Super Frank Thread

[Vesper 28,779]

5 hours ago, Special Juan said:

We need to get this defence sorted and quickly, whether it's Rice and Tagliatelle as LB and then a new keeper, that will go a long way to sorting things out.

We spent quite a bit already, but for me we need three positions....A CB, LB and keeper quickly.

lolol

[Laylabelle 9,351]

17 minutes ago, Jason said:

Lampard's defensive record as a manager:

If anyone is curious, his sides have scored 191 goals (Derby - 90; Chelsea - 101)

No point scoring goals if cant defend..

How can it be so poor with 2 clubs?! Issues there to be ironed out not a carry on. Maybe hasnt got the right guidance around?  But we can't have another season of it...we got lucky this time. Might not next year. Think only 8 or 9 teams conceded more then us...

[Jase 43,479]

 

[DDA 9,690]

We will finally see if Frank truly has an IQ of 150+ next season. 

The defence will reveal all.

[Puliiszola 519]

So we went from "What a season, no one expected us to get top6, and we have got top4. FL has done a brilliant job" to "We should start looking at replacements for 2022". That was quick. And fickle to say the least.

[Special Juan 27,424]

It's been a good season, the end of it has been more than good as the signings we have made and the potential ones coming in.

This season was a free hit for Frank, but alongside the new recruits of Werner, Ziyech, Havertz if he arrives and the rest.....this second season will be totally different. He has a short window to sort out not just defensive signings but also sort the actual defence out, and that will prove the toughest job.

He has also must stop flogging players to death and that means using the squad as a whole much more.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

12 hours ago, Jason said:

 

It's a weird thing to say and he doesn't come out of it well if we won on Saturday the start of the season would have been even earlier with the Community Shield.

[Jype 6,398]

2 hours ago, Special Juan said:

It's been a good season, the end of it has been more than good as the signings we have made and the potential ones coming in.

This season was a free hit for Frank, but alongside the new recruits of Werner, Ziyech, Havertz if he arrives and the rest.....this second season will be totally different. He has a short window to sort out not just defensive signings but also sort the actual defence out, and that will prove the toughest job.

He has also must stop flogging players to death and that means using the squad as a whole much more.

Totally agree. For this season the expectation (at least for me) was a top6 finish and any success in the cups would only be a bonus. The total point tally at the end of the season was pretty close to what I expected last summer and usually 66 points would've meant a sixth place but luckily for us that was enough for fourth place this year. 

It's been a fun ride so far with Frank. Shown plenty of promise and got the team playing some nice football but there have been some obvious flaws too and next season he won't get a free pass anymore, especially with the amount of money he's gotten for new signings. With Werner, Ziyech guaranteed, Havertz almost in the bag and possibly a new goalkeeper and left-back in the team the minimum expectation should be around 80 points, which would be more than enough for a comfortable top4 finish. Cups are always unpredictable so aside from reaching the CL knockout stages I won't place any minimum targets on those competitions and any deep cup runs will still only be a bonus and not something I value that highly unless he goes and actually wins the CL.

If Lampard fails to make a significant improvement on the league points total next season, some serious questions will have to be asked about whether or not he's the right man to lead this team to a title-challenge in the coming years. Scraping top4 with less than 70 points or missing out completely won't be acceptable anymore.

I remain confident he'll get it right but he has to learn from his mistakes too. With better quality up front the 'easier' games should be killed off early with a 2-3 goal lead and a better keeper alone should be enough to shave 10 goals off the goals against column but Frank needs to get the team balance right and know when to commit more men forward and when to sit deeper. I refuse to accept that all the defenders turned shit overnight, a lot of the mistakes we've seen this season has to do with defensive coaching and organizing of the defense too. Whether or not Lamps can fix that remains to be seen.

[Warning_Hazard 156]

3 months off, milllionaires, get on with it frank!

