Jase

Chelsea 6-0 Barnsley PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2020/21 Carabao Cup 3rd Round 23rd September, Wednesday 2020 Stamford Bridge 19:45 Kick Off (UK time)

But we were hardly playing to his strengths. He did well given what he was dealt with but we basically treated him like Giroud with all those long balls up to him.

I said "second game last season", not the "second last game of last season". Remember the UEFA Super Cup? The point is the intent. Am fine with the counter attacking approach but what the hell were we trying to do going forward? It looked as though our plan was to just give Werner the ball and hoped he score from somewhere. Otherwise, the game plan looked like a containment job. We would be better off going down swinging and see what would have happened, because the general approach to sit back and counter didn't work, did it when there's people Christensen and Kepa at the back?

We have West Brom (a), Crystal Palace (h) and Southampton (h) in our next 3 league games before we go to United. There needs to be improvement and wins from those games...

Worth remembering that we also played Liverpool in the second game last season and we looked better and played with much more attacking intent back then, when it was 11 v 11. And yeah, today's only the second game of this season but it's under the same manager, not a new one. If we really played possession football, then WTF did we have so many basketball-esque games last season? Why did opponents make so many inroads and cause us defensive problems last season? That shouldn't have happened as much as it did if we really played possession football and dominated games.

No. It's still a shit season where everyone was shit and Willian was only decent in a few games just because he scored those free kicks.

That was overall, larger point of what we are trying to play. That wasn't specifically about today's game.

Mate, it has been over a year under Lampard. The least we ask for is seeing that defined style of play and improvement from the first season. It's easy to say everything will be better when we have Player X, Y, Z (everyone can say that) but as we all know, things don't work out like that.

I don't consider that as a weakness but given our inconsistent performances and the fact that we are trying to build a new team, it's worth questioning whether all the chopping and changing have been too much. We might be better off playing a set, consistent system to get everyone settled before starting to become more flexible with the approach, for example. Moreover, you see with Liverpool under Klopp. They have a defined way of playing, a consistent system used every week and rarely tinker it around. It has worked out pretty well for them in the last 2-3 years, hasn't it? We are more than a year into Lampard's tenure and we are still like guessing the lineup, the system every single game. If we really want to close the gap on Man City, Liverpool etc, then we should try to impose ourselves on the opposition and not so much the other way around.

A tad convenient to choose the Mourinho Season when everyone was shit for the ENTIRE season.

The problem is, Lampard is basically opening a can of worms with that statement. It's a lot of ifs and buts. And heck, we didn't even score the penalty! I didn't necessarily mind the counter attacking approach for today but what I didn't like was the passiveness of it. Sure, we limited Liverpool defensively but offensively, we were pathetic. We didn't look like we had a clue on how to counter attack apart from hoping Werner did something. If we were Christian Pulisic FC after the restart last season, then we are pretty much Timo Werner FC at the moment. Also, Havertz upfront? Fine...but launching long balls for him to win against Van Dijk and co...really?

Signings, new players, injured players coming back will help but it won't hide or solve the problems instantly. As I said earlier, what is Lampard's style of play? What does he actually want us to do? You would think that after one year in charge, we would see a defined style of play, the patterns, the combination and all that and all he needed was better players to fit into that embedded style to make us better. But do you know our style? One game we are trying to dominate the opposition, the next we are playing on the counter attack. One game, we are playing 4-2-3-1, the next we are playing 4-3-3 and hell after that, we would probably play 3-4-3. There's been so many chopping and changing!

Played upfront today and got long balls dumped onto his head. He must wondering what has he got himself into...

.........................

I mean...

But what attacking attributes does Mount even have? Even when Pedro is shit, he can at least produce something or score a goal. Mount is just braindead going forward. Can understand the reasoning but if we can't play out the press through passing and movement, then we are totally fucked.

Is it too late to join the club? Even before this, am pretty sure I said Mount is similar to Oscar at some point last season.

It is still early in the season but since we all agreed that Lampard has no excuses this time, am just gonna throw these out here... 1. The lack of proper pre-season and all the disruptions have not helped but it feels like Lampard has leaned too much into that as an excuse based on our uninspiring displays so far. One would think that after a season in charge, Lampard would have embedded his template, his way of playing into the team and yet two games in, we still look a mess. Can't defend, can't press, can't pass the ball, can't control possession. We can't even do any basics right and play the idea of football that Lampard supposedly wants us to play. Why? 2. What exactly is Lampard's tactics and style of play? Because if all he has just the talk of playing attacking football, pressing the opposition, promoting youth etc, then I know a more experienced manager out there who can likely implement all of those better than what we have seen so far. If I am being super harsh, his action doesn't speak louder than words right now. It is all talk but what we see on the pitch is like the opposite. 3. Do not necessarily mind the counter attacking approach against Liverpool today but the passiveness of it? Diabolical set-up. Everyone was so deep till the point the approach felt like containment as opposed to actually counter attacking. Also, playing long balls to Havertz to feed off? Really? We also had Werner up against Liverpool's high line but we barely played many balls over the top and we barely even tried it. Why? 4. Said it in the other thread, Mount is basically turning into another Willian for us. His effort cannot be faulted but what does he contribute in attack?

*bump*

An absolute joke that Lampard even played Kepa in this game.

Even then, has anything really changed after a season with Lampard through coaching? We are still making dumb errors at the back (look at the Mane header for example) and can't pass the ball or even control possession for at least a couple of minutes. You would think that after one season, Lampard would have had this template or idea of playing embedded into the team and he just needed upgrades to make the team better. But we still look the same as last season. There doesn't seem to be any set kind of template in this team because Lampard has chopped and changed way too much.

Yup, going for all the attackers in the summer transfer window has sure helped us...

Looks like Thiago is coming on for Liverpool...

Not a wrong to play on the counter attack but the execution of it has been horrendous. Long balls to Havertz!? Why have we not play more balls over the top for Werner!?