Super Frank Thread

[Laylabelle 9,292]

2 minutes ago, milka said:

But it's not shock. Transfer ban and plus lack of experience. Didnt expect to be near top 4 never mind slowly sliding down from it.

[milka 3,305]

Fact . It was expected ,  it will be a transitional season.

Believe in the process , believe in Frank . 

 

[kellzfresh 7,226]

On 12/26/2019 at 8:43 PM, Jason said:

Our results since the 7-game winning run...

This is a problem

[Lobsters & Cigars 20]

There is no way to defend Frankie anymore.
The main problem is not losing or being out of 4th place in the next corner.

The main problem is, he doesn't know what he's doing.
He does not know what to do.

The last game is a masterclass of Frankie's total inability to coach.

There is no way to defend this.
If this continues, it will end badly, very badly and it's a shame.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

13 minutes ago, milka said:

Fact . It was expected ,  it will be a transitional season.

Believe in the process , believe in Frank . 

 

That's to glib mate. He's a well paid manager who accepted the role and is extremely well paid for doing so. He is not above criticism just because of his stature at the club. To be honest and I'm not trying to character assassinate him but he's a little bit smug and pleased with himself. Mourinho has many faults but he always used to protect his players Lampard has blamed the defenders publicly recently and said we need to go into the transfer market. He has to accept the blame for the abject performances the buck stops with him.

When I pay to watch Chelsea I will give the manager stick if it's warranted I don't give a shit who he is us oldies have seen it before with John Hollins great player dreadful manager. We lost Hazard which of course was a massive blow and the transfer ban was a kick in the nuts but we won the Europa League, lost on penalties in the league cup and came third so this was not a dreadful team he was taking over.

 

[Lobsters & Cigars 20]

Ten Hag or Nagelsmann as soon as possible. 

Please!

[Vesper 27,280]

Cesar Azpilicueta believes Chelsea have lost the respect of other teams at Stamford Bridge

https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/27/cesar-azpilicueta-believes-chelsea-lost-respect-teams-stamford-bridge-11967957/?ito=newsnow-feed

Chelsea have lost three of their last four home Premier League games and club captain Cesar Azpilicueta fears that they have lost the respect of visiting teams at Stamford Bridge. The Blues have suffered a string of poor results at home, with a 2-0 defeat to Southampton on Boxing Day the most recent. Frank Lampard’s side have also lost to Bournemouth and West Ham in front of their own fans in recent weeks, developing serious cause for concern in west London. Thanks to a strong start to the season, Chelsea remain fourth in the Premier League table but their position is now precarious, with Wolves just two points behind and Spurs, Sheffield United and Manchester United all within four points. Azpilicueta is well aware that their home form must improve and appears to be at a loss as to why it has been so poor. ‘It is the reality that the last four games at home we have lost three and didn’t score goals,’ said the Spaniard. ‘It is an issue that we cannot find the consistency at home and this needs to improve for the second part of the season if we are to finish near the top.

snip

 

[Azpinator 2,325]

8 hours ago, SinineUltra said:

The silver-lining to Chelsea's poor run of games is the evident need to strengthen in certain areas. Had we had good run of games in December, then we would have been blinded by the potential of the youth and might not have anticipated the downside of having so many talented but inexperienced players integrated to the team all at once. I fully understand the doubters - at times we were playing high-scoring, free-flowing football and the appetite grew over time, but no need to get ahead of ourselves and expect the unexpected - a young team with an inexperienced -yet loved- manager - the club's name itself won't give us the results. I believe we should for once stick with a manager -despite the recent poor results- and time will tell if it was the right decision. I'm fully behind Frank Lampard and i think the club is going in the right direction.

Voice of reason, mate. 💙

[communicate 2,703]

16 hours ago, SinineUltra said:

The silver-lining to Chelsea's poor run of games is the evident need to strengthen in certain areas. Had we had good run of games in December, then we would have been blinded by the potential of the youth and might not have anticipated the downside of having so many talented but inexperienced players integrated to the team all at once. I fully understand the doubters - at times we were playing high-scoring, free-flowing football and the appetite grew over time, but no need to get ahead of ourselves and expect the unexpected - a young team with an inexperienced -yet loved- manager - the club's name itself won't give us the results. I believe we should for once stick with a manager -despite the recent poor results- and time will tell if it was the right decision. I'm fully behind Frank Lampard and i think the club is going in the right direction.

