Super Frank Thread

[Puliiszola 519]

1 hour ago, The Skipper said:

Orgasmic and clearly straight from the training ground. Great build up, fantastic run from Havertz. Notice how Pulisic's run, whilst slight, opens up enough time and room for a great, composed finish from Giroud. Superb team goal and very glad Frank and the coaching team are now consistently playing players in their best position, and so so happy we aren't prioritising 4-2-3-1 right now (we don't have the right midfielders for this atm and also it alienates a lot of players out of their best positions). 

Yup. There are so many positives right now. It's so good to see

[Jase 43,479]

7 hours ago, The Skipper said:

Orgasmic and clearly straight from the training ground. Great build up, fantastic run from Havertz. Notice how Pulisic's run, whilst slight, opens up enough time and room for a great, composed finish from Giroud. Superb team goal and very glad Frank and the coaching team are now consistently playing players in their best position, and so so happy we aren't prioritising 4-2-3-1 right now (we don't have the right midfielders for this atm and also it alienates a lot of players out of their best positions). 

wE oNlY sCoRe FrOm CrOsSes 

[Atomiswave 6,117]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/55100050

[Vesper 30,083]

Lampard deserves credit for keeping so many players happy

https://theathletic.com/2236532/2020/12/03/lampard-rotation-giroud-hudson-odoi/

In the midst of Olivier Giroud Appreciation Night at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, Frank Lampard took the opportunity highlight the other big positive of what, given the context, must be considered one of Chelsea’s most impressive performances of the season against Sevilla.

“To make nine changes for the game… players were deserving to play, because I’ve seen them training well,” Lampard said. “Some players can get their heads down if they’re not playing lots of minutes, and that’s always the worry when you make that level of changes.

“But the focus and concentration of the team (was there), the moments to suffer, which we always will do against a team like this in the first half. We dealt with things, we defended well, we were organised, and some of our play was great, whether it was our comfort on the ball, our counter-attacking at pace to cause a threat to them. There were so many big pluses from tonight and we need to continue with that.”

This was a double victory for Lampard. Chelsea are now guaranteed to progress to the Champions League knockout stage as winners of Group E, giving them seeded status in the round of 16. While that doesn’t guarantee a longer European adventure than last season — Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain could all end up in Pot 2 — it does improve the chances of further progress. Since the current tournament structure was introduced in 2003-04, group winners have advanced to the quarter-finals in 94 of 136 ties, or 69.2 per cent of the time. There can also be no February rematch with Group A winners Bayern Munich.

But just as significantly in the more immediate term, beating Sevilla renders next week’s match against Krasnodar at Stamford Bridge a dead rubber. Lampard can now unashamedly prioritise tricky Premier League games against Leeds United and Everton either side of it, giving Chelsea the best possible chance to maintain domestic momentum heading into a festive fixture schedule their manager has repeatedly described as “brutal”. For now, at least, most of the selection decisions should be straightforward.

Squad rotation was always going to be one of the big challenges for Lampard in the first half of this season, particularly when it became clear that Marina Granovskaia wasn’t going to be able to find favourable suitors for Chelsea’s surplus players in a relatively dry summer transfer window. While he might have given more minutes to certain individuals — Callum Hudson-Odoi has done well to keep his morale up while Giroud, making his first Chelsea start since September, provided an emphatic reminder of his enduring value — the evidence suggests he has got more right than wrong over the last three months.

Chelsea have fielded more players (26) in the Premier League than any other team so far this season. That is due in part to the fact that Lampard oscillated between Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero before Edouard Mendy arrived to settle the goalkeeper situation, and also shifted between different tactical systems before arriving at the expansive 4-3-3 that has powered the team’s run of seven wins in eight games.

Despite using the early months of the season to bed in new signings in key positions, deal with untimely injuries and search for a coherent on-pitch identity, Lampard has reached the first week of December third in the Premier League, only two points off top spot — with Chelsea’s joint-best tally of 22 goals in the competition scored by 11 different players — and qualified as Champions League group winners with a game to spare. It has been a collective effort that reflects well upon the manager’s ability to keep everyone invested in the project.

