Jase

Tony Pulis is available again.

What does it have to do with getting access to the club when they get info from inside source for their articles? It's not like they such info directly from the PR person. It's disappointing that we are getting puff pieces like that when The Athletic can explore more given they have contacts, inside sources and all that. Even our debates on the forum here have more substance than some of their pieces!

See how many times Simon Johnson tried to include excuses for Lampard here and there in the piece... That's also another puff piece by The Athletic. Don't even explore why Lampard seems hell bent on playing Werner like a winger, when he did his best work as a second striker at Leipzig, and what's the plan for Havertz, who despite his potential, no one seems to know what really is his best position.

Lampard future will depend on making Havertz and Werner a success https://theathletic.com/2289444/2020/12/29/framk-lampard-timo-werner-kai-havertz-chelsea/ In a game Frank Lampard needed to win to alleviate the growing pressure at Chelsea, he took the significant step of leaving the club’s biggest two summer signings out of the first XI. Was it a show of strength or asking for trouble? Lampard has had a few of his managerial attributes questioned in some quarters of late following a run of three defeats in four games this month, but no one can doubt his bravery against Aston Villa. It was a big call to name Germany internationals Timo Werner and Kai Havertz on the substitutes bench even if there were mitigating and understandable circumstances. Werner, who had started every Premier League game up to this point, has been looking tired and short of confidence following a run of 10 matches without a goal. Meanwhile, Havertz, who has not started the last three league matches, has suffered from the after effects of contracting COVID as well as struggling to adapt to the Premier League. Lampard could also rightly argue that on form, neither man is playing well enough to merit a place in his side. They were still given a chance to change the game late on too as they were brought on with 18 minutes to go, but Aston Villa held on to a 1-1 draw fairly comfortably. The question is what does Roman Abramovich think? When the owner sanctioned the club spending more than £100 million on their signatures in the last window, one can assume the multi-billionaire did not expect they would be watching important fixtures from the sidelines. This is a different scenario to what has taken place with Kepa Arrizabalaga. Lampard has already made a strong call, which was backed by the powers-that-be, to replace the world’s most expensive goalkeeper with a new arrival in Edouard Mendy. Kepa’s deteriorating displays and the fact he was not Lampard’s signing — the Spaniard was brought in when Maurizio Sarri was at the helm — meant allowances could be made. But Havertz and Werner moved to Chelsea on Lampard’s watch and with his blessing. Managers will always be judged by Abramovich on results first, but history shows how they have been held to account for not making expensive marquee signings work too. For example, the acquisition of Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan for £30.8 million in 2006, led to tension behind the scenes as Jose Mourinho failed to get the best out of the Ukrainian during the final 13 months of his first spell at Stamford Bridge. Similarly, the declining fortunes of Fernando Torres, who joined from Liverpool for a club record £50 million in January 2011, was a contributory factor in the downfall of Chelsea coaches Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto di Matteo. The latter took the courageous step of leaving Torres out of a must-not-lose Champions League group game at Juventus and selected Eden Hazard as a false No 9 instead. Chelsea lost 3-0, failed to qualify for the last 16 for the first time in their history and the Italian was sacked the next morning. Lampard should still have a lot of credit in the bank for what he achieved last season. Chelsea got into the top four with a squad that was not his own. The former England international was not able to make transfers due to a one-window ban and took the notable step of giving academy youngsters their senior debuts, using a handful on a regular basis. However, the hierarchy could turnaround and wonder why after investing more than £200 million in new signings — Mendy, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva (free agent) also joined in the last window — the club have amassed three points fewer than at the same stage last year (2019-20 16 games — 29 points; 2020-21 16 games — 26 points). It should not be forgotten that Chelsea were in a very good state just three weeks ago. They had gone 17 games unbeaten in all competitions, finished top of their Champions League group and an impressive 3-1 victory over Leeds briefly took them to the top of the Premier League. The fixture list is also more intense due to the impact COVID had on the schedule and Chelsea had no pre-season to work on systems and tactics with the new personnel. But Lampard knows from his 13 years as a Chelsea player, of which 11 were under Abramovich, that being in charge of the west London club can be one of the harshest environments to work in. Patience is in short supply. Chelsea have now picked up just four points from their last five games. Their total of 26 after 16 matches is the second worst of the Abramovich era, with only Mourinho’s dramatic fall from grace in 2015-16 ranking lower. The pressure is starting to show. Lampard has looked a nervous and tense figure during games of late. One source has told The Athletic that ‘he lost it’ while delivering the half-time team talk at Arsenal on December 26. To be fair, given the way Chelsea had played to find themselves 2-0 down, he had every right. Another insider remarked how certain individuals were rebuked in front of the group for their performance in the opening 45 minutes at the Emirates Stadium. Unfortunately the strong words did not pay off as the visitors went on to lose 3-1. Lampard will be confident that he can turn this around. It was not that long ago Chelsea were being talked about as possible title contenders and the struggle for consistency is being shared throughout the division, which again perhaps highlights how this is an extraordinary campaign where twists and turns are the norm. But the wins needs to come soon to silence the inevitable speculation, ideally with Havertz and Werner playing a major role on the pitch.