Lamp is safe until next season. That is obvious. He pretty much is having a "free" season. However, the performance that our youngster show this season will put more pressure on Lamp next season. 

 

[Tomo 21,681]

10 hours ago, kellzfresh said:

This is a problem

Probably Lampard's worst decision so far, he did an interview claiming he's learned a lot from Sven shoehorning him and Gerrard in the same side yet is showing similar traits trying to force Kante back in.

[Tomo 21,681]

9 hours ago, Lobsters & Cigars said:

There is no way to defend Frankie anymore.
The main problem is not losing or being out of 4th place in the next corner.

The main problem is, he doesn't know what he's doing.
He does not know what to do.

The last game is a masterclass of Frankie's total inability to coach.

There is no way to defend this.
If this continues, it will end badly, very badly and it's a shame.

I'm sorry but that is just way to premature.

He's had some bad games but there's also been some excellent games which can't be pulled off without some quality coaching in the training ground.

He's earned the chance to pull out of a rut, admittedly a very bad one.

[Jase 43,479]

40 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Probably Lampard's worst decision so far, he did an interview claiming he's learned a lot from Sven shoehorning him and Gerrard in the same side yet is showing similar traits trying to force Kante back in.

The tricky thing is Jorginho and Kovacic can't play every game together - the former's form seems to have dipped around the last international break - and there's no other replacement for them in the squad. So, Kante was always gonna be used. Also, the poor run of form also seems to coincided with Mount going off the boil. 

[Tomo 21,681]

15 minutes ago, Jason said:

The tricky thing is Jorginho and Kovacic can't play every game together - the former's form seems to have dipped around the last international break - and there's no other replacement for them in the squad. So, Kante was always gonna be used. Also, the poor run of form also seems to coincided with Mount going off the boil. 

Not every game but there was just no need to instantly change what was working. Kante playing his first season in English football would have had to work his way in yet because of what he's done in the past mainly in a team playing a completely different brand of football he's straight back in and we break up something that was working so unbelievably well.

Our most complete performance (well 80 minutes) of the season was against Watford and we haven't seen the same midfield and front three combination in the league since, I'm not saying it's the sole reason for our collapse but do we lose 5 in 7 sticking to that blueprint for the most part? Not a chance in my opinion.

Soon as the festive period is over Frank needs to be starting the Watford front six against every team outside the top 6/7, possibly including in some cases.

[Jase 43,479]

5 hours ago, Tomo said:

Not every game but there was just no need to instantly change what was working. Kante playing his first season in English football would have had to work his way in yet because of what he's done in the past mainly in a team playing a completely different brand of football he's straight back in and we break up something that was working so unbelievably well.

Our most complete performance (well 80 minutes) of the season was against Watford and we haven't seen the same midfield and front three combination in the league since, I'm not saying it's the sole reason for our collapse but do we lose 5 in 7 sticking to that blueprint for the most part? Not a chance in my opinion.

Soon as the festive period is over Frank needs to be starting the Watford front six against every team outside the top 6/7, possibly including in some cases.

Okay, I just did a check on the 7-game winning run and the Jorginho-Kovacic-Mount trio was played only twice, in the last two wins of that run - 1-0 at Ajax and 4-2 at Burnley. In fact, if we take it a little further, that midfield combination only started 4 times when we had the run of 9 wins in 11 games - the last of which came in the debacle/crazy/great 4-4 game against Ajax.

W 7-1 Grimsby - Gilmour/Barkley/Pedro
W 2-0 Brighton - Jorginho/Barkley/Mount
W 2-1 Lille - Jorginho/Kante [back 3 was used]
W 4-1 Southampton - Jorginho/Kante/Mount
W 1-0 Newcastle - Jorginho/Barkley/Mount [Barkley was subbed off with injury for Kovacic before HT]
W 1-0 Ajax - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
W 4-2 Burnley - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
L 1-2 Man United - Jorginho/Kovacic/Gilmour
W 2-1 Watford - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
D 4-4 Ajax - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
W 2-0 Palace - Kovacic/Kante/Mount

So, is breaking up the Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount trio really the issue here? It's highly debatable, because we have experienced this trend before - start the season well and then things go off the rails around November-December. I don't necessarily disagree that Kante looks something of a misfit at times in the style of football we're trying to implement but the bigger issue here is a lot of the players have suffered a dip in form at the same (wrong) time. And if the results above are anything to go by, it seems our poor run of form started when Mount (and arguably Jorginho as well) went off the boil because he's the one constant in the run above. 

