Jase

It's not by Matt Law but... Frank Lampard will come under serious scrutiny should Chelsea fail to secure a Champions League spot this season https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/02/18/frank-lampard-will-come-serious-scrutiny-should-chelsea-fail/

PSG are rather hopeless. Have lots of talented players in the squad but Tuchel likes to mess things up tactically.

I know we have had our struggles against the smaller teams this season but adding Burnley in there seems rather generous. We dominated Arsenal because they played over an hour with 10 men and even then, I hardly recalled seeing us create much from open play or Leno had to make spectacular saves. It also got all rather desperate in the end when Lampard had to throw Batshuayi in late on and not to mention, both of our goals came from set pieces (which seems to be the only way we're ever gonna score these days). That leaves only Spurs and Arsenal away for me. And as much as there's some good things seen during this bad run, there's also the bad things seen in this period. As games go by, the negatives are outweighing the positives and that's not a good thing.

Our league form since the November international break...

Writing off a season is one thing but improvement needs to be shown. The manager and players shouldn't just get a free pass. Earlier in the season, we saw good things but since the November international break, we have been hopeless. All the good things that we did in the early months of the season have gone out of the window and the same problems have persisted for months, with little signs of improvement. I want Lampard to succeed as the manager here but given our problems this season, those that he can control and fix, have continued for ages, it's worth wondering whether he's just out of his depth. If our poor form continues till end of the season, don't be surprised if the board just pull the trigger on him. Unfortunately for Lampard, he doesn't have previous success like Klopp/Guardiola to get some benefit of the doubt. Lampard needs to earn the patience between now and May if we are to continue with him.

cc @MoroccanBlue

At this point, you (not you specifically) just gotta accept that Lampard is not the kind of the manager who will start shouting/screaming/ranting on the touchline, in front of the media etc. It's just not in his nature, especially when we ourselves saw what he was like as a player. That said, I was kinda fuming and almost face palming myself last night at how passive and quiet Lampard was during the game. He just sat there on the bench, with his arms crossed, and talked to Morris. Rarely got up and tried to motivate the players, at least based on what was shown on the TV. If I was one of the players out there and I looked at my manager being like that, I might be wondering WTH is even happening.

I wasn't talking about just yesterday's game but games in the last 3.5 months, when our form started to go south after the November international break. That's just your assumption. Given we struggle to score to save our lives, I wouldn't mind if Lampard takes a pragmatic approach and makes us hard to beat. At least that would give us a chance of pinching games 1-0 etc. Right now, we are leaking goals at a rate that is as bad as our scoring rate. Yeah, I have. If we are gonna talk about individuals, then yeah, we will have plenty of players to point our fingers at. But from a collective point of view, especially on the defensive side of things, I'm just absolutely sick and tired of how easy it is for teams to create chances and score against us. Our pressing is not cohesive at all, we have weak players throughout the team and we are not even good at doing tactical fouls. It's so easy for teams to play around us because the team don't cover spaces well, don't track runners, not aware of what's around them etc. We can't even do any basic defending properly these days! Imagine having watched Chelsea over the years, being able to defend properly, defend with organization, defend with intensity to watching this hopeless Chelsea side, who can't defend well individually and as a collective unit. Imagine this f****** lot trying to park the bus at the Camp Nou, throw their bodies on the line as if their lives depend on it!

It's ifs and buts but Giroud would have buried that left footed strike Batshuayi missed in the first half!

The club may have tied the young players down to long term contracts but the next manager can easily toss them aside if they deem them not good enough.

So because other managers do it, it's okay for Lampard to do it? You criticized Sarri for rushing Kante back and yet here you are, finding ways to absolve Lampard of any blame when Kante's injury problems this season have come under his watch. There is a thing called sports periodization... The point isn't about CHO's one injury. It's the fact that it's another muscle injury. It's another muscle injury added to the long list of muscle injuries this season. So rather than addressing my questions about the collective failure, you have turned around and blamed certain individuals instead? Clubs like Sheffield United and Wolves have less talented individuals than us but they certainly don't make themselves look like idiots on a weekly basis. I'd ask this in the other thread and I'll ask again, do you really think we're well coached and well drilled at the moment? Do you really think we're performing well as a collective unit? I mean the fact that people have been pointing out issues across the team rather than just one individual or two says it all...

