He's not a winger. He needs to play at striker. But either way, anyone can criticize Frank for not figuring out the offense... he is balancing these players through injuries and through dry spells, and that's totally fair. A lot of the suggestions about what makes a "good" Chelsea lineup in this thread suffer from the similar problems in a different arrangement IMO, because this is as much a personnel problem as it is a tactical problem... however, this loss to me was pretty clearly due to individual decisions, and that allowed Arsenal to not just take control but feel comfortable. And when was the last time that happened to them? This was a gift of poor defensive decisions by Chelsea today. As disjointed as Chelsea may look in attack, and they were not good for much of the match, James was done and made contact for the pen (soft though it was) and an idiotic lunging tackle by supposedly one of the best DMs in the world gave them a chance for the set piece from Xhaka's range. It was a great hit on the free kick, but neither of these chances should have even happened. Can't blame Frank for that bullshit. Saka goal total fluke.
I caught that, and that’s such bullshit. Sure some He once did this in a pre season game when he played for Dortmund. He won a pk and Mario Gotze started to take the pk...CP yanked the ball out of his hands and took it himself.
If I remember correctly, this was a preseason game during their US tour? The game did not matter, and Pulisic was playing in front of his home country/fans. Completely different situation, try to do that during a Bundi game and see if he can get away with it.
Before this season, Jorginho had missed one penalty in his entire career. And Christian is not a good penalty taker. Lampard has all the pieces for a very good team, but he's insistent on some weird things.
There are situations and fit issues for players and coaches alike. That Chelsea spent $300 million this off-season on the very players Frank wanted, and that he chooses the formation and lineup, are relevant to who deserves responsibility for the inability of Havertz and Werner to contribute as might be reasonably expected. Blaming lack of player effort seems particularly lame, but not surprising.
This is NOT a good look at all, no matter how you spin it. Leaders just simply take responsibility. Have he asked himself, why the players are not giving the efforts?
It's never a good look even when it's true, and even when larger context might put some of the blame on himself. Not smart by Lamps... but he came up under Mourinho so this kind of thing shouldn't be shocking. But if you're going to be saying things like this you'd better be a threat to win trophies every season; that's the only way it will be overlooked/forgiven.
SofaScore gives him a 7.7, highest of any players on the field today. But again, take these ratings with a grain of salt.
im not comparing the situation. But if you recall, CP was visibly upset that Mario stepped up to initially take that pk, and CP asserted himself.
I'm all for trying him as a striker since he look so bad as a wide player but from what I've heard coming out of Germany, he's never been a true striker even there... so it remains to be seen whether he could be that in a much more physical league like the Premiere league with faster and stronger defenders....Maybe he will.
Frank thinks Jorginho was one of the pluses from today. To paraphrase Nuno, I don’t think Frank is a PL quality manager. If he get Haaland he may be able to paper over that fact. But probably not.
He's always had support, but honestly i'm not sure it's particularly hard to get someone "support", or even a partner/foil in attack, even from a 4-3-3. What I think people mean when they say he's never been a "true" striker is he's previously not often played as a lone striker. Which I'm pretty sure is mostly true. But you can give a "lone" striker support, with the right personnel and tactical approach. There's a decent recent comparison for Werner, for me... and it's Griezmann. Both major goal contributors, both play wide, both can destroy on the counter, and both have made huge moves from specifically-built sides to "bigger"/richer European clubs. And I think it's becoming clear they are a kind of striker which needs support, whether they have a strike partner or not. That must be done in the team tactics and selection. They're both players that had hard-working and versatile/functional players around them at RBL & Atletico... and I think they both lost some of that when going to Chelsea and Barca. Which makes sense. Those attackers at RBL & Atletico, they are part of more carefully crafted attacks out of necessity. Barca and Chelsea lately are kind of playing a bit of FIFA in the transfer market. Those other sides couldn't afford to do that, and because of that they were better, the puzzle pieces fit together better. At least for a time. Starting Werner with Giroud up top in a 4-2-2-2... on paper, that seems to have "solved" the problem, in some ways. But it actually doesn't, if that 4-2-2-2 actually plays more like a 4-2-4 or something, with 2 attacking mid players that aren't putting in the kinds of shifts required to support that attack and take on the defensive workload that comes with that position. That's what Atletico and RBL both had in spades, and honestly it's something -- beyond maybe Mount -- that I'm not certain Chelsea has. That's a part of the reason to try Mount at attacking mid/winger, even if he's not exactly a star attacker... he provides something that very few other current Chelsea attacking mids provide IMO. And even though he will not be a star as a wide attacking player, playing him there seems at least partially tied to an effort to get the most out of the much more talented attacking players like Werner.
60% of this thread is probably also good with that. Frank, and Chelsea staff, and the actual captain and vice captain, and assigned PK taker, and probably majority of Chelsea supporters... probably a little less good with that.
frank was mad about players not running - wonder if that means pulisic on the saka fluke goal? would be about right for frank tbh
Dreadful display from CFC today. Shocking from Kante, Kova, and Werner. Supah Frank had a howler himself. When you are not talking about surplus to requirements if the answer is Jorginho you are asking the wrong questions. Wonder if Gilmour had a setback after his CL runout. He looked good then and if healthy he needs to be in the rotation in the midfield. I hope the Werner at LW experiment is over. His whole square peg round hole approach is going to be his undoing. It really baffles me how a guy who was as good a midfielder as Frank was can so often concede the middle of the park. Last year he showed some tactical flexibility but this last month or so he has been wedded to this foolishness of Timo on the LW. He hasn't shown to be able to fix the disconnect between attack and defense. Hope he gets it solved soon. I think that when you have a guy who does make something good happen offensively then you need to get him the ball.
Yes, take that too while you’re at it, Christian. Everyone knows you’re the top guy out there. Make these dolts acknowledge it.
Frank getting exposed. They may get a new manager next season, then Puli will have a chance to shine.