OneMoSalah

Well technically he still had other options. He could have played Werner on the left with Giroud upfront? Or Callum on a wing and Havertz more centrally, its not as if Havertz, Mount, Callum and Werner are restricted to having being used in one position. I feel like the selection of not playing any natural wingers although due to unavailability with Ziyech and Pulisic, limited us going forward. Even if he picked Giroud today with Werner off the left and one of Havertz or Mount on the right hand side, that would of worked better for how we tried to play at times when were just hooking it up to Werner. There's plenty of variations he could of gone for still but he went for what looked like a false 9 at times and it didn't work because we played on the counter attack. False 9 is effective in a position based team but if your playing on the counter or want to go more direct in my eyes you need to go something more.

Didn't Lampard get his free pass last season? How many free passes are we going to give him? Not that 2 games into a season we should even be talking about changes which nobody is but a free pass after spending 200 million on players he particularly wanted? A year after getting a free pass because he couldn't buy anyone and had to rely on academy players/use deadweight that he isnt necessarily keen on? No offence but do yous realise how daft that sounds? Is it going to be the same next season as well? I get he needs time still to gel these players and they do need to adapt but with this group now, I don't think finishing in the top 4 should be the minimum expectation or get him pass marks with this squad this time around - although we still have glaring weaknesses but now you cannot really say that it can be down to lacking players when Mendy comes in which was the reason for some of the issues last season arguably. He's just got 2 top level German internationals who start in the NT most games, England's first choice LB realistically, one of Ajax's standout players in the last 2 seasons in the CL, Brazil and PSG's captain and getting another GK on top of the other younger players who did well in patches last season, being another year more experienced and progressing for that experiences. If this was Klopp, Pep, Mourinho or whoever who had spent this money on these players it would be okay they should be trying to be competing for the title at least. That is going to have to be the idea this season, be actively competing in the title race for a period at least or the full way and if not, closing that gap significantly. Finishing 4th would be a disaster. Finishing 3rd and 30 points off the winner again would be a disaster too in my opinion because that would indicate the gap has gotten bigger instead of smaller. Whether I believe we can compete in the title race or not, with guys like Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech and Werner upfront, that should be more than enough to get us more chances, more goals ultimately more points in games and get results against teams we struggled to break down last season also. Now I think we've seen already in 2 games the similar issues we had last season, teams finding it too easy to play in between our lines, in behind our full backs, looking more likely to score from set plays. All of these which was still a coaching issue in my eyes last season so it must be improved and that has got to be on Lampard and the staff now because even with Thiago Silva I don't think he is going to be able to sort all of that out himself or the whole defence still. Good defensive and team shape help all defenders. Even van Dijk. Even Sergio Ramos. Even Koulibaly. If the structures not organized it doesn't help. For a bit today we were organised but we sacrificed a lot more of our attacking play to do this. We have to manage some sort of balance. At times we were top heavy last season and didn't worry about defending as much and we suffered from it. We talked about Conte and Mourinho's team sets up where they were too much in terms of just sitting off and remaining organised then when they had the ball struggling. We seen a bit of that today, just give it to Kante/Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount and let them try and punt it over the top to Werner or Havertz. Every time. Frank has to find the balance. Also must give credit to Fikayo Tomori today looked very good and I wouldnt be surprised if he gets a chance next to Thiago Silva at some point when hes ready to play. He has missed one penalty throughout his spell here and this shit starts. Fantastic.

One positive. Fikayo has looked good since coming on.

Hmm while I can see the point. I also think back to when we played like this under Antonio Conte against City and half of Sky Sports called it absolute criminal for the way we played. As well as numerous of the people on here but we do it again v Liverpool and its not a problem because they are champions and its a different manager? Even now you see us trying to play out and while it hasn't worked every time we have to do that in certain moments to lure Liverpool in and get behind them. Instead of trying to just sit off and expect Werner to run onto hopeless 60 m punts. Well played Werner. Fuck sake lol.

Fucking shambles there. Got 10 men, he's under pressure, why the fuck are you trying to find a pass there? Yikes. Also even before that Tomori just try and find the line and get it out of there? Like Zouma does on the left side a lot? Its not an issue for him as the pass was still on but still if it were me wouldn't be passing it back to my GK under pressure from Salah, Mane and Firmino.....

Has Lampard kept us playing 4 3 3 basically but without a 3rd attacker? Because thats what it looks like. Yikes. Alonso, Kante and James there at 5s and 6s for that play. Too easy.

