closed Wolves 2-1 Chelsea

[Azul 1,615]

I don't think you can answer that question with a yes or no. Who is it?

Mourinho with this team would be better short term I think. Although we know that ends sour and it's not the football we are trying to play.

Pep, klopp etc would probably make us better again.

Other managers more experienced may be better short term but long term is unknown and that was what Chelsea were trying to do with the appointment. If we wanted a short term appointment we would have gone hiddink or whatever else but we are trying something else which I'm willing to give time and have been very happy with us this season up until the last 2 games when we have been poor.

Let's just say Nagelsmann or Pochettino.

[Hutcho 8,443]

We did pass the ball sideways all game though. Give me one instance where we tried to create an opportunity through the middle?

Basically what you said is because Giroud is up front all we have to do is cross the ball neglecting his link up play which led France to the World Cup win? Unbelievable stuff.

We did pass the ball sideways whether you like it or not, look at the Chelsea highlights comment section. Even other fans are noticing it but here you are praising Frank for his management today. It shows that you're being deluded to be honest, and that's why I compared you to TY from Arsenal Fan TV. I haven't seen you criticise Frank at all, even though he has made so many mistakes as a manager for us. It shows favouritism towards him, remember that. You support the players as well as the manager so don't think it is impossible to criticise him.

Quick question, if there was a world class manager available, do you believe he would do a better job than Frank?

Last thing and then I'm done with this because we are going round in circles.

You can check if you want.

But I'm probably one of the most supportive of all the players and have never thrown a player under the bus. I get behind all of them. I also never praised lampard for his management in todays game so not sure where you're getting that from. As I have already said I would have benched kai and made subs earlier.

Backing the players and backing the manager is favouritsm yes but surely that's the point and part of being a fan, same way we all backed most of the other managers when they were in tenure. People can criticise all they want and constructively is fine and often warranted. But the simple. "that's it he needs to go take" is all I'm disagreeing with

[Hutcho 8,443]

Let's just say Nagelsmann or Pochettino.

Poch would be a decent manager for us. But I don't believe any manager picks up this team and we are a completely different team. We are still a young inexperienced team (like the coach) and they need time to get used to each other and gel. When everyone's fully fit I think we play different personnel and play differently. I think he wanted to play puli Werner ziyech but couldn't because of injuries.

So would I sack Frank for poch. No is the short answer.

If Frank was sacked would poch be a good manager for us... Probably yes.

[Azul 1,615]

Last thing and then I'm done with this because we are going round in circles.

You can check if you want.

But I'm probably one of the most supportive of all the players and have never thrown a player under the bus. I get behind all of them. I also never praised lampard for his management in todays game so not sure where you're getting that from. As I have already said I would have benched kai and made subs earlier.

Backing the players and backing the manager is favouritsm yes but surely that's the point and part of being a fan, same way we all backed most of the other managers when they were in tenure. People can criticise all they want and constructively is fine and often warranted. But the simple. "that's it he needs to go take" is all I'm disagreeing with

You're not providing enough arguments for why he should stay, you're also making it seem like it's ridiculous and un-fanlike to have an opinion on whether he is a good enough manager for us. I support the club, I will never ever see someone as bigger than the club. If I see Lampard leading us nowhere then I'll obviously comment on it.

What I also said was that you've never criticised Lampard, when it's very normal to. Managers make mistakes and it's part of football. You criticising him doesn't mean that you're not a good fan but a realist.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Yeah I came to the conclusion that he's not going to get sacked this year myself. But does that mean I should forcefully back him? Nope. Lampard has to convince me and the fans why he is the man to take us forward. Not because he's "the club legend".

So you can't use the prior years achievements/performances to judge a manager/player/team but we can cherry pick games or whatever.

All I've seen is the hilarious gifs from when arsenal lose and they start raging. So no I don't know who they are by name. But it is a great watch (reccomend the gifs from the other day by the way with the bald white guy who looks like voldemort)

But yeah I'm gonna agree to disagree because otherwise we will be here all night.

[Azul 1,615]

Poch would be a decent manager for us. But I don't believe any manager picks up this team and we are a completely different team. We are still a young inexperienced team (like the coach) and they need time to get used to each other and gel. When everyone's fully fit I think we play different personnel and play differently. I think he wanted to play puli Werner ziyech but couldn't because of injuries.

So would I sack Frank for poch. No is the short answer.

