Billwelshblue

10 hours ago, Bailey said:

Creativity is definitely a massive issue. Iwobi was our only real spark and he is struggling to make an impact. Our wide players are massively inconsistent and our centre forward barely touches the ball. 

Richarlison wasnt exactly creative but he bundled his way through things, won the ball in good areas and made a habit of getting on the end of things. 

As Southampton showed at the weekend though, you dont need to be creative. Hit your big man, get runners off him, be positive and hope something gets finished. We have an attacker with one of the best leaps in the league and yet we barely stand a cross up for him to attack.

From DoF down, we are desperate for some clear direction yet all I see is a lot of confused thinking.

I see nothing utter negligence and rudderless. Other rival clubs strengthening the board are more concerned with throwing the fans under a bus.

Just heartbroken resigned to it he isn't going we aren't signing anyone we are gone we are the new Leeds x Sunderland 

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He has to go but I'm resigned to us going down now. The club is terribly run

Please probably won't happen though will it

10 hours ago, RuffRob said:

There seems to be a long list of young £15-20M strikers/wingers talent that I never heard of. 

Seems a case of picking one and crossing your fingers, as the ones that don't come to us, probably get shared around our nearest rivals!! 

It's all a bit like a lottery then. 

 

 

It shouldn't be if you have scouted extensively although with signings from overseas leagues there can be an adaptation period

2 hours ago, StevO said:

They can’t even get their made up click bait right.

It was also reported by the French sources so here's hoping I would love Moffi or Django unchained

On 04/01/2023 at 22:59, Bailey said:

Lampard doesn't have a clue how to set a team up to break the opposition down. It was obvious enough against Wolves but if you couldn't see that last night against Brighton, you need to watch the game again. The quality of the Brighton front 3 wasn't that great but they destroyed us. Ill read you the names, a young lad called Ferguson with 1 league goal to his name on his 4th appearance. Solly March, yep, Solly March. Then Mitouma who looks a talent albeit in his first season in the league and with only 2 goals to his name from 12 appearances. 

They didn't destroy us through talent, they destroyed us through a manager that knows how to attack teams. Mitouma and March were always on for the switch because they spread the pitch. As soon as they got through our press, they were in acres of space time after time. What do we do week after week, leave Gray/Gordon/McNeil against 2 v 1's by getting the ball to them so slowly that the other team is back in shape. 

A lot of people are also advocating how Lampard can set us up well in a low block using the City game as an example. We should have been beaten by Man City, we got lucky that they had an off day. I think some of you have forgotten how bad we were last season too. In our low block, playing terrible football, we shipped 3 against Brentford, 2 (and 4) against Palace, 3 against Burnley and 5 against Arsenal. Yes there were some better defensive performances in there too, but we were still poor at the back. It wasn't like we were suddenly a solid team and could keep teams out.

I completely get that the rot goes far deeper than Lampard, but Lampard is a poor manager. Tactically his terrible and slow to react. The players he has signed have got worse under him. Bar Iwobi, there isn't one player that he has improved that he inherited. There isn't one metric of a manager that you would look at Lampard's time here and say he has done well. 

It was touched on by someone else too, but he has an expensively assembled and experienced backroom staff too and they are all failing massively. 

I do agree that there is a desperate need for stability at this club but that doesn't mean you just stick with someone who is clearly failing at his job. 

One thing I do worry about though is that the board listened to the fans when they brought in Lampard. They sure as fuck won't do it again.

Spot on and we are run godawfully and yet I don't think Frank is the right man either and I was trying my best to back him until Brighton 

On 07/01/2023 at 05:12, Bailey said:

Im not sure about that.

When we play with 5 we usually sit very deep. When we play with 4 recently we hav tried to push up the pitch.

Play deeper with 4 and I suspect we will look less shocking. 

Agree but also the midfield is pressing too high emptying the space, its why Brighton played through us so easily and what worries me badly about Franks tactics

On 07/01/2023 at 15:10, RuffRob said:

Dom is no where near match fit - he has now been injured for most part of over a season now. So time is needed for him to be back to his best - you just now hope and pray he stays fit and injury free to the end of the season. If he doesn't I fear we go down.

Our single biggest problem is that we do not have a viable striker to replace him when he isn't fit. And to me that is not something that Lampard can be really blamed for - Lampard will have been desperate for another striker, particularly when Dom was injured at the beginning of this season.  The club did not get anything over the line (most likely because we had no money to spend when it really needed), and the team are struggling to finish chances and score goals.

If Dom (or another proven striker) was available for most of our games I am fairly sure we could quite easily be 5-6 better off at this moment in time, and sitting mid tableish.

