Jase

That's what he should be playing as unless Tuchel decided to become Lampard all of a sudden...

Assuming Havertz is still not fit while Pulisic probably got injured again...

A reminder of this...

Didn't happen under Sarri either. Last happened in December 2017 under Conte. Was also the last time we kept 4 straight clean sheets in the league.

It really isn't with Pulisic. Has been pretty anonymous this season compared to the form he showed last season. CHO, in each of his last 3 games, has done more than Pulisic has all season. Ziyech has also been pretty underwhelming this season but no one is talking about it.

Whose stupid idea was it to schedule this an evening kick off on a Sunday!?

Discuss anything and everything related to the club's first ever German manager.

Sheffield United 1-2 Chelsea PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2020/21 Premier League Match 23 7th February, Sunday 2021 Bramall Lane 19:15 Kick Off (UK time)

Also this... But then, we see things like Lampard being quiet and passive on the touchline when things aren't going well.

Welp...

How do you expect someone to even do well when the player has been injured most of the time? Ever since Keita joined Liverpool in 2018/19, he's played only 71 games and a total of 3,772 minutes (for some context comparison, Pulisic has played 47 games for us and a total of 3,219 minutes since 2019/20 and we all know his hamstring problems). Keita has had muscular injuries, groin injury, groin strain, torn muscle bundle, COVID-19 etc. I've seen Liverpool fans complain more about his injuries than anything else and some have even said they should sell him off. Fitness was the main problem with Ndombele. Pochettino complained about it and the issue dragged to under Mourinho. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8689419/How-went-wrong-Tottenham-Tanguy-Ndombele-record-54m-signing.html https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/players/tanguy-ndombele-fitness-mourinho-spurs-17791929 Our situation is different to Barcelona. There, it's the board who buy the players and they just expect the manager to fit them in. Here, at least under Lampard, Werner, Ziyech, Havertz are all his signings. He wanted them and he got them. Regardless of whether you think it will work or not, one would expect Lampard to have a plan to fit those players, in addition to what he already had. But god knows what those plans are right now. Picking the combination that works like last season's combination is just postponing/procrastinating/delaying the problem over the personnel. Equally or more than it, the frustration is that after 18 months under Lampard, after spending over 200 million, our attacking play has come down to nothing more than spamming high crosses into the box. It's almost as if we're suddenly being managed by Sam Allardyce or Sean Dyche.

Find it bizarre that after Hazard, people still want us to build a team around one player. If that one player has an off day or gets injured or something else happen to him, then there is every chance that the team will just fall to pieces because it's built around one freaking player. Yes, a team can rely on 1, 2 or 3 players for example but a team should have a system in place where all the players can shine within it. Look at Liverpool, yes, people may say they rely on Mane and Salah but their system not only allow them to flourish but also the likes of Robertson and TAA. Look at Man City, De Bruyne is obviously their star man but they also got difference makers like Sterling, Mahrez, Aguero (when he's fit and all). Look at Bayern, Lewandowski is their main main but there are also the likes of Muller, Gnabry, Coman, Sane, Kimmich, Goretzka who can be the difference makers. These teams aren't built around just one player, but they have a system in place where their players can excel, even when they have to chop and change the personnel. But for argument's sake, before we even think of building a team around Havertz, he needs to first impose himself in games first. I know it's his first season in English football and all that but he needs to come out of his shell and dominate games, dominate the opponents. At the moment, he just looks timid and a bit soft. He doesn't even have that good arrogance about him that most great players do - the boldness to try something that ordinary players wouldn't do, the boldness to take on players, the boldness to basically say "yeah, I'm a better player than you and I'm gonna do this to you". We saw it with Hazard, even when he first joined. Yeah, he was adapting back then and was (and still is) always looking low key but he always dared to take players on, did out something out of the ordinary, had the X-factor ability to turn a game in our favor etc. Another comparison would be Mata, who was (and still is) low key but always looked to impose himself in games and look to be the difference maker. Both Mata and Hazard could create goals, could score goals, could turn a game on its head at any moment. Havertz needs to be doing that first because otherwise, building a team around a player who doesn't do enough to be a difference maker is not ideal to say the least, not that I agree with this approach to begin with.

Different situation. Keita has been injury prone ever since he joined from RB Leipzig while Ndombele had fitness issues when he went to Spurs. That's why the former hasn't been playing much while the latter wasn't playing much initially, even under Pochettino. Our main issue isn't even about the name or price tag of the players. It's the fact that Lampard has no idea what he wants to do, especially after having so many options all of a sudden. He has no real style of play, no identity and no clear tactical idea. That is why his selection has been all over the place and our performances have gone south over the last month or so. Moreover, some of the players you indirectly mentioned are his signings and given Roman paid a lot for them, then Lampard is trying to play them together.

Problem is if things don't improve soon, if we don't start picking up wins again and we fall further behind the Top 4, there's every chance that Roman will just sack Lampard. There's no way we should be struggling to finish in the Top 4 after having spent all that money in the summer and I don't think the club can afford us not finishing in the Top 4 from a financial perspective, especially during this pandemic. Lampard looks to be out of his depth at this moment and Roman has sacked such managers midway through a season before. If Lampard somehow survives more bad results in the upcoming games, then we're gonna need to go on a crazy winning run plus others to choke for us to finish in the Top 4. Long story short, if Roman and the board are already unhappy with how things are going, what makes you think Roman won't pull the trigger now if things continue to go south? It's not like he doesn't have a history of doing so. By the way, we are currently only 3 points from the Top 4 but Spurs, who are in 4th, have a game in hand while City, who are 5th, have two games in hand. As if they weren't enough of a worry, there are still Leicester, Southampton, Everton and Villa between us and the Top 4.

It gives the manager some credit but it won't matter at all if the person is failing his job at the present time. Otherwise, we wouldn't have sacked Mourinho in 2015 when he was having us hovering above the relegation zone and would have kept him instead because of the success he brought to the club. But we didn't because he failed his job back then. It's the same elsewhere as well.

Building a team around one player is never good. #justsayin

Better.

Still...

Spurs to win? PLASTIC FAN!

Carabao Cup = Man City Cup

Solskjaer has lost all 4 cup semi finals at United.