Jase

Speaking of Sancho, this just happened in my FM save...

Guess one can take this as some sort of positive... Lampard was also asked on the cause of injury problems this season and while he did say some of them continued from last season (e.g. Kante, Rudiger), he swerved away from answering in depth.

No mention of what that small issue is for Christensen. If it's another injury...LOL! Lampard also confirmed Loftus-Cheek will be playing for the U23s tonight while Kepa is in contention to start against Liverpool.

Kepa hasn't been great this season but his passing hasn't been the problem. His passing success rate is 4th highest in the league, behind only Ederson, Alisson and Mat Ryan.

Chelsea have problems at both ends of pitch and three at the back is not helping https://theathletic.com/1644608/2020/03/01/chelsea-frank-lampard-bournemouth-formation/?source=shared-article Chelsea have reached the end of February without Frank Lampard knowing his best tactical system, never mind his best team. He has oscillated between 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 3-4-2-1 throughout a rollercoaster season and sometimes switched formations during games. All of it has been motivated by the search for the thing that all successful coaches and teams strive for: balance. Of the three systems, 3-4-2-1 has been his safety net whenever real adversity has struck. Shifting to three at the back secured a 5-2 away win over Wolves in September, as well as a Premier League double over Tottenham that dramatically altered the landscape of the race for fourth place. “When they have a run of bad results, they go to five (three centre-backs with wing-backs). When they have a run of bad results, they go to (Marcos) Alonso and that’s what they did when they played against Lille and against us in the first match (Chelsea’s 2-1 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December),” Jose Mourinho said pointedly after Tottenham lost at Stamford Bridge last weekend. “That’s what, of course, I knew they were going to do again. It’s obvious. When they’re in a run of good results, they go to different players.” But this week has underlined that 3-4-2-1 is not the all-encompassing solution for Lampard that it was for Antonio Conte in the autumn of 2016. Bayern Munich overran Chelsea’s midfield and destroyed their defence at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, while only the preternatural goalscoring ability of Marcos Alonso spared Lampard another embarrassing defeat away at Bournemouth on Saturday. Both teams hurt Chelsea in different ways. Bayern limited them to 36.7 per cent possession — a season low — and targeted the right side of their defence, with the rampant combination of Alphonso Davies and Serge Gnabry overwhelming Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta. Bournemouth blitzed them with high pressing at the start of each half, capitalised on a long-standing Chelsea weakness defending set pieces, and exploited the space behind Alonso with Jack Stacey. At the other end, Bayern defended with a high line, pinning Chelsea into their own half whenever possible. On the few occasions that Mason Mount managed to break their offside trap, the recovery speed of Davies and David Alaba quickly erased the opportunity. Bournemouth instead set up in a low block, encouraging Lampard’s team to pass sideways and funnelling them wide; Chelsea attempted a season-high 807 passes at the Vitality Stadium and delivered 30 crosses from open play. No two football matches play out the same way but a broader analysis of Chelsea’s performances this season generates two firm conclusions: 3-4-2-1 has not afforded them the defensive solidity that Lampard hoped it would and it has further impeded their stuttering attack. “It is a system which has worked well for us quite a few times this season,” Lampard said of 3-4-2-1 after the Bournemouth game. “We have Olivier Giroud up front and it allows people to get inside, nearer him. Second balls and link-ups. It gives us stability — you hope — with the three centre-backs and when you move the ball well you can control games. We did manage to control things once we settled into the game and livened up. It does help in that way with us. It is a system I like for that.” Chelsea have played 35 matches across the Premier League and Champions League this season. Lampard has arranged his starting XI in a 4-2-3-1 for 18 of those, in a 4-3-3 for eight of them and in a 3-4-2-1 on nine occasions. The win percentages are as follows: 44.4 per cent in 4-2-3-1, 37.5 per cent in 4-3-3 and 55.6 per cent in 3-4-2-1. The basic numbers suggest 3-4-2-1 is Lampard’s best tactical option for this Chelsea squad but a deeper dive into the analytics reveals a more complex reality. For starters, playing a three-man central defence with wing-backs hasn’t made the team markedly better defensively. They have still conceded an average of 1.44 goals per game, with an expected goals against (xGA) of 1.14 per game. By way of comparison, Chelsea average 1.5 goals conceded per game in a 4-2-3-1 and their xGA is exactly the same — 1.14 per game. In