closed West Brom 3-3 Chelsea

[The Skipper 20,609]

That 334 formation from Lampard after we scored the 2nd was absolutely criminal. Almost FIFA like. Clear to see the team never practiced this. 

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

That 334 formation from Lampard after we scored the 2nd was absolutely criminal. Almost FIFA like. Clear to see the team never practiced this. 

Or Football Manager, where you just throw everyone up and hit that 'Overload' button...

[DDA 9,941]

2 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

That 334 formation from Lampard after we scored the 2nd was absolutely criminal. Almost FIFA like. Clear to see the team never practiced this. 

Tammy, Werner and Giroud were basically tied together in the center bumbling over each other. It was like watching a 6 legged race you see your Dads dow with his brothers drunk at a family get together.

[The Skipper 20,609]

Just now, Jason said:

Or Football Manager, where you just throw everyone up and hit that 'Overload' button...

Honestly do amateurish. It's crazy because the switch to 433 is where we picked up momentum to score that first and second goal and we almost paid for it by switching away from that. Could argue that that momentum could've carried us through to a win but Lampard took one step forward with the change to 433, and two steps back. 

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Bet Mourinho cannot wait to play us on Tuesday after watching that. Bale against Alonso if hes fit. Fuck me. Could be a cricket score

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, OneMoSalah said:

Bet Mourinho cannot wait to play us on Tuesday after watching that. Bale against Alonso if hes fit. Fuck me. Could be a cricket score

Bale is out for like a month. 

[Tomo 21,751]

2 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Bet Mourinho cannot wait to play us on Tuesday after watching that. Bale against Alonso if hes fit. Fuck me. Could be a cricket score

Well for a start i imagine he'll play the youth team as they have a league game and Europa game 2 days either side.

Secondly Lampard has thoroughly outfought Mourinho everytime they've faced eachother.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

After watching how we were so ill prepared to attack WBA, I am starting to see what people critical of Lampard are getting at that he really has no game plan and this team will be great when we get a manager that has a plan every week. The mistakes led to the goals, but i did not see anything that looked like we had a plan against them. When you have this much talent, you better know how to use them. Arteta is a new manager, but he is always executing a plan. Lampard needs to step up his game.

[Tomo 21,751]

4 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

After watching how we were so ill prepared to attack WBA, I am starting to see what people critical of Lampard are getting at that he really has no game plan and this team will be great when we get a manager that has a plan every week. The mistakes led to the goals, but i did not see anything that looked like we had a plan against them. When you have this much talent, you better know how to use them. Arteta is a new manager, but he is always executing a plan. Lampard needs to step up his game.

This the same Arteta that got thoroughly outplayed by Moyes on his own patch and fluked a win with their only shot of the second half? 

[Muzchap 8,966]

3 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

After watching how we were so ill prepared to attack WBA, I am starting to see what people critical of Lampard are getting at that he really has no game plan and this team will be great when we get a manager that has a plan every week. The mistakes led to the goals, but i did not see anything that looked like we had a plan against them. When you have this much talent, you better know how to use them. Arteta is a new manager, but he is always executing a plan. Lampard needs to step up his game.

The plan would likely have worked apart from a freakish situation of 3 shots faced and 3 goals conceded.

No team in the world can operate on that basis ever.

We might as well just say fuck it and play rush goalie...

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

1 minute ago, Muzchap said:

The plan would likely have worked apart from a freakish situation of 3 shots faced and 3 goals conceded.

No team in the world can operate on that basis ever.

We might as well just say fuck it and play rush goalie...

But this is not a game off. 

Barnsley could have easily scored 3 in the 1st half the other day. And apart from Silva we played 3 different players. 

 

[Blue Armour 4,439]

On a side note...not excusing the team's performance in any way, but is interesting to see the articles popping in the English media (this from the Daily Mail):

"Bilic furious with Havertz hand ball in Chelsea equalizer"

"Thiago Silva sees 3 goals shipped in torrid first half display"

"Chelsea fans call on club to sack Lampard in the tunnel"

And for United's win:

"Is this the cRaZiest premier league match ever?? "

 

We are definitely up against harsh critics this season.

[Vegetable 830]

6 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

On a side note...not excusing the team's performance in any way, but is interesting to see the articles popping in the English media (this from the Daily Mail):

"Bilic furious with Havertz hand ball in Chelsea equalizer"

"Thiago Silva sees 3 goals shipped in torrid first half display"

"Chelsea fans call on club to sack Lampard in the tunnel"

And for United's win:

"Is this the cRaZiest premier league match ever?? "

 

We are definitely up against harsh critics this season.