[King Kante 1,474]

Cannot say whether the source is any good. However, this article says that the players think SFL is burning them out and responsible for some of the injuries. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-chelsea-stars-rage-at-lampard-behind-the-scenes/amp/

[Jase 43,479]

18 minutes ago, King Kante said:

Cannot say whether the source is any good. However, this article says that the players think SFL is burning them out and responsible for some of the injuries. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-chelsea-stars-rage-at-lampard-behind-the-scenes/amp/

Not surprised, if true. The signs are there...

[Special Juan 27,424]

Stuff like that makes me chuckle, they are blaming FL yet we have had to put up with under performing professional footballers all season making basic mistake that even kids would get right.

FL takes some blame but fucking hell come on, the players need to take a massive look at themselves.

They need reminding it takes two to tango.

[Alabama 1,992]

6 hours ago, Puliiszola said:

So we went from "What a season, no one expected us to get top6, and we have got top4. FL has done a brilliant job" to "We should start looking at replacements for 2022". That was quick. And fickle to say the least.

Including the youngsters people are slating have been the saviour of our season...

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Vesper 28,779]

6 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Arteta out-thought Lampard with tactical masterclass down the left

https://theathletic.com/1968627/2020/08/03/mikel-arteta-lampard-chelsea-arsenal-maitland-niles-azpilicueta-james-reece-aubameyang/

In basic terms, Arsenal won this weekend’s FA Cup final because they had the only established world-class attacker on the pitch.

Just as he did in the semi-final victory over Manchester City, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck twice to hand Arsenal their 14th FA Cup, giving Mikel Arteta his first trophy after just half a season in management.

Aubameyang’s starring role, however, owed much to Arteta’s tactical approach. There was much talk before the game about how both sides were lining up in a 3-4-3 formation, just as they did in the FA Cup final of three years ago — also a 2-1 Arsenal victory.

But the two shapes were actually very different. Frank Lampard used more of a 3-4-2-1, with Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic roaming centrally behind Olivier Giroud, which worked well in the opening stages and resulted in Pulisic’s opener. However, Arteta’s attackers offered more width in an unconventional system. Arsenal effectively used three centre-backs in the defensive phase of play, before Kieran Tierney shuffled across to left-back when the ball was won, allowing Ainsley Maitland-Niles to take up a variety of positions.

This was the same approach Arteta used in the semi-final victory over Manchester City, so shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to Lampard. Finding a solution, however, appeared beyond him.

Arsenal’s main tactic throughout this game was hitting long balls from their left-back zone down the line for either Maitland-Niles or Aubameyang to chase. Arsenal’s first entry into the final third was a good example: Tierney had the ball on the far touchline and Maitland-Niles made a run off the back of his opposing wing-back, Reece James. Tierney thumped the ball down the line…

…and Maitland-Niles crossed towards Aubameyang.

Nothing too complex there.

But things became slightly more interesting once it became clear that Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles’ movement was helping to drag Chelsea out of position, with the other exploiting the space created on that side of the pitch. Here’s another example of a similar pass, this time from David Luiz.

As the Brazilian thumps the ball down the line and the camera pans forward, you can see that Chelsea’s defence has become disorganised because of Arsenal’s movement. Cesar Azpilicueta, the right-sided centre-back, has pushed up into the opposition half to stick tight to Aubameyang and wing-back James is now Chelsea’s deepest defender, trying to match the run of Maitland-Niles.

James’ speed and strength usually meant he was capable of covering effectively. Here, he held up Maitland-Niles rather than letting him run through on goal.

But Maitland-Niles still caused problems. Here, he again runs in behind from a narrower position. It’s worth noting that, over on the far side, James is now tracking Aubameyang. Maitland-Niles is, therefore, running beyond Azpilicueta…

…and, evidently, has enough to speed to get on the end of Nicolas Pepe’s pass easily. He could perhaps have made more of this situation.

The same thing happened throughout the first half. Here’s another example of a Tierney chip behind James…

…which results in Maitland-Niles being Arsenal’s most advanced player, and in a good crossing situation.

It was also notable that Azpilicueta wanted to stick very tight to Aubameyang, which sometimes resulted in James being asked to cover a large amount of space in behind him.