a 4-3-3 they have let in 1.38 goals per game, though their xGA of 0.89 suggests they have been marginally unlucky. How their defence performs in different formations (per game) 4-2-3-1: 1.5 goals conceded, 1.14 xGA, 9.7 shots faced, 3.6 shots on target faced 4-3-3: 1.38 goals conceded, 0.89 xGA, 8.8 shots faced, 2.6 shots on target faced 3-4-2-1: 1.44 goals conceded, 1.14 xGA, 8.1 shots faced, 3.2 shots on target faced Chelsea do give up fewer shot attempts in matches where Lampard plays a 3-4-2-1 — 8.1 per game, down from 9.7 per game in a 4-2-3-1 and 8.8 per game in a 4-3-3 — but their overall xGA figure indicates they still give up a similar number of high quality chances. They concede 3.2 shots on target per game in a 3-4-2-1, only marginally down from 3.6 in a 4-2-3-1. There is plenty of reason to believe, however, that Chelsea are a worse attacking team in a 3-4-2-1. Their xG in the nine games Lampard has started with it is 1.68 goals per game, compared to 1.95 goals per game in a 4-2-3-1 and 2.1 goals per game in a 4-3-3. They register fewer shot attempts per game (14.7), fewer shots on target per game (4.6) and create fewer chances per game (11.1) in a 3-4-2-1 than in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. How their attack performs in different formations (per game) 4-2-3-1: 1.79 goals, 1.95 xG, 17.3 shots, 6.2 shots on target 4-3-3: 1.38 goals, 2.1 xG, 17 shots, 5.8 shots on target 3-4-2-1: 1.67 goals, 1.68 xG, 14.7 shots, 4.6 shots on target Playing with three central defenders also alters where Chelsea tend to have the ball. Lampard’s team attempt more passes per game (595.1) in a 3-4-2-1 system than in the other two formations but a greater proportion of these happen in their own half (285.1) and fewer in the opposition half (292). Their 55.2 per cent average overall share of possession is lower than in a 4-2-3-1 (59.7 per cent) or 4-3-3 (58.3 per cent), suggesting that we are seeing more sterile passing rather than genuine control. Chelsea’s domination of the ball was even more extreme against Bournemouth. They had a season-high 73.2 per cent share of possession, with 454 of their 807 attempted passes occurring in the opposition half. Despite this, however, just six of their 23 shot attempts tested the impressive Aaron Ramsdale and their xG of 1.85 wasn’t much better than the home side’s 1.31. The most beneficial aspect of a 3-4-2-1 for Chelsea’s attack is that it puts their wing-backs, two players with unique gifts, in the best position to impact the final third. James delivered 16 crosses in the match, many of which caused panic and one which was flicked onto the crossbar by Giroud before rebounding to Alonso for the opening goal. Alonso might be the most natural goalscorer in Lampard’s squad, and the timing of his runs into the penalty area — particularly when James was primed to deliver the ball from the other flank — caused Bournemouth constant problems. He had more touches in the opposition box (11) and more shots (seven) than any other Chelsea player at the Vitality Stadium. Chelsea created a couple of good chances aside from Alonso’s opening goal while in a 3-4-2-1, largely from James crosses. But the extra centre-back did not prevent them from conceding two goals in the space of three shambolic minutes early in the second half, and it was only when Lampard substituted Fikayo Tomori for Willian and switched to 4-3-3 that the equaliser arrived. Part of Chelsea’s collapse sprang from a set-piece frailty that exists regardless of what system Lampard plays. As a team, they lack height and physicality, even with Alonso and Giroud in the starting XI, so it was no surprise when Jefferson Lerma easily out-jumped Mateo Kovacic and Andreas Christensen in the 54th minute to head past Willy Caballero. It was the eighth goal Chelsea have conceded from a corner kick this season — only Aston Villa and Norwich, the bottom two teams in the Premier League table, have given away more (nine). At the other end, Lampard’s team never looked likely to make much of the 14 corner kicks they won themselves. Christensen is yet to score a goal for the club in 92 senior appearances. “Everyone wants to point to the defence but we work all week on our defence,” Lampard said after the game. “But at the same time, if you’re going to create something like 23 chances and (send) balls slashing across the face (of the box), those are the chances that you need to stick away. That’s what creates the nervousness. “I’m very happy for Marcos Alonso but when I think that my left-back is the one scoring the two goals and he scored our last goal in the league as well, and you’re creating that many chances in between, you have to question why we’re not finishing them.” Chelsea have taken just 19 points from their last 16 Premier League matches. Even in a Champions League qualification race as low in quality as this one, a continuation of that form is highly unlikely to be enough to finish fourth. Lampard has big issues to solve at both ends of the pitch, and there is little cause for confidence that three at the back can provide the balance he is looking for.

