Super Frank Thread

[Tomo 21,685]

I'll give Lampard the benefit of the doubt that this was a short term measure to get some confidence boosting clean sheets but holy hell, our attacking play yesterday and vs Sevilla was absolutely woeful, it's not in anyway sustainable so i really hope this isn't his natural approach now. I was defending a lot of our draws/loses last season because the underlying performance metrics pointed to sustainable progression, if we keep having XG rates of 0.4 and 0.2 we won't be scoring many goals and will turn into a genuine mid table side like Arsenal have done.

[Fulham Broadway 16,423]

5 hours ago, Mana said:

Wait you're telling me that you, after 50 years of being a fan, after thousands of matches you've watched, you classify our performance today against this very poor United side very good? A game where we had ONE SHOT on target, along dropping 2 points a very good performance?

I'm sorry man. I seriously don't know what match you're watching.

Like I said, sometimes its necessary to counter all the negative bullshit on here from the hypercritical who have such over the top expectations. Arent you the one that wished our players sent off during a game, because they didnt meet your exacting demands ?

[Strike 6,980]

5 hours ago, Tomo said:

I'll give Lampard the benefit of the doubt that this was a short term measure to get some confidence boosting clean sheets but holy hell, our attacking play yesterday and vs Sevilla was absolutely woeful, it's not in anyway sustainable so i really hope this isn't his natural approach now. I was defending a lot of our draws/loses last season because the underlying performance metrics pointed to sustainable progression, if we keep having XG rates of 0.4 and 0.2 we won't be scoring many goals and will turn into a genuine mid table side like Arsenal have done.

Yep. Even yesterday's supposedly good defensive display needed some crucial saves from Mendy to keep a clean sheet 

With this approach, the defenders need to have perfect games to win any points. Hope this is a temporary direction change  

[Fulham Broadway 16,423]

2 hours ago, Mana said:

What? No, I never wished for that. That’s idiotic to wish one of our players sent off as that automatically puts us on a disadvantage.

But anyway, you think it’s necessary to counter the ‘negativity’ with fake positivity? I mean come on, you must have seen at least 700 matches put on a far better display than yesterday. It was mostly sideways football. Even 4-0 Crystal Palace this season was a million times better than yesterday.

I have no problem with people saying we have improved our defensive work with brilliant displays from Mendy, Silva, Chilwell. It’s just everything else yesterday that was shocking including Kante’s misplaced passes, and a very toothless attack.

Yes you did. During a game you said you wished Bakayoko would get sent off. Ridiculous thing to say. You were pulled up on it by a few on here.

Yesterday 3 points would have been better. United dug in and got 10 back really quickly. People take Kante for granted. He made a couple of ricks, whoopee fucking do - If it had been his debut, you and others would have been creaming their pants over him.

Some people have the attitude of a post Arsenal fan cast. A lot of criticism, and no answers, which is the easiest thing in the World

 

[Milan 17,835]

10 hours ago, Mana said:

No offense but that's absolute nonsense. Absolute nonsense. I don't know what you've seen all game outside us defending that is classed as a "very good" performance. Yikes.

Let people be happy. Why do you need to push them into your own state of mysery and spread the negativity? If people are happy with something, let them be happy. It is not your business. If there is a patient with cancer telling you he has had a good day, would you kill him by saying he still has cancer? If you cannot be happy, let others be.

[Fulham Broadway 16,423]

The way I see it we are just starting out with this lot. Including Lampard as hes only just acquired what I consider future lynch pins of the squad.

A sense of perspective is required, the ingredients are slowly getting stirred into the pot. If the meal is shit come May, then judge then. The people wanting instant gratification now, probably eat Pot Noodle.

[Azul 1,615]

We're parking the bus and when we attack we play freestyle football. There is no philosophy in our attacking approach, the ball will always go sideways.

I never see one-touch passing football in the middle of the park, the players are also very far away from eachother so it's never possible for them to link up.

Lampard relies on individual quality for goals, if you look and study all our goals this season you'll realize that very few are team goals. 

How is he struggling to find a goal with a team like this? I expected him to be an ok manager atleast, but he is not ready for Chelsea at all. Unless he endagers our chances of getting top four, he should be given the season to prove himself. If it looks like we're not making top four around January then he should be replaced by a caretaker in my opinion. So that we can get someone like Nagelsmann next summer.

[Jase 43,479]

Not sure what to make of Lampard's comments about our attacking play. On one hand, he seems almost nonchalant about it, like he's thinking the players will sort themselves out. On the other hand, he knows he has to sort it out but is putting a brave face on. 

[killer1257 3,282]

Not sure what to make of Lampard's comments about our attacking play. On one hand, he seems almost nonchalant about it, like he's thinking the players will sort themselves out. On the other hand, he knows he has to sort it out but is putting a brave face on. 

He also had to sort out the defense.
TC people always say that he is the worst defense coach in the league, so he has to improve the defense first, which he did.
Long term wise, we always need better midfielders in the double pivot. I hope Lampard watches Ampadu and gives him a fair chance next season, because he was brilliant. Everything Kante can't do with the ball, Ampadu can. I also think Ampadu and Rice would also work very well because Ampadu is quite creative.