If Frank was sacked would poch be a good manager for us... Probably yes.

I think people underrate the impact of a new manager. Look at what Conte did, he basically made a shit Chelsea team into champions. World Class managers that are much better than Frank would 100% transform this team.

This Chelsea team is miles ahead of Leipzig's first team. Imagine the things Nagelsmann would do? He'd make us into contenders for every trophy out there for sure. The impact he had on the Leipzig team in his first year was massive, and that's with a inferior team.

[Hutcho 8,443]

You're not providing enough arguments for why he should stay, you're also making it seem like it's ridiculous and un-fanlike to have an opinion on whether he is a good enough manager for us. I support the club, I will never ever see someone as bigger than the club. If I see Lampard leading us nowhere then I'll obviously comment on it.

What I also said was that you've never criticised Lampard, when it's very normal to. Managers make mistakes and it's part of football. You criticising him doesn't mean that you're not a good fan but a realist.

Managers do and lampard has made many as has all football managers.

With football fandom, I'm an optimist

But as I said to Mana I'm gonna agree to disagree and move on because life is too short.

Peace out.

[DanP2311 65]

6 hours ago, communicate said:

You don't want to involve Werner in the build up

This was prescient for an early match comment

[Strike 7,489]

6 hours ago, Jason said:

Putting crosses into the box is one thing - sides like Liverpool and Man City do that a lot - but what I don't get is why we kept putting high crosses into the box for the likes of Werner and Pulisic to win. If it's delivered for Giroud, fine, go high with the cross but otherwise, why the fuck were we putting high crosses in? Where were the low crosses or even the cutbacks!? And another frustrating thing was nobody was intelligent enough to stay deeper and pick up the second balls - there were a good number of them - but yet, everyone kept trying to go for the high crosses!

This. Even on the last cross by Chilwell where someone sweeping up the second ball would also prevent the counter that led to Neto scoring

[Johnnyeye 7,509]

typical, just fuck off

[Strike 7,489]

7 hours ago, DDA said:

"Not as bad as TC will make you believe" 

Oh please.

This was nothing short of a disgrace.

Frank is getting it massively wrong.

Have you ever seen such predictable football in your life? cross, cross, cross, pass back go the center backs..cross, cross, cross..Comon... we are playing like a team from the Championship. We have no midfield. They all goal hang with the forwards. Dreadful... just dreadful.

The performance was bad but before the last two games, there were signs of progress with the 4-3-3 and with the form of attackers, Kante, Reece that we had a settled XI.

Not like it was raining chances for Wolves or Everton but yes, the attack was horrific.  Going with Havertz and Giroud last night was the wrong call imo and teams have wisened up to play a low block, counter game against Chelsea and crowd the middle of the pitch.

[Strike 7,489]

My worry is that Lampard will become pragmatic in search of points like last season. Shouldn't be doing that yet but few players need a rude wake-up call.

[coolhead23 1,147]

Was a bad game ... the confidence and zeal in the first half was the extreme opposite in the second. Players looked tired and exhausted, there was no drive after the first goal, incomplete passess, losing out balls, no threat in the final third, tactics of only using the flanks, was really bad overall. Pretty much everyone had a bad game. Wenger & Havertz looked out of depth, Silva made too many mistake it just didnt amplify because he recovered well and disappointed with Mendy too. 

Hope the 6 day rest provides some help as we enter into another flurry of games. Lampard need to get a plan B in place at the earliest because teams are now getting used to the way we play.

[cosmicway 1,333]

Havertz and Werner were u-s-e-l-e-s-s, giving the ball away for numerous Wolves counterattacks as well.
Lampard is responsible to the extent he did not diagnose this and let them play, only three days after the similar debacle against Everton.
In the end we lost because ... we did not like the draw.
In the second goal Neto's opponent was the stopper Zouma ! A jet against a Thames barge.
This thing has happened so many times even under Mourinho and it is a classical mistake. Given that Wolves were not an amateur side by any means we had to secure the rear and we did n't.

 

[Jase 43,479]

6 hours ago, Azul said:

This Chelsea team is miles ahead of Leipzig's first team. Imagine the things Nagelsmann would do? He'd make us into contenders for every trophy out there for sure. The impact he had on the Leipzig team in his first year was massive, and that's with a inferior team.