Tbf Kepa was there just about at the right time, maybe not maybe just a few seconds too late but for me if he is out much quicker he's gonna end up taking Mane out himself or Mane would probably knock it by him if AC doesn't touch him so dont really get that one. Love the sky sports HT analysis from Ashley and Jamie Redknapp there "Liverpool have just defended really well" .... well technically they haven't had to do too much because we haven't done fuck all bar the two plays involving Werner and Havertz but the rest of the players have done fuck all in the oppositions half because we've sat behind the ball. Werner has to go upfront through the middle now even with 10 men. The false 9 shit has backfired. Also Thiago coming on for them. Staying compact is gonna be difficult now because he can play through the lines and play even more balls over the top. Hmm, Havertz off interesting, would of said Jorginho/Mount first. we need more productive attacking players and Havertz is someone youd expect to affect a game more than Mason or Jorginho in the attacking sense.

Horrendous. Henderson so much time there too. Kante kind of half arsed it closing him down but even then Chirstensen was hopeless there. Ah well its just a matter of when and how many now isnt it? Fucked now trying to play like we have done with 10 men. One of Kovacic, Jorginho or Mount off please for a CB.

Giroud or Tammy on for Mount or Kovacic. Werner out wide yeah. Also great ball where the fucks the players in the box? Alonso only one going in there....

How many times is Robertson gonna squeeze in at the back post unfollowed by Mount this half? Also Werner that miss is horrendous offside or not lol. Not great so far. Just letting them do what they want and then rely on Werner or Havertz to get us up the pitch. No game plan.

Wasnt the point. Was just to do with you mentioning he was our 2nd best player last season. Hes getting the sort of treatment many gave Jorginho under Sarri, very much seen as Franks golden boy, which isnt fair but this is football. I mean fans are fickle we know this and Jorginho still gets this tag despite Sarri having left a year ago and Mount will keep getting it from a few even if he does well. When everyone’s back fit it will be interesting to see who misses out. There will be many who believe he will start, although I dont think he will when Ziyech and Pulisic are fit.

Willian, Kovacic and Pulisic definitely all did more. Even if Pulisic played half the games, just look at how sorely we missed him when he didnt play. Thats why I also threw Tammy in because the first half of the season he was good and his goals were a massive contribution. Mount went like 3 or 4 months without a goal or assist involvement and he played virtually every game in the season also. Also Giroud for his lack of minutes had a huge impact when he ended up playing. Mount was maybe our 5th top player last season. Needs more goals and assists this season. And no long spells of being very ineffective in games.

2nd best player? After who Kovacic, Pulisic and Willian, maybe even Tammy? Definitely wasnt 2nd best player.

Maybe but still youve seen how playing Azpi on the left affects us going forward and no doubt Frank will want us to pose a threat to them. Also not having a natural winger infront of Alonso might help, I would imagine Mount will be torn between Alexander-Arnold and doubling up on Salah. would rather Kepa ahead of Caballero just now. Both have their flaws but Kepa didnt do much wrong last week and wouldnt of picked the ball out of the net had Mount not lazily let the Brighton player shoot when he was 1m away from him.

Bit of a daft comparison that. Actually really daft. Pulisic came from a different league. After struggling with wee injuries the whole season. Callum has played in the PL before and was back to fitness last season although he had his injuries but 2 different situations still as it was more for Christian to get rest as well from the Gold Cup and gradually get accustomed to the PL. Suppose some people will eat that sort of shit up though. Whats this line up about no actual wingers/wide strikers just 10’s again? Even if he put Werner on the left and Giroud up top would give us double the threat as opposed to Mount on the left. 3 man midfield though us a good choice but still baffled by using two 10s out wide. also where’s Christian? Injured? also @Azul whos Frank meant to start there? Caballero and an unfit Chilwell? Which he had said numerous times? Or Emerson who he doesnt fancy? His decision making for those selections is hardly an issue when you consider who he has to select from....

Okay. still a big difference if this ever happens though. Not aimed at you this but the obvious belief you have that Tariq will maximise his potential one way or another is the same many members had about Reece James before he had kicked a ball for us with many saying he was better than Wan Bissaka when he was loosely linked with us. Also when Palace tried to buy Reece in that summer it would of been seen as a travesty if we sold him and were to go with Tariq as a back up. Cant please everyone. Cant play everyone either, having 3 RBs in a squad where two are younger and the others your club captain would never have worked either. I do agree though Reece needs to kick on. He was very poor defensively vs Brighton I felt and his goal as well as other attacking play papered over that. But still has plenty of time and looks like he’s starting again today.