The interesting thing about Maitland-Niles’ role is that he wasn’t simply becoming an advanced left-sided attacker when Tierney had possession. The nature of his movement caused James problems: here’s an example of Maitland-Niles starting in a more central midfield position, then suddenly sprinting over to the far side when Tierney takes possession. The change of direction catches out James and causes him to slip.

James’ confusion was because Maitland-Niles had often made the reverse movement, drifting inside to become an extra central midfielder. Here, as David Luiz chips the ball over the top, Maitland-Niles is bringing James infield.

David Luiz’s chip is played straight to Azpilicueta, who intercepts, but a better-placed pass would have put Aubameyang in behind the Chelsea captain.

Here’s a similar situation two minutes later, with Chelsea’s right-sided wing-back (James) following Arsenal’s left-sided wing-back (Maitland-Niles) into a very central position.

And another example from later in the game. This time, James gets a foot in and tackles Maitland-Niles.

This was obviously a tactical ploy from Arsenal, seeking to bring James out of position and increase the space available to Aubameyang higher up the pitch. After 20 minutes there was an interesting example, from another David Luiz chip forward, with Maitland-Niles in a central role…

…but this time James didn’t follow, and his recovery speed — and the curl on the pass — allows him to sweep on the outside of Azpilicueta and collect David Luiz’s chip before Aubameyang can reach it.

Midway through the first half, despite being behind, Arsenal were rallying.

Here’s the move that led to Pepe’s disallowed goal and shows Arsenal further causing Chelsea issues down the far side. This time, Tierney is (unusually) in the role of a typical overlapping left-back on the far touchline, which occupies James. Maitland-Niles is up against Azpilicueta, which leaves Aubameyang free in an inside-left position. A ball from Dani Ceballos into Maitland-Niles allows him to knock the ball back for Aubameyang, who then feeds the ball across to Pepe on the near side to sweep the ball home.

It’s notable that the move originated from this flank, however — and telling that the player caught offside, meaning the goal was disallowed, was the left-wing-back Maitland-Niles, rather than one of the conventional forwards.

By this point, Arsenal’s favoured move was clear, and their equaliser followed a familiar pattern. Tierney on the far touchline, knocking the ball long into the channel, and James closely following Maitland-Niles, who this time remained in a deep position.

And this meant Azpilicueta was forced to cover a large amount of space. Aubameyang ran in behind him on to Tierney’s pass and Azpilicueta felt compelled to haul him down for a penalty, which Aubameyang converted.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Azpilicueta pulled his hamstring when chasing yet another long ball from Arsenal. Lampard summoned Andreas Christensen in his place, using him in the middle of the Chelsea back three, with Kurt Zouma moving into the right-centre role Azpilicueta had previously been playing. Maybe this actually helped Chelsea. In the example below, Tierney again plays the ball down the line, with James defending high against Maitland-Niles…

…but Chelsea now had the speedier Zouma up against Aubameyang. This pass ran through to goalkeeper Willy Caballero but Zouma was probably more suited to tracking these runs than Azpilicueta.

Nevertheless, in the second half, Arsenal still caused problems, with Aubameyang attacking the space on the outside of Zouma and behind James.

Here’s a promising counter-attack that starts with Pepe on the far side. On paper, there’s nothing inherently wrong with James’ positioning. But, given the problems Chelsea had faced throughout the first half, Lampard perhaps could have instructed James to play 10 yards deeper, concerning himself primarily with Aubameyang rather than Maitland-Niles.

Here, Zouma closes down Alexandre Lacazette well, blocking off the ideal angle for the pass. The eventual ball is behind Aubameyang and the shot is blocked. But this was another warning sign for Chelsea.

Ten minutes later, Arsenal scored their winner from a similar situation. James was pressing high up the pitch, this time closing down Tierney in Arsenal’s left-back zone. Tierney pops the ball over James’ head first-time.