It was like this since I can remember, don't worry, it's not new, lol

[robsblubot 3,595]

Just my 2 copper pieces,

We had one individual mistake in the first half, which was from Silva and not a whole lot you can do about that. Tammy's miss was pretty bad too, but nothing like losing possession as the last man.

Alonso's bad header should not have led to a goal: we had 5 players behind the ball when the shot was taken. Lots of ball-watching players around the scorer. We had no intensity in the first half... too slow on the ball and on the press (Mount was the only one playing with any urgency). Adreas was also good the entire game and has been our best CB - really don't get the criticism on him as he is the most complete CB we have. Zouma is really terrible on the ball, which you could clearly see against pool's press, which is why it's going to be hard for zouma to play in Frank's "passing from the back" system.

Now, none of that excuses the diabolical poor game Alonso had (at a technical level), helped by a Kovacic who was also poor - they should have kept the ball and failed miserable at that (part of defending!). On the defensive side, while it might be OK for folks here to be "surprised" by how slow and poor at defending alonso can be, that's not OK for any manager. When the manager plays Alonso, he needs to have contingencies around that and today we had the exact opposite of it with an old match unfit CB covering that side (corrected at the end of first half) - esp considering Reece is also not great in the back as well. So, the exposed defenders in an overly attacking-minding starting lineup was a gamble and entirely on frank. He almost killed the comeback too by his strange Giroud sub, could have come in for Tammy (squad player for me) instead of changing the shape of the team which was clicking with Odoi on fire. Odoi then had to move a bit back on the left, which diminished his influence in the final moments.

Perhaps not fair to talk about the goalkeeping today, but we had three shots on goal in the first half and the three went in. Even if a gk is not expected to save those, a good one might have saved one of them. Willy was a bit slow coming out in my book, but it's hard to say... whatifs. It could be that the overly high defense line employed today was an attempt to keep the ball away from our goal.... hard to say.

 

[Superblue 6,372]

1 hour ago, Special Juan said:

What gets me is Chilwell plays minutes mid week and no sign of him today, what the fuck is going on there? We keep talking about getting players back from injuries but there isn't any daylight in this either..

Knowing our fucking luck Mendy will get COVID-19, Chilwell will get fouled by his cat and Pulisic will hurt his toe nail...

There is a major problem behind the scenes medically for me.

It's his first football for 3 months. I'd expect Lampard always had a plan that he'd build up across the midweek cup games. I don't think Alonso's performance will accelerate that plan because Lampard will just play Azpi there if needed.

If he'd have started today and broken down everyone would be up in arms about Lampard pushing players too quickly, you can't have it both ways.

There is an international break in a couple of weeks, it's paramount that the likes of Chilwell, Ziyech and Pulisic are back fully fit and raring to go when we return from that break. 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

3 goals and countless chances vs the deepest bus ever has to be applauded. 3 individual errors not. It is easy to cry fire Lamps. But we need to get behind the reason for our mental weakness in Defence first.

[Tomo 21,751]

2 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

There is an international break in a couple of weeks, it's paramount that the likes of Chilwell, Ziyech and Pulisic are back fully fit and raring to go when we return from that break. 

I hope the former two get called up, they can do with the extra match fitness especially in Ziyech's case who hasn't played competitive football since March.

[Vegetable 830]

8 minutes ago, Robchels said:

Perhaps not fair to talk about the goalkeeping today, but we had three shots on goal in the first half and the three went in. Even if a gk is not expected to save those, a good one might have saved one of them. Willy was a bit slow coming out in my book, but it's hard to say... whatifs. It could be that the overly high defense line employed today was an attempt to keep the ball away from our goal.... hard to say.

 

Willy is kind of guy, who does what he has to do, so it's hard to expect any impossible saves from him, but facts are: Media would be fueled with those stats for weeks and Kepa would be trashed unhumanly. Just for everyone to think about it. And second thing is that Willy's positioning at first goal was not better, than Kepa's fails/experiments in this regard.

[xPetrCechx 13,571]

46 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

That 334 formation from Lampard after we scored the 2nd was absolutely criminal. Almost FIFA like. Clear to see the team never practiced this. 

and in the end, we didn't create too many chances with this formation...

[Special Juan 28,141]

14 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

It's his first football for 3 months. I'd expect Lampard always had a plan that he'd build up across the midweek cup games. I don't think Alonso's performance will accelerate that plan because Lampard will just play Azpi there if needed.

If he'd have started today and broken down everyone would be up in arms about Lampard pushing players too quickly, you can't have it both ways.

There is an international break in a couple of weeks, it's paramount that the likes of Chilwell, Ziyech and Pulisic are back fully fit and raring to go when we return from that break. 

Then go with Emerson, who is by the way better than Alonso. It's not difficult at all.