[Tomo 21,681]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

Okay, I just did a check on the 7-game winning run and the Jorginho-Kovacic-Mount trio was played only twice, in the last two wins of that run - 1-0 at Ajax and 4-2 at Burnley. In fact, if we take it a little further, that midfield combination only started 4 times when we had the run of 9 wins in 11 games - the last of which came in the debacle/crazy/great 4-4 game against Ajax.

W 7-1 Grimsby - Gilmour/Barkley/Pedro
W 2-0 Brighton - Jorginho/Barkley/Mount
W 2-1 Lille - Jorginho/Kante [back 3 was used]
W 4-1 Southampton - Jorginho/Kante/Mount
W 1-0 Newcastle - Jorginho/Barkley/Mount [Barkley was subbed off with injury for Kovacic before HT]
W 1-0 Ajax - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
W 4-2 Burnley - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
L 1-2 Man United - Jorginho/Kovacic/Gilmour
W 2-1 Watford - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
D 4-4 Ajax - Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount
W 2-1 Palace - Kovacic/Kante/Mount

So, is breaking up the Jorginho/Kovacic/Mount trio really the issue here? It's highly debatable, because we have experienced this trend before - start the season well and then things go off the rails around November-December. I don't necessarily disagree that Kante looks something of a misfit at times in the style of football we're trying to implement but the bigger issue here is a lot of the players have suffered a dip in form at the same (wrong) time. And if the results above are anything to go by, it seems our poor run of form started when Mount (and arguably Jorginho as well) went off the boil because he's the one constant in the run above. 

The Newcastle match has to be included as I think Kova was on after like half an hour which means they were by inlarge the mainstays in our best period of the season. It was working so well and to then only go on and use that midfield three once in nine games is inexcusable for me. I'm a little bit easier on Lampard as given his lack of experience I have hope he will eventually click on and learn his lesson however of an experienced manager did this I'd be incandescent at him.

I think the home games recently we have missed their combination play, the only one they played together was West Ham and we handicapped them by playing not matchfit Oli and Pedro. Kova's decision making trump's Kante's in terms of minute by minute passing and running between the middle and final thirds which is crucial against teams sat deep, how many times did Kante frustrate in that regard two days ago alone? Even if Kova doesn't get anywhere in terms of finding space/openings we atleast retain possesion.

That said I think Kova and Kante work well aswell, but Jorginho/Kante should never be used as a combo (I'd go as far as saying even a Jorginho/Barkley combo (like we saw Vs BHA) trump's that one) apart from Saints away we've looked all at sea playing those two together (with no Kovacic).

[Fernando 6,374]

6 hours ago, Tomo said:

Probably Lampard's worst decision so far, he did an interview claiming he's learned a lot from Sven shoehorning him and Gerrard in the same side yet is showing similar traits trying to force Kante back in.

I agree it's what I noticed, early season the plaudits where on the jorgi and kova parternership. But ever since kante came back that has brought disharmony in that mid pair. 

I also think that jorgi has a dip in form similar to last year and picking up late half of the season. 

So I do see this as a big concern for me, and I don't know what Lampard will do regarding his midfielder problems. 

I'm starting to lean on the @Vesper camp in which selling kante this summer might be a good idea. Since we are moving away from that style of play that is suited for him and his age it might be best to cash in. 

[manpe 10,855]

16 hours ago, Iggy Doonican said:

Mourinho has many faults but he always used to protect his players

A myth that many of his former players would disagree with. He is happy to point fingers at the players and everybody else but himself.

[MoroccanBlue 5,191]

17 hours ago, Iggy Doonican said:

Mourinho has many faults but he always used to protect his players