As Arsenal’s attack builds, the situation is similar to the above chance, with Zouma forced to cover half the pitch himself, and no sign of James. Zouma is able to shift his position and get goal-side of Aubameyang…

…but Aubameyang goes past him on the outside and dinks home Arsenal’s winner.

Lampard was critical of his players at full-time, accusing them of complacency and taking too long on the ball. But on reviewing the tape of this match, Lampard might feel he could have intervened to stop Arsenal repeatedly causing so many problems in the same position.

Lampard’s switch from 3-4-3 to a four-man defence turned the game at the Emirates shortly after Christmas, allowing Chelsea to come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1, and perhaps Azpilicueta’s early injury was an opportunity to change the system. Alternatively, simply moving James deeper to help Chelsea cope against Aubameyang might have done the trick. Instead, Chelsea allowed Arsenal’s best player far too much space and were punished twice.

[Puliiszola 519]

11 hours ago, Vesper said:

Arteta out-thought Lampard with tactical masterclass down the left

https://theathletic.com/1968627/2020/08/03/mikel-arteta-lampard-chelsea-arsenal-maitland-niles-azpilicueta-james-reece-aubameyang/

In basic terms, Arsenal won this weekend’s FA Cup final because they had the only established world-class attacker on the pitch.

Just as he did in the semi-final victory over Manchester City, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck twice to hand Arsenal their 14th FA Cup, giving Mikel Arteta his first trophy after just half a season in management.

Aubameyang’s starring role, however, owed much to Arteta’s tactical approach. There was much talk before the game about how both sides were lining up in a 3-4-3 formation, just as they did in the FA Cup final of three years ago — also a 2-1 Arsenal victory.

But the two shapes were actually very different. Frank Lampard used more of a 3-4-2-1, with Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic roaming centrally behind Olivier Giroud, which worked well in the opening stages and resulted in Pulisic’s opener. However, Arteta’s attackers offered more width in an unconventional system. Arsenal effectively used three centre-backs in the defensive phase of play, before Kieran Tierney shuffled across to left-back when the ball was won, allowing Ainsley Maitland-Niles to take up a variety of positions.

This was the same approach Arteta used in the semi-final victory over Manchester City, so shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to Lampard. Finding a solution, however, appeared beyond him.

Arsenal’s main tactic throughout this game was hitting long balls from their left-back zone down the line for either Maitland-Niles or Aubameyang to chase. Arsenal’s first entry into the final third was a good example: Tierney had the ball on the far touchline and Maitland-Niles made a run off the back of his opposing wing-back, Reece James. Tierney thumped the ball down the line…

…and Maitland-Niles crossed towards Aubameyang.

Nothing too complex there.

But things became slightly more interesting once it became clear that Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles’ movement was helping to drag Chelsea out of position, with the other exploiting the space created on that side of the pitch. Here’s another example of a similar pass, this time from David Luiz.

As the Brazilian thumps the ball down the line and the camera pans forward, you can see that Chelsea’s defence has become disorganised because of Arsenal’s movement. Cesar Azpilicueta, the right-sided centre-back, has pushed up into the opposition half to stick tight to Aubameyang and wing-back James is now Chelsea’s deepest defender, trying to match the run of Maitland-Niles.

James’ speed and strength usually meant he was capable of covering effectively. Here, he held up Maitland-Niles rather than letting him run through on goal.

But Maitland-Niles still caused problems. Here, he again runs in behind from a narrower position. It’s worth noting that, over on the far side, James is now tracking Aubameyang. Maitland-Niles is, therefore, running beyond Azpilicueta…

…and, evidently, has enough to speed to get on the end of Nicolas Pepe’s pass easily. He could perhaps have made more of this situation.

The same thing happened throughout the first half. Here’s another example of a Tierney chip behind James…

…which results in Maitland-Niles being Arsenal’s most advanced player, and in a good crossing situation.

It was also notable that Azpilicueta wanted to stick very tight to Aubameyang, which sometimes resulted in James being asked to cover a large amount of space in behind him.

