Jase

No, I don't believe Christensen is the better option, not when he is repeatedly given opportunities despite his constant mistakes. And are you explicitly saying Tomori is worse than Christensen? What is your point exactly? Tomori was given an opportunity back then and he showed his qualities. Sure, he wasn't entirely perfect the whole time but he was playing his first Premier League games. Expecting perfection throughout is silly. Christensen plays badly but he continues to get selected. Tomori plays well (like against Liverpool, Spurs this season) but doesn't get rewarded.

Tomori was dropped once his performance level dipped and that is fair enough. But why then has Christensen not been dropped when he keeps making mistakes and it's clear that his performance level has dipped? Why has he been given so many chances compared to someone like Tomori? I don't buy it when a manager talks about meritocracy etc but since Lampard likes to talk about it so much, talks about creating competition in the team, then why does he continuously pick Christensen even after so many poor performances and ignore Tomori for as long as he has?

Fixed.

But that is still different from a side looking to play on the front foot. IIRC, that game at Selhurst Park last season was largely fine until they suddenly got their first goal back and then we just lost the plot in controlling the game, as always. You're over-exaggerating that last bit.

Sheffield United suffering from the second season syndrome...

Yes, we did well to stop their counter attacks but really, let's not pretend Crystal Palace are anything other than pragmatic, defensive under Roy Hodgson. We played a more proactive side yesterday, a side looking to attack and press us and look what happened. I don't know why the other Big 6 have struggled against Palace but our record against them has been good over the last few years. We have won 11 of the last 15 encounters, including the last 6.

Does Cech fancy coming out of retirement? Has been in training with the other keepers and is younger than Caballero...

But it doesn't mean we should just blindly give him time if there's no progress. The club knew they got an inexperienced manager but am sure they also expected progress and improvement. As I said in the other thread, if we continue to take a step forward and two steps backward in the next 1-2 months, am sure Roman and the board will start asking questions.

No one is questioning that but whether Lampard is the right person to get the best out of those players and the team in the long run remains to be seen.

If we continue to take one step forward and two steps backward in the next 1-2 months, think Roman and the board will start asking questions.

Oh right. That makes this even shittier then.

That is still no excuse to be dropping points in 3-3 (THREE-THREE!) draws against the likes of West Brom and Southampton...

But that doesn't tell the whole story, does it? Liverpool have had a tougher opening 5 games compared to us and they are the ones who gotten more points out of it. And mind you, we are only 2 points ahead of Man United, who are supposedly very shit under Solskjaer. Lose to them next weekend and we'll be behind them...

You're sorely mistaken if you think this is about the goalkeepers only when it comes to the system.

Sevilla's record since Feb 16 this year - DDWDWDWDDDDWWWWDWWWWWLWWDL. 14 wins, 10 draws, 2 losses in 26 games. One of those losses was to Bayern Munich in extra time while they lost the other after going down to 10 men. 8 of Sevilla's 10 losses in all competitions under Lopetegui have been 1-goal losses.

We see the same individuals make mistakes on a regular basis but who is the one that keeps picking them to play? Moreover, no player is perfect and players should be set up in a system where their strengths are highlighted and mistakes are minimized but we are seeing more of the latter than the former. The manager's job is also to iron out mistakes from players - as much as possible, if not to next to zero - and if they are still making mistakes, then they really should be binned and not allowed near the team again. But if they are, then only one person is responsible for that because he picks the team.

To be fair, not many teams beat Palace 4-0 or by a heavy scoreline when their manager is as pragmatic/defensive as Roy Hodgson. In any case, our record is still better than some of the shockers the other Big 6 have had against Palace in recent seasons.

I don't know what's their exact record against the others but we have won 11 of our last 15 matches against Palace, including the last 6.

Quite the sudden turnaround given we were arguing from opposite ends only like 2-3 weeks ago, IIRC.

What happened to your positivity!?

But Palace have never really been a problem for us over the years, even with the odd hiccup against them like in 2016/17. And given how they set up few weeks ago, Palace weren't really the greatest of tests for Silva and Zouma. As it stands, yes but they still need to be tested as a pair against better opponents than Crystal Palace.

But we know we won't. We should have 12/12 four of our five league games - apart from Liverpool - but have only 8/12!

You're right. All these individual mistakes seem to happen on a weekly basis, which seems to suggest a deeper malaise in the team. Even if it's not entirely wrong, the "individual mistakes" reason feels like a cheap cop-out at this point.