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[blu35_army 550]

Fun Fact :

In 2004 Jose Mourinho took over. In the first 7 PL games, we scored 6 goals, kept 4 clean sheets, lost 1. Jose focussed on building his defensive structure first. Once this was established, he unleashed Robben & Duff. The rest is history. hope Lamps is following this strategy....

 

[Jase 43,479]

19 minutes ago, killer1257 said:

He also had to sort out the defense.
TC people always say that he is the worst defense coach in the league, so he has to improve the defense first, which he did.
Long term wise, we always need better midfielders in the double pivot. I hope Lampard watches Ampadu and gives him a fair chance next season, because he was brilliant. Everything Kante can't do with the ball, Ampadu can. I also think Ampadu and Rice would also work very well because Ampadu is quite creative.

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Yes but it's only been 2 games and at the same time, I don't think Roman sanctioned the purchase of new attacking players worth around 150 million this summer to see us play boring football and produce less than 0.5 in the xGs...

[killer1257 3,282]

Yes but it's only been 2 games and at the same time, I don't think Roman sanctioned the purchase of new attacking players worth around 150 million this summer to see us play boring football and produce less than 0.5 in the xGs...

I don't think Roman cares as long as we win.

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[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, killer1257 said:

I don't think Roman cares as long as we win.

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But we aren't exactly even winning now...

[killer1257 3,282]

But we aren't exactly even winning now...

Step by step. Everything needs time. Pulisic still is not at his best, but his performance yesterday showed that he is getting nearer to his best version. Ziyech only played 10 minutes, but was involved in our attack, but Kante destroyed our own attack lol.

Biggest thing was to give the defence confidence and now the team knows that they can defend. Twice in a row against big teams.
The chemistry between our attackers will be built in the next couple of months. When ziyech gets his flow back, the creativity will come naturally. Still not perfect with Jorgi and Kante, but will be enough to win games.
Silva, Chilwell and Mendy reduced our individual mistakes to almost none.

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[Superblue 6,331]

4 hours ago, Strike said:

Yep. Even yesterday's supposedly good defensive display needed some crucial saves from Mendy to keep a clean sheet 

With this approach, the defenders need to have perfect games to win any points. Hope this is a temporary direction change  

Whilst Mendy made some crucial saves, the only real chance we restricted United too was when Rashford went through which also wasn't made from good United work but just misfortune that Thiago Silva went to pass to Jorginho just at the moment he fell over from a collision. Even then, coming in from an angle, he was restricted to taking the shot early.

The other two saves Mendy made were from efforts outside the box. They were good saves, but realistically they were saves I would expect a very good goalkeeper to make which Mendy is looking like he could well be. It only feels surprising because Kepa or Caballero probably wouldn't have saved them.

If a team is restricted to their best efforts coming from outside the area I'm happy with that. Now and again one will go in but more often than not a team won't score if they can't create chances in an opponents area. 

[Strike 6,980]

James has done enough to be first choice over Azpi for a stretch of games imo. Azpi should be rotated to keep both fresh but I think James is the better option now that we have a more secure keeper to claim crosses as well. 

[Fulham Broadway 16,423]

2 hours ago, killer1257 said:

Step by step. Everything needs time. Pulisic still is not at his best, but his performance yesterday showed that he is getting nearer to his best version. Ziyech only played 10 minutes, but was involved in our attack, but Kante destroyed our own attack lol.

Biggest thing was to give the defence confidence and now the team knows that they can defend. Twice in a row against big teams.
The chemistry between our attackers will be built in the next couple of months. When ziyech gets his flow back, the creativity will come naturally. Still not perfect with Jorgi and Kante, but will be enough to win games.
Silva, Chilwell and Mendy reduced our individual mistakes to almost none.

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Exactly - people underestimate the importance of confidence. The other clean sheet yesterday is huge in terms of belief, and goals at the right end will now come. 

People want to lynch Kante on here - bollox to that - he'd walk into any top team -put these in the right order....... perfomance/permanent/ temporary/ class

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, killer1257 said:

Step by step. Everything needs time. Pulisic still is not at his best, but his performance yesterday showed that he is getting nearer to his best version. Ziyech only played 10 minutes, but was involved in our attack, but Kante destroyed our own attack lol.

Biggest thing was to give the defence confidence and now the team knows that they can defend. Twice in a row against big teams.
The chemistry between our attackers will be built in the next couple of months. When ziyech gets his flow back, the creativity will come naturally. Still not perfect with Jorgi and Kante, but will be enough to win games.
Silva, Chilwell and Mendy reduced our individual mistakes to almost none.

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Everything needs time...sure...but we also don't have time in this crazy season.

As I said before, I will wait till the next few games to see whether we are actually building up to anything because while it's nice to see us defend properly for a change, the sudden change in approach in the last two games feels too sudden, too drastic, too out of nowhere. It's almost as if Lampard was reacting to the increased questions, outside pressure etc he was getting after the Southampton game more than anything else. Not to mention, if he could suddenly sacrifice our attacking play to be more solid defensively, then why didn't he do it last season? We kept playing the same way last season despite all the problems and that was with worse players than this season.