Super Frank Thread

[Jase 43,479]

One personal challenge for Lampard is to survive past the second season and beyond. The last time we had the same manager for 3 seasons and beyond was Mourinho (twice). Before that, it was Ranieri. 

[Superblue 6,331]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

One personal challenge for Lampard is to survive past the second season and beyond. The last time we had the same manager for 3 seasons and beyond was Mourinho (twice). Before that, it was Ranieri. 

It does however feel like there has been a shift in levels of patience over the last few years, even if that hasn't necessarily reflected in managers staying long.

Conte and Sarri both had some real difficult periods where in previous years I think a decision would have been made mid-season, but the club persevered with them. Conte caused his position to become untenable himself by being difficult to work with (he's had problems with the board now everywhere he's been as it sounds like there are murmurings of discontent at Inter now as well).

Sarri resigned from his post to join Juventus. We don't know if the club would have stuck with him if this hadn't have happened, but they didn't let fan unrest mid season influence them.

i think in Lampard the club knows they have someone who is perfect for them outside of the success on the pitch.

He's a club legend and his successful playing career provides excellent marketing opportunities, he represents the club perfectly, speaks well, has a superb relationship with the media and besides this little spat with Klopp, which is something of nothing, there's no controversy with him. What appears to be an excellent working relationship with the board and Marina makes a huge difference too. Compared to other manager's, he also is prepared to do what's right for the club and not just himself, so there is a longer term plan there of bringing through academy players and the players being signed younger, long term and versatile acquisitions compared to the experienced, short term signings Mourinho and Conte would target, or players like Jorginho who was specific for Sarri's style but isn't very versatile to adapt to a very different way of playing or manager.

Of course, it's a results business and now that Chelsea look like they'll go big this summer in the market, there will be more pressure next season on Lampard to continue to deliver on expectations but I do believe the club will be prepared to be patient with him and still give him time to implement what he's trying to do at the club. 

For me personally, if we can bring a couple of quality additions in defensively and so long as our new attacking signings do well, mixed with what we already have, I think we should be looking to add 10 - 15 points next season and show improvements on the defensive side of our game. That, for me, will have us closer to the top 2, and be laying a solid foundation for title challenges over the coming years.

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

It does however feel like there has been a shift in levels of patience over the last few years, even if that hasn't necessarily reflected in managers staying long.

Conte and Sarri both had some real difficult periods where in previous years I think a decision would have been made mid-season, but the club persevered with them. Conte caused his position to become untenable himself by being difficult to work with (he's had problems with the board now everywhere he's been as it sounds like there are murmurings of discontent at Inter now as well).

Sarri resigned from his post to join Juventus. We don't know if the club would have stuck with him if this hadn't have happened, but they didn't let fan unrest mid season influence them.

Inclined to agree but on the other hand, there is an argument to be made of 'if we sack manager A, is there a good/suitable manager out there to replace him?'. 

With Sarri, that is debatable. There were several times he was reportedly on the verge of being sacked but always ended up avoiding it because we picked up a win at the right time. And while we don't know if the club would have stuck with him if Juventus hadn't come calling, they didn't exactly fight tooth and nail to keep him, did they? Plus, the fan unrest may have influenced the board's decision to hire Lampard instead of someone like Max Allegri. 

[Tomo 21,681]

59 minutes ago, Jason said:

Inclined to agree but on the other hand, there is an argument to be made of 'if we sack manager A, is there a good/suitable manager out there to replace him?'. 

That's always been a bit or a cop out argument in regards to keep or sack a manager in my opinion. Not so much with Sarri but when it got to the end with Mou and Conte here (examples from rivals would be Emery, Pochettino, Rodgers, Dalglish, Mou again at United) there would be many a manager that would have done better than the crap they were serving up, especially in the short term.

[Jase 43,479]

Wonder if Lampard wants to do something similar eventually...

 

[King Kante 1,296]

Beat expectations. I predicted 6th. So, 4th plus a cup final is way beyond. However, there is still work to do, I would say that things for SFL to do are: 

1) Buy a new GK

2) Buy a new CB 

3) Buy a new LB

4) Stop going completely gun-ho and leaving us wide open at the back. All he needs to do here is the easy to do 1 in front, 1 behind system i.e. when pressing have 1 CB in front of the attacker left up field and have the other CB or DMF sitting behind but in front of the next furthest up field opposition attacker.

5) Employ someone to coach the defense properly at set pieces. 

[NikkiCFC 7,582]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

And while we don't know if the club would have stuck with him if Juventus hadn't come calling, they didn't exactly fight tooth and nail to keep him, did they? 

I think Sarri would stay if no transfer ban. Pretty sure he even said this.

So transfer ban gave us: Frank, Tammy, Mount, Gilmour, Tomori, James, and now we probably would not buying Kai, Timo, Hakim if we could buy last summer. We would get someone like Pepe for instance.

So transfer ban has been amazing thing for Chelsea in every possibly aspect. We did not even suffer in terms of results at all!

[Tomo 21,681]

2 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

I think Sarri would stay if no transfer ban. Pretty sure he even said this.