What I would say about Nagelsmann is that the only thing he did at Leipzig last season that they didn't do before was progressing to the final four of the Champions League. Otherwise, it was par for the course in the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal. 

Leipzig reached the DFB Pokal final in 2018/19 but got KOed in the 3rd round in 2019/20. Just like the seasons before, Nagelsmann also had Leipzig challenged at the top of the Bundesliga last season and they were even 1st after 19 games played but then faltered after that because of too many draws, ending the season 16 points behind Bayern and just 3 points ahead of the 5th placed side. Imagine the furore here if the same thing happens with us...

[Jase 43,479]

What is stupid about the last 2 games is that while the performances weren't great, we could have taken 2 points from both games, run and regrouped for the next set of tough games. Instead, we had Mendy who gave away a penalty by turning into Kepa against Everton, who didn't create anything at all, and we stupidly overcommitted in injury time at Wolves and lost both games.  

[Superblue 6,372]

For me, the most disappointing aspect of the past two games is the inability to get something out of them when playing poorly. The performances have dropped significantly in the last 2 games with attacking options dwindled and those ones that are fit to play showing major signs of wear and fatigue. But we've still had a mixture of bad luck (woodwork in both games) and poor decision making and mistakes which have cost us.

We had the same problems last season which was we seemingly have to play well to get a result. Liverpool have probably had more poorer games than us this season but have been grinding some results out, and United even more so. It is definitely something that we have to address because we'll never be title contenders without that and top 4 will end up even being a struggle like last year.

I know it feels all doom and gloom this week and we could be mid table for the weekend, but also if results go a particular way we'll also be only 4 points from the top of the table. This season so far has been something like a scene from the Championship. We only had to win a 2 or 3 on the spin previously to suddenly be right up at the top and being talked about as title contenders. Hopefully we can get a spark back in the next game, and start moving back up the table.

I know West Ham have been on a decent run recently but our next 3 are hardly Liverpool, City, United. It's West Ham, Arsenal and Villa. They are very much winnable games and we also have a week free after this weekend to hopefully help give players some rest and get others fit.

Onwards and upwards...hopefully.

[Fulham Broadway 17,315]

Never been a season like this, it's anyones up for grabs. Home form is out the window without usual fans there.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

If this would be the 2021/22 season (next one) then I would question whether Lampard is the right one for this job or not. Next season supposedly is the one we should challenge for the title which I totally agree with this hypothesis. Now it is all about securing top four and getting another year of experience for a newly assembled, young squad. Truth is about 40% of this team is not sorted out yet as the preffered attacking trio of Pulisic Werner Ziyech have yet to play a single minute together and Havertz still finds life in a new league very, very hard to deal with it seems. Not only the three attacking guys have not played together, but two of them have barely featured at all and Werner is yet to have played the position he was brought for. Yes he is versatile, but there is a difference between the position Nagelsmann used to play him at times as an inside forward in his 343 and the current one at Chelsea as a winger. The two positions might look similar, but are not, which is why I think that when Ziyech is missing we'd be more suited to a 352 with Werner and Giroud up top and Chilly and James bombing down the flanks amd Mount Kante Havertz/Kovacic in midfield or a 343 with Werner Giroud Havertz up top, two systems that would allow Werner to be more centrally and close to the net, but I'm not in charge so it does not matter.

Don't forget about the horrible schedule though that seems to affect the big clubs in particular, club matches plus international ones this guys pretty much play every three days for months now and to be fair if you watch other leagues, too, they all seem tired. Chelsea looked like that last night, City, too, Liverpool at Fulham looked rusty. This is a strange season in which mid table/small teams will play a big part benefiting from fresh legs. You can clearly see all the big leagues are pretty much balanced mid December and Bayern and Paris are not even at the top. If managed well, this could be a season for the opportunistic ones.

Still a work in progress and the way things look Liverpool and Spurs will play for a draw tonight and bail us out for a second round in a row and keep things tight at the top.

[Jase 43,479]

7 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

It's West Ham, Arsenal and Villa. They are very much winnable games and we also have a week free after this weekend to hopefully help give players some rest and get others fit.

One could say also that our last two games were Everton and Wolves. Hardly City and Liverpool. Yet, we contrived to lose both in stupid fashion. From looking rather assured of ourselves, we've suddenly gone back to looking clueless and unpredictable.

The free week is good and bad. Good because the players can get some respite and bad because I fear potential muscle injuries happening again.