The interesting thing about Maitland-Niles’ role is that he wasn’t simply becoming an advanced left-sided attacker when Tierney had possession. The nature of his movement caused James problems: here’s an example of Maitland-Niles starting in a more central midfield position, then suddenly sprinting over to the far side when Tierney takes possession. The change of direction catches out James and causes him to slip.

James’ confusion was because Maitland-Niles had often made the reverse movement, drifting inside to become an extra central midfielder. Here, as David Luiz chips the ball over the top, Maitland-Niles is bringing James infield.

David Luiz’s chip is played straight to Azpilicueta, who intercepts, but a better-placed pass would have put Aubameyang in behind the Chelsea captain.

Here’s a similar situation two minutes later, with Chelsea’s right-sided wing-back (James) following Arsenal’s left-sided wing-back (Maitland-Niles) into a very central position.

And another example from later in the game. This time, James gets a foot in and tackles Maitland-Niles.

This was obviously a tactical ploy from Arsenal, seeking to bring James out of position and increase the space available to Aubameyang higher up the pitch. After 20 minutes there was an interesting example, from another David Luiz chip forward, with Maitland-Niles in a central role…

…but this time James didn’t follow, and his recovery speed — and the curl on the pass — allows him to sweep on the outside of Azpilicueta and collect David Luiz’s chip before Aubameyang can reach it.

Midway through the first half, despite being behind, Arsenal were rallying.

Here’s the move that led to Pepe’s disallowed goal and shows Arsenal further causing Chelsea issues down the far side. This time, Tierney is (unusually) in the role of a typical overlapping left-back on the far touchline, which occupies James. Maitland-Niles is up against Azpilicueta, which leaves Aubameyang free in an inside-left position. A ball from Dani Ceballos into Maitland-Niles allows him to knock the ball back for Aubameyang, who then feeds the ball across to Pepe on the near side to sweep the ball home.

It’s notable that the move originated from this flank, however — and telling that the player caught offside, meaning the goal was disallowed, was the left-wing-back Maitland-Niles, rather than one of the conventional forwards.

By this point, Arsenal’s favoured move was clear, and their equaliser followed a familiar pattern. Tierney on the far touchline, knocking the ball long into the channel, and James closely following Maitland-Niles, who this time remained in a deep position.

And this meant Azpilicueta was forced to cover a large amount of space. Aubameyang ran in behind him on to Tierney’s pass and Azpilicueta felt compelled to haul him down for a penalty, which Aubameyang converted.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Azpilicueta pulled his hamstring when chasing yet another long ball from Arsenal. Lampard summoned Andreas Christensen in his place, using him in the middle of the Chelsea back three, with Kurt Zouma moving into the right-centre role Azpilicueta had previously been playing. Maybe this actually helped Chelsea. In the example below, Tierney again plays the ball down the line, with James defending high against Maitland-Niles…

…but Chelsea now had the speedier Zouma up against Aubameyang. This pass ran through to goalkeeper Willy Caballero but Zouma was probably more suited to tracking these runs than Azpilicueta.

Nevertheless, in the second half, Arsenal still caused problems, with Aubameyang attacking the space on the outside of Zouma and behind James.

Here’s a promising counter-attack that starts with Pepe on the far side. On paper, there’s nothing inherently wrong with James’ positioning. But, given the problems Chelsea had faced throughout the first half, Lampard perhaps could have instructed James to play 10 yards deeper, concerning himself primarily with Aubameyang rather than Maitland-Niles.

Here, Zouma closes down Alexandre Lacazette well, blocking off the ideal angle for the pass. The eventual ball is behind Aubameyang and the shot is blocked. But this was another warning sign for Chelsea.

Ten minutes later, Arsenal scored their winner from a similar situation. James was pressing high up the pitch, this time closing down Tierney in Arsenal’s left-back zone. Tierney pops the ball over James’ head first-time.

As Arsenal’s attack builds, the situation is similar to the above chance, with Zouma forced to cover half the pitch himself, and no sign of James. Zouma is able to shift his position and get goal-side of Aubameyang…

…but Aubameyang goes past him on the outside and dinks home Arsenal’s winner.