So transfer ban gave us: Frank, Tammy, Mount, Gilmour, Tomori, James, and now we probably would not buying Kai, Timo, Hakim if we could buy last summer. We would get someone like Pepe for instance.

So transfer ban has been amazing thing for Chelsea in every possibly aspect. We did not even suffer in terms of results at all!

I wonder who we were actually set to get if we could have brought last summer. Pepe and N Dombele would have been likely, the former looked nailed on.

[Rapkun 668]

11 minutes ago, Tomo said:

I wonder who we were actually set to get if we could have brought last summer. Pepe and N Dombele would have been likely, the former looked nailed on.

I know reports from France said that we tried to convince Ndombele to remain 1 more year in Lyon so that we could sign him when the transfer ban ends. He would be a great signing for any club still. Brilliant player.

[Jase 43,479]

Some interesting graphics here...

[Atomiswave 6,072]

HAs it been mentioned that we are third in most wins and only behind pool and city.........we are also third in most goals scored, again only them 2 cunts scored more than us.

[Rapkun 668]

31 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

HAs it been mentioned that we are third in most wins and only behind pool and city.........we are also third in most goals scored, again only them 2 cunts scored more than us.

Statistically we've easily been the third best team in the country. Even our numbers defensively are quite good. You put any decent GK instead of Kepa and we finish comfortably in third with at least 8 more points. Frank doesn't get enough credit for the job done this season considering the circumstances and personnel available.

[Tomo 21,681]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

Some interesting graphics here...

The most worrying thing about these graphs is that City's poor season (in terms of results) looks like very much a one off.

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

55 minutes ago, Rapkun said:

Statistically we've easily been the third best team in the country. Even our numbers defensively are quite good. You put any decent GK instead of Kepa and we finish comfortably in third with at least 8 more points. Frank doesn't get enough credit for the job done this season considering the circumstances and personnel available.

In an attacking sense based on chances created yes maybe we have been the 3rd best team in the country but even then its not a given because you still need to take these chances and our conversion rate was poor. Stats are misleading also. 

Do not think thats exactly fair on Kepa while he’s made glaring mistakes, we conceded 14 goals from corners, 8 from counter attacks and more goals than any other team in the top 10 of the PL. The generic struggle for clean sheets, its not just down to the GK and it would be extremely naive to think this group of defenders are enough to compete for titles even with a GK performing well/not making mistakes, we are still short there. Plus the ‘taller teams are gonna get more chances against us’ comment from Frank in a game however many back wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing to hear either when talking about defending at set pieces.

I wouldn’t have thought our defensive numbers should be that good, or if they are then it’s evidence enough stats are hugely misleading because from day one in pre season you could see defence was gonna be a key issue for us in someway or another. Even if the stats do look good, which I am intrigued to see where you seen them, it really doesn’t add up that we have 12 losses and 6 draws but have good defensive stats. I would say under Sarri for a spell we were more solid and at the end of that season statistically were the 3rd best defence in the PL league. Again more evidence stats are misleading because at times it was a horror show. 

[Laylabelle 9,296]

Out of the 20 teams 8 conceded more then us...hurrah lol.

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

The most worrying thing about these graphs is that City's poor season (in terms of results) looks like very much a one off.

Their stats look god like

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[Henrique 9,133]

ESPN BR didn't show me the game. It was the only Chelsea's PL game that wasn't broadcasted, and it was just the most important one. Instead they showed us United vs Leicester, Arsenal vs Watford and Liverpool vs Newcastle. Not sure why they went with Liverpool vs Newcastle, since it was basically a friendly. 

Lampard got a top 4 finish after all. I still have a lot of misgivings about what he can do in near future. I think what makes most of us excited about next season are the new signings instead of what was produced during this season. Some great moments, and some terrible ones. We are going nowhere if we play a great game, followed by 2 mediocre ones, with a terrible match in middle. 

Even the Lampard most praised thing (introducing "young blood") is a not a given to carry one next season, since none of them seems to be good enough to be undisputed starting eleven. For example, if we get Havertz the ideal midfield/attack is Kante-Jorginho-Havertz; Pulisic, Zyech, Werner. Lampard's squad management will be tested next season. 

[Puliiszola 519]

7 hours ago, Henrique said:

ESPN BR didn't show me the game. It was the only Chelsea's PL game that wasn't broadcasted, and it was just the most important one. Instead they showed us United vs Leicester, Arsenal vs Watford and Liverpool vs Newcastle. Not sure why they went with Liverpool vs Newcastle, since it was basically a friendly. 

Lampard got a top 4 finish after all. I still have a lot of misgivings about what he can do in near future. I think what makes most of us excited about next season are the new signings instead of what was produced during this season. Some great moments, and some terrible ones. We are going nowhere if we play a great game, followed by 2 mediocre ones, with a terrible match in middle. 

Even the Lampard most praised thing (introducing "young blood") is a not a given to carry one next season, since none of them seems to be good enough to be undisputed starting eleven. For example, if we get Havertz the ideal midfield/attack is Kante-Jorginho-Havertz; Pulisic, Zyech, Werner. Lampard's squad management will be tested next season. 

LOL TROLL