closed Wolves 2-1 Chelsea

[Strike 6,964]

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 1,146]

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 1,256]

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 6,331]

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 16,396]

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. 

[Superblue 6,331]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

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.

Yeah I agree, my point is more we shouldn't be fearful of any of these teams even after the last 2 poor performances. 

It's obviously not as straightforward as flicking on a light switch but ultimately if we play well and to what we are capable of then we should be winning all 3 of these and building some momentum before the City game.

[Superblue 6,331]

Something we should definitely be doing more is taking shots on around and outside the box.

It's something I find bemusing when our manager was quite possibly the best, certainly of his generation, at this and the amount of games won and deadlocks broken by this.

You only have to look back at Mount's goal against West Brom as the spark to get us a draw in that game. 

We should have players capable of having efforts on goal. Even if we don't score from them, it helps apply pressure on to the opposition and potentially draw a team sitting deep out a little as they need to engage sooner and close down quicker to stop shots being taken. It can also lead to corners, free kicks, etc to present better goal scoring opportunities and we also have players such as Werner and Pulisic who are quick and sharp enough to follow up on deflections, goalkeeper parries, etc. 

Lampard always took responsibility in this regard. He would have at least 2-3 shots a game from distance, usually more but it provides a threat that teams have to deal with. Some of our players have to start taking that element of responsibility upon themselves.

[manpe 10,855]

4 hours ago, Jason said:

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.  

Signs of an immature team, which it is.

The performance was horrid yesterday. Havertz shouldn't be starting at the moment, we looked a better side with Kovacic and Havertz doesn't bring anything to the team currently. It is the first time I'm watching him play regularly and I don't see what all the hype has been about.

Werner also, but he must be knackered since he's had almost no rest at all, and we have no replacement when our wingers are injured all the god damn time. It's clear as day he is a central attacker, which makes it even more baffling to me that he's being instructed to hug the touchline... Why? Not once did we see Werner drift central, try cut-in shots or runs behind. Always wide, far from the goal, receiving the ball to feet and facing 3-5 players... He is not the type to dribble past players and create chances, that was Hazard. He is there to FINISH chances. Fucks sake, I like him very much but he's being over- and misused. When one of CHO or Ziyech comes back he needs to be benched or moved central. I'm dying to see a proper pacey, technically proficient front 3 (Pulisic, Werner, Ziyech).

[Muzchap 8,966]

1 hour ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Something we should definitely be doing more is taking shots on around and outside the box.

It's something I find bemusing when our manager was quite possibly the best, certainly of his generation, at this and the amount of games won and deadlocks broken by this.

You only have to look back at Mount's goal against West Brom as the spark to get us a draw in that game. 

We should have players capable of having efforts on goal. Even if we don't score from them, it helps apply pressure on to the opposition and potentially draw a team sitting deep out a little as they need to engage sooner and close down quicker to stop shots being taken. It can also lead to corners, free kicks, etc to present better goal scoring opportunities and we also have players such as Werner and Pulisic who are quick and sharp enough to follow up on deflections, goalkeeper parries, etc. 

Lampard always took responsibility in this regard. He would have at least 2-3 shots a game from distance, usually more but it provides a threat that teams have to deal with. Some of our players have to start taking that element of responsibility upon themselves.

I agree- it forces the defenders to come out instead of backing off - with our pace - that will then leave gaps for clever runs past the defenders coming out.

We need to be a threat from anywhere within 30 yards of their goal 👍

[Jase 43,479]

23 minutes ago, manpe said:

Signs of an immature team, which it is.

Is it immaturity or just pure stupidity? A lot of the players have played and/or seen enough games by now to have a sense of what to do in such situations. What happened yesterday was almost a carbon copy of the game at West Ham last season. We weren't playing well, we couldn't break the opposition down but we still decided to overcommit and then get picked off on the counter in stoppage time. It was also compounded by the fact that Zouma kept backing off Neto and basically inviting him to shoot at goal. He should have just fouled him on the halfway line and taken a yellow for the team. 

On top of that, where were the change and help/leadership from Lampard? He talked about Wolves' counter attacks after the game yesterday but did nothing to help stop them during the game and then blamed the players. His two subs were like-for-like and he did not seem to tell the players to calm it down etc. The more I think about it, the more I think Mourinho has a strong point when he basically said Lampard doesn't do anything when the team isn't doing well. I don't think Lampard will ever be a vocal manager, one who shouts and screams on the touchline but a lot of the time, you will see him just cross his hands or has his hands in his pocket and look on silently. Lampard only seems to react when we score and miss chances. That's it. Klopp is obviously a much more vocal manager on the touchline but he was shouting at his players to "WAKE UP!" when Liverpool were playing poorly in the first half against Fulham last Sunday. Have we seen anything even close to that from Lampard when we aren't playing well? 

Also, this season is already bonkers and it looks like places could be decided by the smallest of margin in terms of points. Every point will likely matter a lot, probably more so than usual. If we are struggling to win a game, then sometimes we just gotta take the point, run and regroup. Instead, we lost in stupid fashion again and are now even under bigger pressure to get things right next week. 

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Something we should definitely be doing more is taking shots on around and outside the box.

It's something I find bemusing when our manager was quite possibly the best, certainly of his generation, at this and the amount of games won and deadlocks broken by this.

You only have to look back at Mount's goal against West Brom as the spark to get us a draw in that game. 

We should have players capable of having efforts on goal. Even if we don't score from them, it helps apply pressure on to the opposition and potentially draw a team sitting deep out a little as they need to engage sooner and close down quicker to stop shots being taken. It can also lead to corners, free kicks, etc to present better goal scoring opportunities and we also have players such as Werner and Pulisic who are quick and sharp enough to follow up on deflections, goalkeeper parries, etc. 

Lampard always took responsibility in this regard. He would have at least 2-3 shots a game from distance, usually more but it provides a threat that teams have to deal with. Some of our players have to start taking that element of responsibility upon themselves.

Pretty sure Kovacic and James have been doing that in the last 2 games but their accuracy was horrendous. Nowhere the target. 

[Jase 43,479]

Totally forgot to add the poll yesterday

But not that it matters...

[Superblue 6,331]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

Pretty sure Kovacic and James have been doing that in the last 2 games but their accuracy was horrendous. Nowhere the target. 

Yeah Kova bless him I don't think will ever be a threat in that regard. I don't mind James doing it because we've seen the strike he has on him, but it is something Mount and Havertz should be looking to do when central far more often and if the likes of Werner, Pulisic, etc are cutting in from wide then have some more efforts on goal around the edge of the box.

Since Sarri, it does feel like we've become more and more like Wenger's Arsenal with an insistence to get in behind a team to score. It's not always possible. 

[Blue Armour 4,165]

7 hours ago, Jason said:

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.  

Actually, Mendy turned into Kepa for the BOTH games.

The big change so far this season, was our back four, who were meant to be at least reliable enough to secure clean sheets when it mattered.

But NO,..in the 2 games where our attack has been lackluster, the GK and defense decide to do their worst.

First with his unnecessary GK charge, and then later getting beat at the near post.