Lampard regularly insists that everyone at Cobham is training well, but the proof of a healthy squad dynamic is what happens on the pitch. The fluidity in Chelsea’s play and the comprehensive nature of their victory over Sevilla was the ultimate vindication of the culture he has established, even if it must be noted that Julen Lopetegui also made seven changes. Arguably most encouraging were the solid performances in defence of Emerson Palmieri and Andreas Christensen, two players who hadn’t started for more than six weeks.

Political problems have been navigated with bold decisions. Rather than freezing out Antonio Rudiger after the market dried up at the end of the transfer window, Lampard has brought him back into the fold, making him the deputy of choice for Thiago Silva — who has been rested at the right times — and being rewarded with improved form. Mendy’s form has largely solved the other big headache caused by dropping Kepa, but Lampard has also prioritised defensive stability ahead of giving Chelsea’s club-record signing another shot at rehabilitation in one of the lesser Champions League group games, even while rotating elsewhere.

Only two senior outfielders have been utterly reduced to the role of bystanders: Marcos Alonso, who has paid a high price for “coachgate” at West Bromwich Albion in September, and Fikayo Tomori. The latter’s lack of minutes has been harsh and harder to explain, but his argument for playing time will only get weaker now that all four of the centre-backs ahead of him in Lampard’s pecking order have contributed to clean sheets in recent weeks. Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have not been significantly missed from midfield since leaving on loan.

We are now less than a month away from January, which will provide another opportunity to find solutions for those in the squad who are unhappy with their status. Lampard, for the first time, has everyone fit and available — even Billy Gilmour, who got his first senior minutes of the season off the bench against Sevilla. Chelsea will need them all, particularly to get through the 48-hour turnaround between Arsenal away on Boxing Day and Aston Villa at home on December 28. You can expect Lampard to voice his displeasure at the situation, but he is better equipped than most to deal with it.

Three months into a uniquely challenging season, Chelsea are pretty much exactly where they hoped they would be in the Premier League and Champions League. More promising still, for the greater tests that lie ahead, is the fact that Lampard has managed to keep almost all of his players with him so far.

[Tomo 21,751]

If Lampard can become half as good a tactican as he is a squad builder then wow.

[Atomiswave 6,117]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

If Lampard can become half as good a tactican as he is a squad builder then wow.

I actually believe tactically he has been sound all season, def better than last season. Of course he is learning as we go ahead but so do even elite managers, its clear what he demands and he is getting it out the players. I really like what im seeing and if we dont get injury galour we can only get better.

[Tomo 21,751]

3 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

I actually believe tactically he has been sound all season, def better than last season. Of course he is learning as we go ahead but so do even elite managers, its clear what he demands and he is getting it out the players. I really like what im seeing and if we dont get injury galour we can only get better.

There's been unbelievable improvement in recent weeks but i'm still cautious about totally declaring at this point, i thought he cracked the inconsistency's just before lockdown.

The base style of play has by inlarge been great (bar the restart period) it's the in game tweeks and subs where i feel there was/is room for improvement.

[Atomiswave 6,117]

5 minutes ago, Tomo said:

There's been unbelievable improvement in recent weeks but i'm still cautious about totally declaring at this point, i thought he cracked the inconsistency's just before lockdown.

The base style of play has by inlarge been great (bar the restart period) it's the in game tweeks and subs where i feel there was/is room for improvement.

I can def agree with that, his subs and the timing of them need work but otherwise very pleased so far.

[Jase 43,479]

Has been nominated for Premier League Manager of the Month.

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, Tomo said:

If Lampard can become half as good a tactican as he is a squad builder then wow.

The Athletic needs to find out what happened after that Southampton because while there is a long way to go and there will be moments where we have to suffer, everything started to fall into place and click since then. And this isn't just because of the players returning etc either. 

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

27 minutes ago, Jason said:

The Athletic needs to find out what happened after that Southampton because while there is a long way to go and there will be moments where we have to suffer, everything started to fall into place and click since then. And this isn't just because of the players returning etc either. 

It is simple. After that game we had conservative approach against United and Sevilla. And after that we changed formation. Also even before Southampton we had great game against Palace 4:0, but for the game against Southampton we did not have Silva and Mendy which was huge.

 

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

50 minutes ago, Jason said:

Has been nominated for Premier League Manager of the Month.

Mourinho will win it. He had 3 wins and 1 draw against us (good result for them, he got what he wanted). Frank 2 wins and 1 draw (did not get what he wanted in that game).