made,.he may not have fully convinced yet., but he has not failed like some are claiming. Its risky having a manager-in-training in charge, but my point is the club can deal with it until the league position becomes too dangerous.

I know some folks wanted Werner (and Havertz) dropped after the dreadful game against Wolves, But if by some fluke all 3 of Werner, Ziyech and Pulisic are fit, would this game be the best chance to test them out as front 3 with Werner as CF?

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.