We'll still lose anyway...

Terry on the first goal yesterday... https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/john-terry-identifies-defensive-mistake-21518157

Yes, let's stock up more midfielders! WE NEED MORE!

That he did but Lampard played him against Liverpool a few weeks later and he injured his hamstring again. But how many times did Lampard try to rush Kante back earlier in the season? Kante returned, played one game and was out injured again. God knows how many times that happened before he was eventually given sufficient time to recover. You said it as Rudiger and Pulisic pick up an injury every week. Before Rudiger went down the knee injury last season, he didn't suffer any serious once since Feb 2017. He was pretty much injury free for 1.5 years. Pulisic had his injury problems at Dortmund but they never kept him out for long, not as long as this. So what if players like Willian hasn't picked up a muscle injury? You can cater specific training program for players to get them into optimized shape. Don't forget CHO is now the latest to go down with a muscle injury. For so long, we have always gotten it right with these things. We rarely had players with muscle injuries, our injury record were usually clean/great but now, we have players getting injured in training/matches and it's the same kind of injury. Even if the other players haven't suffered a muscle injury, that doesn't mean the over-training won't affect them in other areas. Ever wonder why we have struggled to put in 90-minute performances? Why we have struggled for consistency so much? Why we have let in so many late goals this season? Over-training may be a reason, when the players just become mentally and physically exhausted late on in matches.

The point here isn't about one player being the difference maker. Even if you have that one star player, the team should still be well coached and well drilled. Do you seriously think we are well coached and well drilled right now? Sure, Chris Wilder and Nuno have been at Sheffield United and Wolves respectively long enough to implement their ideas but we are in February already, we are 8 months into Lampard's tenure and yet, we are seeing the same BS in pretty much every game now. We can't score goals and we are so easy to score against. Bad results feel inevitable, good results feel like a surprise! And of course, Lampard has also done "great" in causing all those muscle injuries to key players by overworking the players. The winter break, for example, was thought to be a good thing but we've come back with more injuries than before. In a proper standard, good season, I'd be inclined to agree with you but the Premier League has been crap this season. With all the average-ness and inconsistency going around, competing for the Top 4 should be the target, getting into the Top 4 should be an objective and not something seen as a bonus if we do so. Abraham is the best striker out of a bad bunch. I don't even know why you mentioned Mourinho, like we will ever hire him back again. And Lampard isn't the only manager around who would play young players and while he has integrated them into the squad, he admitted last week that they might have been loaned out again had there not been the transfer ban. https://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/mount-tomori-would-likely-have-been-loaned-out-had-there-not/18d9b8qroq9o41w9dmnvsyl8yj

At the current rate, we're gonna need City's ban to stand and PL to dock their points this season to finish in the CL spots. 5th spot alone won't be enough when we are a sinking ship, with few sharks circling around.

Until we know the outcome of City's appeal, we cannot assume 5th will be a CL spot. I don't trust CAS to stand firm on their ban.

If we don't finish in the Top 4, then people can forget about Sancho etc, I think. Our budget would be reduced because the club would have to cover the loss of not getting the CL money. We suffered a 96 million loss when we last missed out on the CL... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7841179/Chelsea-announce-96-6m-LOSS-financial-year-making-profit-2017-2018.html

Because I want to jinx it...

Caballero not at fault for the goals? He definitely was for Leicester's 2nd goal. Our defence is already unstable as it is but what did he do back then? Ran out of his line for a cross that never gonna be his, which caused even more panic, and then ran back to get back into position, only to see the ball flied past him into the goal. I know Caballero being bad doesn't mean Kepa is great but putting Caballero into the XI was supposed to make us feel more safe, more secured, more assured defensively but so far, has there been any difference? Still looking unstable as ever and Caballero has conceded 4 goals from 7 shots he's faced in the last 2 league games and none of the 3 saves are even outstanding saves from what I remember.