Jorginho is a poor man's Fabregas. At least Fabregas could compensate his defensive flaws with his excellent passing ability but Jorginho can't do that.

Henderson's contract expires in 2022 and De Gea's ends in 2023. If we are going to look for a new #1 in the summer, it might be worth to just test the waters with Henderson.

Wolves are now only 3 points behind us by the way. They aren't quite going away...

So, VAR has moved from Anfield to Old Trafford. Good to know...

3-2 WOLVES!

Not sure if using 2 players to justify Sarri's style was working is a good justification. Lampard hasn't deviated much from Sarri's style and yet Jorginho has only a handful of good performances while Kante has blown hot and cold in this B2B role. As for the young players, there was no telling who Sarri would have preferred. He might have taken to James, Tomori, Mount, Abraham or he might not have at all. We have less sterile possession than last season but the main problem is, our attacking play has become predictable of late. Think we're still in the Top 2 or 3 in terms of shots/shots on target but attacking approach is basically just give the ball to James to cross into the box and hope someone puts the chance away. Hardly seen any of the intricate passing play that we saw earlier this season. That and the team just don't look well coached either. Remember how certain players came out and complained about Conte's or Sarri's boring, repetitive training drills and compared them to Lampard's supposedly more fun training? The fun training sessions are sure working wonders right now...

But that's not even the point I was making!

Did you actually read the whole post or just decided to quote certain part and take it out of context? 🙄

Chelsea + Injuries = a better love story than Twilight

Nothing beats a late winner!

He might prove me wrong in the long run at Juventus but as it stands, it feels as though Sarri succeeded at Napoli because things fell into place there for him. He had the right players, he was at a club where they weren't expected to consistently challenge for honors and he could just go about doing his own things. Since then, he has struggled when being put in charge at bigger clubs with bigger ambition than Napoli. His limitations and flaws suddenly got exposed more under the spotlight. Remember how he always stuck with the 4-3-3 last season and his predictable Kovacic-Barkley subs? After Juventus played poorly and lost to a Lyon side that were missing half of their 1st team and were sitting 7th in Ligue 1, Sarri came out and said 'I don't know how to make the players play faster' (or something like that), which brought back memories of him saying 'I don't know how to motivate the players' last season. He has way better players at Juventus than he had here and yet, he has still struggled to implement his ideas and somehow, his side are dependent on one player again - this time it's Ronaldo. I get that every manager wants to be their own man but given that Lampard played under some of the most successful, experienced, pragmatic managers in history, it seems bizarre that he doesn't have that bit of pragmatism in him. There is no need to be playing all out attacking football, 200 miles per hour football for 90 minutes, not when the team is already vulnerable defensively. You need to know when to slow the game down and control things, even just for a few minutes and when to go for it. His defensive record as a manager already looks not great and while having better players would help, Lampard also needs to look at the way he coaches the team defensively and learn how/when to be pragmatic. He doesn't have to go to the extreme like Mourinho does but just enough to make the team streetwise and adaptable. At the moment, it feels like he's a lot more similar to the one manager he loathed than the managers he thrived under - Andre Villas-Boas.

On the surface, our injuries may look like nothing when compared to others but in reality, questions to be asked of Lampard and his staff. We've had several muscle injuries to players this season (e.g. Emerson, Kante, Pulisic and CHO) and two of them suffered that particular injury in training. There also has been the case of rushing players back too quickly, only for them to get injured again soon after, as we saw with Rudiger, Emerson and Kante. And then there is Abraham, who got flogged to death in the first half of the season (because of Lampard's stubbornness over Giroud and even Batshuayi) and was even asked to play even when he was carrying an injury and was not 100% fit. The consequence? He now has an ankle injury and we don't know when he will be back.

I'm surprised by how calm this place has been after more dropped points (again) yesterday.

TBH, with all the injuries we've had this season, I'm very scared to see Loftus-Cheek to be thrown straight into high intensity games. Would rather see him build up that match fitness with the U23s before we slowly ease him back into first team action.

Yes, I remember but Sarri did take it to the extreme with the sterile possession. Things only got interesting at times in the second half of the season when Loftus-Cheek and CHO provided some directness into the team. Otherwise, it was just endless passing without any attacking intent whatsoever.

Bethany England with both goals, the second one coming right at the death! Emma Hayes has now won every domestic trophy and has won 6 titles in 6 years.