Lampard was critical of his players at full-time, accusing them of complacency and taking too long on the ball. But on reviewing the tape of this match, Lampard might feel he could have intervened to stop Arsenal repeatedly causing so many problems in the same position.

Lampard’s switch from 3-4-3 to a four-man defence turned the game at the Emirates shortly after Christmas, allowing Chelsea to come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1, and perhaps Azpilicueta’s early injury was an opportunity to change the system. Alternatively, simply moving James deeper to help Chelsea cope against Aubameyang might have done the trick. Instead, Chelsea allowed Arsenal’s best player far too much space and were punished twice.

Thank you.

With some of the comments on RJ, you would think he was a Sunday league player, when in reality, this was a fuck up by FL and azpi.

I mean for heaven's sake, there is something called self-correction and you are the fucking captain. Cant you call the shots when you see you are getting exposed time and again? Azpi needed to step up. I mean i cant see this happening with JT on the pitch. 

Arteta had a game plan to totally nullify RJ, and we simply could not do anything to stop it from happening, despite FL having 3 breaks to address the situation (2 drinks and HT). The problem should be with FL and lack of leadership, not with a 20 year old talented RB

[Jase 43,479]

30 minutes ago, Puliiszola said:

Thank you.

With some of the comments on RJ, you would think he was a Sunday league player, when in reality, this was a fuck up by FL and azpi.

I mean for heaven's sake, there is something called self-correction and you are the fucking captain. Cant you call the shots when you see you are getting exposed time and again? Azpi needed to step up. I mean i cant see this happening with JT on the pitch. 

Arteta had a game plan to totally nullify RJ, and we simply could not do anything to stop it from happening, despite FL having 3 breaks to address the situation (2 drinks and HT). The problem should be with FL and lack of leadership, not with a 20 year old talented RB

Here's the thing, if the players don't follow the manager's instructions and something wrong happens, they get criticized. If they follow the instructions and something wrong happens, they also get criticized. So, who exactly is at fault here? 

Why did we even play a high line against Arsenal to begin with? We should have defended deeper for a start, especially when we were not going to press or capable of pressing effectively. That setup is from Lampard and he didn't change anything during the game. 

To say Arteta had a game plan to nullify James is sort of kind for us when he had Arsenal repeatedly exploit the area between James and Azpi (later Zouma) and Lampard did nothing to sort that problem out. Can't believe I'm saying but we probably missed Willian doing the "donkey work" down that side on Saturday.

Also, I know JT is arguably our best captain ever but there is a tendency to say things that makes him perfect when in reality, he also got exploited a lot while playing in a high line under AVB.

[Puliiszola 519]

12 minutes ago, Jason said:

Here's the thing, if the players don't follow the manager's instructions and something wrong happens, they get criticized. If they follow the instructions and something wrong happens, they also get criticized. So, who exactly is at fault here? 

Why did we even play a high line against Arsenal to begin with? We should have defended deeper for a start, especially when we were not going to press or capable of pressing effectively. That setup is from Lampard and he didn't change anything during the game. 

To say Arteta had a game plan to nullify James is sort of kind for us when he had Arsenal repeatedly exploit the area between James and Azpi (later Zouma) and Lampard did nothing to sort that problem out. Can't believe I'm saying but we probably missed Willian doing the "donkey work" down that side on Saturday.

Also, I know JT is arguably our best captain ever but there is a tendency to say things that makes him perfect when in reality, he also got exploited a lot while playing in a high line under AVB.

Totally agree with you. Infact, I am putting the blame on FL. 

My only point is the kind of shit people have said about RJ after the game. The kid is so talented, anyone can see it. The tactics made him and us look shit.

Fair point on JT, but i feel when push came to shove (which it will definitely do in a cup final), I dont think he would not intervene specially after suffering with the same plan for 70 odd minutes. I think FL got it wrong here, but it was a one-off game. I am still overall delighted with how the season has gone.