You just answered your own question. You mentioned 3 former United players. Of course they wouldn’t criticize their mate. They would rather go after the easy target in Ed Woodward, who of course has been at fault too but yeah. Exclude those with allegiance to United and even Solskjaer, there are definitely a lot of people who give stick to Solskjaer. So, is Solskjaer a good manager or bad manager? You can’t say he’s a shit manager and then criticize him for not improving players. Anyway FGS, am not getting into a debate with you on this kind of topic again!

“I think we are in a good way, it was a better performance than Arsenal.” Just saw that quote from Mendy’s interview on the club’s app and fucking hell! If Mendy really believes that, then standards have really fallen and we’re really, really deep shit trouble under Lampard!

IIRC, Enrique almost got sacked at one point midway through a season but then somehow to right the ship and won the treble that season. Barcelona were still largely okay in terms of winning trophies under Enrique but the rot started after Guardiola and it just blew up completely last season. And yes, Iniesta and Suarez may be better than Coutinho and Griezmann but the latter two are still quality as individual players. The problem is Barcelona bought them without having any idea how to fit them into a cohesive system. That wasn’t the case with Iniesta and Suarez. They fitted in well with their 4-3-3.

Might have said it here already (or it was probably somewhere else) but if I got my math right, Lampard is the first manager since Mourinho 1.0 to have been able to spend as much as he did in the summer and unlike some of the recent managers, he even got to pick the players he wanted and got them. So really, there should not be any excuse for why we shouldn’t be doing better than we are right now. We might not be the finished article yet but some of the tactical decisions, management and playing style from Lampard have not inspired confidence to put it kindly. On another point, you can really see how the English media treat an English manager vs a non-English manager. Solskjaer is probably not a top level manager but the guy gets panned every time after United lose a game. Pundits always jump on his back, journalists would write like 100 articles on why Solskjaer is bad etc. But with Lampard? Nothing much has really been said. No one is calling for his head like the same people do with Solskjaer and any pieces written on Lampard have basically been along the lines “things aren’t going well right now but Lampard must get it right soon”. Both are similar - lucky to get the top job, have spent lots of money, have been at the club for at least 1.5 years now and have experienced similar issues - but one gets worse treatment than the other. Am not one to call for the manager to get sacked unless things get really bad or things reach the point where the manager doesn’t inspire confidence anymore, but Lampard would have likely been sacked by now if it was 10 years ago. Other managers have probably been sacked by Roman for less but Lampard is still here. Much like how he got the job, I think Lampard will remain as manager by default because there aren’t necessarily better options out there and how silly the league table looks right now (trying to see from the club’s POV but whether right or wrong is another debate). Moreover, if the board didn’t sack Sarri 2 years ago despite all the bad results and fans unrest, then I don’t think the club will pull the trigger on Lampard (yet maybe).