We know Lampard is not the finished article as a manager, he has limited experience and ability and I don't really expect him to work miracles as a manager and coach - he has not been there and seen it all. He is however, an intelligent and articulate, passionate and hardworking chap, who I think could develop in to a very good manager, in the same way an inexperienced Onana can develop in to a very good midfielder. Signs of good stuff and signs of poor decisions from both - intelligent people often learn more from bad decisions, but time and patience is required. 

The board and to some extent us fans can lack patience, because its in tough moments like we are currently in when they are actually truly tested. 

It seems to me that Lampard has not lost the dressing room in anyway, and the players are fully behind him. If people are just hoping for the new manager bounce effect to get some points on the board, I am not sure how well this actually works when you sack a manager who the players are with and behind.  

 

I want to support him because I believe sticking with one manager is what we need to rebuild,  and I like the guy but that manager has to show what he is working towards in terms of football identity and have a baseline of results. And whilst I totally agree the players are still trying for him and the board have dealt him a bad  a is s you say the lack of quality up front is chronic selling Richy and replacing with two squad players was poor, but even given all of that is he really getting the best out of this team? It's all very well the players liking him bit do they fear him if they lose? I am just not seeing it and his tactics don't put them in the best position to win for me. His record is below a point a game I think any other EPL manager is sacked with that record. 

Better performance but still not convinced what worries me most is that Frank can't change it if we are losing to affect a game and if we stumble on a formation that suits us the 532 he chops and changes it at home it's ok playing United and city and countering them but when you have to break down teams you need good coaching and tactical awareness from the manager. I am not seeing enough of it from Frank so it worries me he's getting the must-win the game against Saints because I don't have confidence in him and I wanted it to work!! I am begging for three points Saturday though because our crisis could plumb new depths. If they are sticking with Frank back him with player if like me you believe his record if three wins all season is unacceptable you sack him.

Martinez is Blue Bill again so is Rooney fella is mad 

3 hours ago, Btay said:

In the bottom 3 as it stands now. Anything but a win against Southampton and I think he will be gone. United game is a throw away unfortunately given the current situation. 

Shouldn't get that game because he is done I have no confidence in us getting a result we need a new manager in for that

His in game management is so bad we were one down and he didn't change anything then waited to make subs he changes tactics from game to game. We are a limited team we need to be solid and try and nick things if we are honest

1 hour ago, Newty82 said:

Lampard, as a bloke, is dead right for this club. Really, really wanted him to succeed. He got it, you know what I mean? He got IT.

 

 

 

But the results, and maybe more importantly, the performances, have turned diabolical. Once or twice you say 'ah, as expected....' But repeatedly becomes too much.

 

 

 

At the end of the day, at absolute best, midtable was expected. To finish in that area, you're naturally going to have shit runs of results.

 

 

 

In the summer, with the defensive signings and midfielders, you could see what the priority was. And that worked for a short period. But it must be difficult for the players at the back to be going full throttle to no avail because we have fuck all up top to relieve the pressure on them. Eventually, that will, and has, drained confidence.

 

 

 

We can, and probs will panic and sack yet another manager, and just repeat the same pattern, the same questions, the same comments of the past 7 years.

 

 

 

Who comes in next? Fuck knows. We've turned our noses up at some names, got rid of others too soon.

 

 

 

Whatever happens, we need to accept as fans that we are going to have to play careful, defensive, cautious football. Forget all this School of Science stuff.

We've got the sort of players I think Sean Dyche would find easy to work with. Just manage your expectations.

It's going to be shit for years to come.

 

Agree why he changed it from city is beyond me for the avoidance of doubt WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO PLAY OPEN! Whilst our only route out is being compact and countering teams we can't play passing football. Yes, Lamps has been dealt a bad hand, hamstrung by bad recruitment and a board that can't spend because of sheer waste for years. I like him as a fella and he galvanized us last season but the issues at this club are deep and we need a good coach with the tactical experience our team doesn't look like it's been properly coached. The sad thing for me is I feel like it's not going to change much sacking him the culture is rotten the club is rotten, it doesn't change because it comes from mismanagement at the top.

3 hours ago, Bailey said:

I think we need to sit deep and set up for the counter as that is what we have the squad to do. Putting someone in like Martinez will just expose all the issues we have under Lampard. 

I really don't see us getting better strikers than Dom and Maupay in this window. 