If it is a full season worth of good performances yes start freaking out then but a game v Arsenal (for us? like a 20 minute cameo?) and another decent showing vs us (lets be honest former clubs, most players seem to do really well against them) while it can be a sign it also means nothing if the guy has a stinker the rest of the season. This may be how it starts but I doubt after 8 or 9 games any club has ever thought they have cocked up selling a kid. Give the guy a chance to develop nicely at his own rate and also give Reece a chance weve not even played 2 games yet this season. Yes nobody maybe foreseen KDB turning out world class (again I doubt that was the case there were many on here who did see him becoming world class) but we sold him when he had played over 100 games for Genk, for the Belgian NT and a full season in the Bundesliga. The failure to integrate him or use him more was a mistake obviously based on how hes turned out but does that mean you think Lamptey is going to turn out world class? Based on the whole 10 games hes played at club level? Because that sounds like what you are hinting at and after 10 club games in the space of 7 months that is a ridiculous claim. Let the guy develop, same with our youngsters.

Jesus I would at least let the two of them develop a bit more before throwing such a comparison in. Both are good prospects but a de Bruyne situation lets not get ahead of ourselves yet, Tariq has played like 8 games for Brighton since going there.

Jorginho could speak English before we signed him though? I am certain of that and in the build up to buying him it was mentioned IIRC by some journalists. So could Hazard just not particularly fluently. Belgiums second languages are predominantly French or Dutch depending on the area I think but a huge percentage also speak English. So its not as if he spoke none. Costa was probably the only one who didnt make much of an effort with that but again I think he would of had limited English at least. Plus half the guys there like Ramires, Oscar, Filipe Luis, Willian all spoke Portuguese as well as the several Spanish speakers in the dressing room so its not a big deal. Silva will be fine. He has several Italian speakers such as Emerson, Alonso, Jorginho, Kovacic and Rudiger there. Plus Kante, Giroud and Zouma all speak French - Ziyech as well Moroccan Arabic will obviously be first language but French also spoken commonly there too so maybe got a bit. The language barrier would be an issue if there was no other players who speak other languages he speaks but there are a lot. Plus he will pick some up if he hasnt got some already considering his wife and children speak English as well apparently? Just another petty issue that is being severely overlooked.

Bales technically still got a very good all round skillset. Think he will be a much needed boost for Spurs. In fact he would still manage to play for most teams in the PL bar maybe Liverpools front three and Citys - even then that’s arguable after they sold Sane. Plus the talk of injuries etc is all well and good but he’s played like what less than 50% of the games in the last 2 seasons since Zidane returned despite being fit for the majority of it, that will mean longer time to get up to speed maybe but will also benefit him as he wont have had any significant minutes where he could have any underlying wee niggling injuries prior to getting started. He still has plenty to offer the PL. As does James, who again has already shown that needing physical attributes even if your game isn't hugely reliant on it in attacking positions to play in the PL as an attacking midfielder/winger is a bit of a myth.

Spurs have just spent 5 trophyless seasons building a team. They need ready made players with a winning mentality to push them to that next level. If nobody can see that Now then they never will. Same with us in that season we won the league with Jose, we needed guys like Cesc, Costa, Filipe Luis.

Yet people were adamant he would be an effective player for us and after Sarri didnt start him for 6 months the pitchforks were out despite many including myself saying something like this also regarding the position. Its no surprise he didnt pick him straight away, it probably took him the 6 months to get to grips with what Sarri wanted from his midfield on and off the ball and Ruben was probably very lucky he played 433 because he wouldnt have got a look in anywhere else IMO. If he played 4231 as a 10 hed of struggled based on what weve seen under Lamps. Although I felt he would have suited this role but he just looks like Ozil does for Arsenal most weeks IMO just swans about doing nothing majority of the time and without the ball he doesn’t make any effort. Okay obviously he does try but he looks very nonchalant. Even As a winger in a team such as ours his workrate will be exposed even more and even then why shoehorn him in or change the system to accommodate him? We have much better players. He has a big big season ahead of him to prove his worth. I think he will be alongside Ross 2 of the guys in the squad who will be very vulnerable.

Would sell him and keep Barkley (never thought Id say that). That's how bad he was the other night. I know its one game but even last season and looking at this squad, he just doesnt fit. Is he a 10? No. He played in a 3 with Sarri and looked good but had Kante and Jorginho doing the other side for him.

Attacking fullback going to Spurs. Good luck. Thats two now they’ve bought if this one goes ahead with Doherty and Regulion. Cant wait to see one of them sitting tucked in as a third CB like Davies did against Everton whole they have all of the ball 🤣

As long as Ruben doesnt start, go with same team or potentially put Werner on the left and Giroud uptop dropping Mount out too.