If individual quality really matters, then Barcelona shouldn’t be in a bad state right now given they have bought quality players in recent years. The problem with Barcelona is they slowly lost their way after Guardiola left. They started to just buy whatever top players out there without any consideration of whether they actually fit into a cohesive system and they also stopped promoting youth players from their famed academy. There is still 1 or 2 but not many at all as in the past.

Results since Lampard said he wants to extend his contract... W 3-1 Leeds D 1-1 Krasnodar L 0-1 Everton L 1-2 Wolves W 3-0 West Ham L 1-3 Arsenal D 1-1 Aston Villa

Oh god, I genuinely fear for us if the City and Morecambe games are postponed. If the City game gets postponed, we'll have 12 days until the Morecambe cup tie. If the City AND Morecambe games get postponed, then we'll have 18 days until our trip to Fulham in mid January.

Small point - Lampard actually played Pulisic for 180 minutes in 3 days. Seriously, god bless that hamstring of his...

Seeing the game out with almost a half still to be played then...?

Am sure players took responsibilities in the past as well but there were still always stories about players being unhappy with the manager about something during a bad run. Obviously it's not a good look but if we're sitting here questioning Lampard on all sort of things, then imagine the players and whoever else who are working with Lampard on a daily basis and what they think. I mean, imagine the company you work executing a certain business approach but then things aren't working so well, the company is achieving bad results, would you at least be questioning whether things are being done right etc? lol Not even going to go deep into this. What we're seeing out there is clearly whatever Lampard has been working with the players. He's the one training the players and the players are the ones executing whatever that is asked of them. If the players aren't doing things right, then it's Lampard's job to set them straight and guide them. But he isn't. You're lying if you don't think our football now is just all about spamming crosses.

Does anyone even know what is Havertz's best role/position?

The English journalists probably wouldn't dare to write anything against Lampard but I would really, REALLY like to know whether the players still believe in whatever Lampard is trying to do. Because what we're seeing now is just not good enough and Lampard's style of play is becoming really predictable and dull. Is this Sam Allardyce-esque football what he told to Werner, Havertz, Ziyech etc when he convinced them to join us? We spent over 100 million on those 3 and Lampard doesn't seem to have a clue on how to get the best out of them, especially the German lads. We used to see stories from the media about the players being unhappy with the manager about this and that during a bad run but is there really nothing right now? Even if this group of players don't have big egos, I don't believe for one second they would just be passive, be yes men and not at least question whatever the hell Lampard is doing right now. If this is really a 3-year plan to get us back to challenging for the league title and the Champions League, then it feels like we're far behind schedule.

Not sure if he had much of a say in transfers at Juventus - or even Milan. He was given what he was given and managed to make it work, especially after we saw with Sarri and now Pirlo. You only have to look at our current manager, who spent over 100 million on attacking players (players of his choosing) but has no clue on how to get the best out of them. Can't remember names but again, not sure if Juventus have the best youth squad out there. I assume whoever gets hired next would be asked to utilize the youth players.

Heavily linked with a move to Atletico today. Not sure if it's true or not...

Can we go get a fucking Fabregas type midfielder next month or in the summer? Fucking done with all this BS of us passing sideways and backwards.

Shows the state of us if we need another suspension of the season to help us...

So, we should be happy with the point? This is also the same Villa side that lost to Leeds, Southampton, Brighton and West Ham.

P.S. Will create the next match thread once we get news about the City game on Sunday. Likely to be decided tomorrow from what I've read. There's also a COVID-19 outbreak at Morecambe. So, god knows if the FA Cup game is even gonna take place.

This should be our next manager. A close friend of Roman after all...

Yeah but look at the mess Milan were between then and before last season or so. And the ironic thing is, Milan have been winning games this season without Ibrahimovic and they are still unbeaten as well.