Agree that was obvious after city we aren't good enough to pass it around we are wide open. Why he changed it again is beyond me

Has to go now. But the club is a mess and the rot comes from the top. We sack manager after manager but continue to decline because the board and structure is rotten. Squad isn't good enough they've stripped out the goals, the financials are a mess the commercial performance is pitiful the only thing we have is a new stadium it will look great in the Championship. 

1 hour ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

I said before the World Cup that if they were thinking of pulling the trigger then it should have been done after the Bournemouth game, it would be ludicrously poor management to have wasted those 6 weeks to then only give Lampard a couple of games to turn it round before then sacking him anyway ……. So I suspect he will be gone by Monday

They'll do what they did with Benitez give him most of Jan then sack him the week before the window closes. Superb planning

We bought the wrong profile the team is set up for a number nine with ariel presence and we bought a player who is a split striker I think he's a player who plays off a big target man

What baffles me is we bought squad players Maupay, Mcneil and Garner when we needed a number nine who scores goals!

8 hours ago, Hafnia said:

Lampards record quite simply isn’t good enough. I’ve given him time, the fans kept Everton up last year.  
 

Fans have rightly let their frustration heard, we got battered twice by Bournemouth before going to the World Cup, most fans have been watching the World Cup looking at the return to the prem like it’s the alarm clock on a Monday morning.  6 weeks of not having to worry about our shit show. 
 

he has badly shot himself in the foot with his interview.  Why does he call every team a “good side”, talks other teams up.   Sorry got to go.  
 

id have carsley. 

It's weird as well because partly why so many fans have backed him is the connection he had with the fans that will helped us stay up and has kept him in a job. I like Frank but that was a ridiculous thing to say, I can see him being sacked if the next set of fixtures go the wrong way. My bet is on Dyche coming in

Just now, Palfy said:

I said before we gave the job to Lampard it was to big a job for him, I felt he would lack the experience needed to turn a team around that was in the position it was, and with an owner like Moshiri and his board. I in no way hold Lampard directly responsible as the same for Benitez, the biggest villains in my opinion have been Moshiri Kenwright and Brand's, I don't think anyone will be able to save us this season, the rot is far too deep, the supporters pulled the team through last season that can't work every season, we have managed to be far worse this season than last, when many believed we couldn't get any worse, we sold one of only two or three decent things about the team in Richarlison, and replaced him with unthought about signings in McNeil and Maupay, really Thelwell needs to take a serious look at himself for being involved with those signings. 

Tending to agree now. Maybe only an experienced manager can get this lot playing 

6 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

Nothing will change if we get relegated, other than we'll be getting embarrassed by Championship sides rather than Premier League sides.

Moshiri may very well sell up if we go down. He might not get any takers and have to stick around though. Also, Kenwright managed to hold out selling us until he found the only idiot going that would keep him around. He only gives a shit about himself and I have no doubt that he'd do his utmost to find a way to stick around even if Moshiri did go.

While that man (gobshite) has anything to do with this football club we will never be fixable. Moshiri's biggest mistake isn't hiring Steve Walsh. Or Koeman. Or even the gravy swiller. It's keeping Bill Kenwright around.

Agreed. I agree Lampard isn't doing well enough to show he deserves the time and to oversee the rebuild because what are we building toward? But he's also been dealt a bad hand we didn't have a striker going into the season, they sold our best player and replaced with average squad players . Then you look at catastrophic Benitez hire,  the financial hole we are in that necessitated a cost cutting exercise that has stripped the team from creativity and goals(Richy, James, Sig, Digne, Bernard all gone), the utter abysmal commercial performance, the only positive from Moshiri is the stadium. We won't move forward properly with this endemic mismanagement from above we need a new owner and new board look at teams like Brighton and Brentford even their organisation is producing results because they have a clear setup and scouting system. We have a mess. It's no coincidence we have had seven managers in as many years they aren't all bad it's the management from above that doesn't help, the common factor in our decline is the board and owner. We have to hope we can scrape up despite them and then get new owners once we are in BMD. I am very saddened by the shell of irrelevance the club has become. 

This is the number nine I want he is big enough to be a target man but mobile and is a good finisher would be a good buy for me

7 hours ago, Hafnia said:

I don’t like the complete lack of idea when going forward. Players don’t look like they have been coached. 

 

This is what I don't get they had most of the squad to drill attacking patterns into for six weeks and they serve up that?! I wanted Lampard to work as I don't think hiring and firing is taking us forward but he isn't showing enough and his in game management is worryingly bad his tactics poor. Sadly I think unless he can win the next home match he has to go. As for transfers whoever the manager is we need two forwards minimum 

Six weeks to work on attacking patterns and that's what they come up with? I know we need forwards but that's awful we are in deep trouble