Super Frank Thread

[robsblubot 3,595]

My screen must be broken, because when I see (the good them of) France play, I see Kante pretty much fixed as a ball-winning mid. And, at least in last game, he even played on the left, something myself and others here have always wondered given our extremely attacking (poor at defending) LBs. Chilwell is pretty much an attacking FB as well...

Does Kante have anything in his contract that states he must play b2b for us? because that's not his best role.

Jorginho is a possession type of player: if your team does not keep the ball, then I don't know what he brings. And then if you do want to keep possession, you simply can't play Zouma and expect to be able to keep possession. It just takes one to send the ball to row z or right back to the opposition. 

I concur with above that Silva and Tomori, on paper, should be tried and they should complement each other's game well. Think Andreas is a good player to have in the roster and can produce good games when called upon. He usually falters when played often - possibly a physical weakness. Think I've already made my point about zouma.

On the other hand, we are just too exposed at the back at the moment. I don't know if we can make it better with the players Frank picked today - looks like a pretty attacking-minded lineup to me. That's something Mount can provide though: that needed solidity by having that additional ball winner aside from the 2 CMs (being nice to Jorginho here). Little puzzle for Lampard to figure out. 

[The Skipper 20,609]

14 hours ago, Mana said:

Every passing day I’m beginning to think we should had spent our last summer building our defense than our attack.

I said this for months but as long we have that defense, it doesn’t matter if we have Mbappe or prime Messi...we will have 3-3s, 4-4s etc.

You build the foundations first with a house and that is the defense. You will be never taken seriously if you concede 2/3 goals in most games.

We actually haven’t improved from last season so far. Let that sink in.

Disagree. I think we made the right decision because the market for defenders this summer wasn't great at all. We still spent £50m there with Chilwell. We need to improve at CB but there honestly weren't that many clear improvement s available. We have a ton of interesting young CBs coming through as well - no need to spend there for the sake of spending. It needs to be the right player. Only a top top CB improved us now. 

[The Skipper 20,609]

13 hours ago, Jason said:

Next 6 games before the November international break:

Sevilla (h)
Man United (a)
Krasnodar (a)
Burnley (a)
Rennes (h)
Sheffield United (h)

How many wins from those games...?

We should really 6/6 this. 

[Special Juan 28,090]

The mistake Kepa made v Liverpool should of been enough for FL to say never again does he get selected.....But yesterday he was selected again, this one is firmly with FL and he got it wrong AGAIN.

[Puliiszola 519]

I have been one of the staunchest supporters for FL, but this is getting beyond ridiculous now.

I don't get the tactics, I don't get the team selection of playing kepa and mount as a winger, I don't get the lack of confidence to take on soton, I don't get why we have changed our formation from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 just to suit Kai havertz who looks okay when clearly our midfield options just are not suited for a double pivot. It's getting beyond embarrassing now. 

 

[Puliiszola 519]

1 minute ago, The Skipper said:

We should really 6/6 this. 

I doubt we can even win 1

[The Skipper 20,609]

Our best defensive performance this season came against Palace (one of the best teams against top 6 teams) and we played Zouma with Silva - why are people just glossing over this? Zouma and Silva is clearly our best CB partnership as it stands?

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

We should really 6/6 this. 

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!

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

Our best defensive performance this season came against Palace (one of the best teams against top 6 teams) and we played Zouma with Silva - why are people just glossing over this?

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.

5 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

Zouma and Silva is clearly our best CB partnership as it stands?

As it stands, yes but they still need to be tested as a pair against better opponents than Crystal Palace.

[Jase 43,479]

8 minutes ago, Puliiszola said:

I doubt we can even win 1

 

What happened to your positivity!?

[The Skipper 20,609]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

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!

Dropping silly points v. WBA and Southampton - Frank can't hide behind individual mistakes anymore. We're playing a system where individual mistakes happen time and time again - you then have to take a step back and look as to how we're harbouring a system that forces so many individual mistakes to begin with. 

Our set piece defending still seems rubbish for example. 

[Puliiszola 519]

3 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

Our best defensive performance this season came against Palace (one of the best teams against top 6 teams) and we played Zouma with Silva - why are people just glossing over this? Zouma and Silva is clearly our best CB partnership as it stands?

It was a good defensive performance, because CP were way too passive. They did not attack us, they were happy to simply counter, which we snuffed out.

When teams really get at us, attack us, we are so fucking shit. Conceded 3 against wba, conceded 3 against soton. Combined those 2 won't be scoring 3 or more goals in a game in more than 5 matches all season in PL. Jorginho is shit when attacked and put under pressure, Kanye just runs like a headless chicken. Kai is a luxury player and needs a strong CM pairing and defence to thrive. Defence is a shsmble. Alright, we know defensively we suck, what have we done in attack? When teams press us, we can't even beat a league 2 teams' press. It's utter tosh.