Lampard clearly wants to integrate Reece, so fewer subs. Quite the strike from Rodriguez, shame about the clean sheet. Slightly taller keeper might get that.
Lol, this is a bit on Frank as well as on the youth - why are we going full speed up 4 and then 3 goals in the 88th minute? Slow down!
Lol. Cant wait until we get the kante safety blanket back. Too easy for then to have the ball in front of the back line.
That was exactly the situation where we miss somebody with a big mouth and even bigger presence in the back line to keep it tight. John Terry.
Lots of positives today. A couple of late head scratchers. Another big win and still rudi and kante to add. Very happy with how this season is progressing. Pulisic MOTM.
Pulisic. First hat-trick of his career and that is down to great man-management by Frank Lampard. We let them back in with two late goals. It was more the lack of an experienced CB than missing Kante, I thought Jorghino and Kovacic both played well. Reece James looking good.
In fairness, a much more accurate reflection of the game than 4-0 would've been but talk about unnecessary... Saying that Kanté and Rudiger are missed is a massive understatement. Even Christensen to a lesser degree. Zouma is simply a liability : / Bright side is our attack looks good. We break well, know how to play it through the middle, don't get intimidated by having to play against several lines of defense. Frank's done a brilliant job setting that up. On Pulisic - In January when we signed him, I was genuinely excited at the prospect of him becoming a mainstay for years to come in our team. Biases aside, I truly believed he had all of the tools at his disposal to become great for us. Really happy with what he did today.. you couldn't have written up a better "redemption" arc. Absolutely won himself some minutes, made them count and then kicked the ********ing door down today. Even outside of his goals, the quick decision making of his in the final third to create chances within seconds of receiving the ball is everything we knew we'd miss without Eden. Love to see it.
It simply can't be overestimated. Look what happened to the scummers when they got a team leader in the back line. Hopefully the Hun can do it for us.
Weird, I thought the team was actually quite poor today, BUT if you can play poorly and still score 4 away from home then you gotta be excited! I think 2-4 is much 'fairer' reflection on the game than 0-4 To be honest, Pulisic man of the match for us today.
Arlo said it is now being known as the "Hershey Header" It will be incorporated into football lore along with the "Hockey Assist"
Priceless. The "Hershey Header". The lad did great today. His balance reminds me of a certain Eden Hazard. Too early to say things like that. But make no mistake CP is playing in the right team/squad - we have the youngsters and a great team spirit.
Well, that will give Lampard quite the headache for mid week. On that evidence, Pulisic deserves a shout at attacking midfield. What was even more impressive is that it wasn't against, say, an Arsenal, or Liverpool or even City, where you can get at them because of their propensity to attack and leave gaps between the lines, or even holes in the lines as they look to get forward. Nope, that was against a team renowned for being bastards to break down.
He is unusually good attacking at speed in tight spaces. And I think more time CP has in the field, the better decisions he will make in those situations. If he stays healthy and gets the minutes he will produce many chances for many people.
It's a great time for him. No disrespect to the USMNT or Dortmund, but he's playing with superior talent and has a wealth of highly experienced coaches and a manager that had a stellar career winning it all, who believes in youth. He can go on to great things at Chelsea. I must admit, thats the first time I've actually watched a 90 min game from him.
Just on that specific point, I don't think many on here, (I can't speak for elsewhere), thought he needed 'redeeming', as such. Most of us always thought he was a good player who, after some settling in time, would start producing performances for us on a regular basis. If anything most of us have been quite supportive of the lad. I can only guess it's people outside the club that were droning on about the sky falling in, including one fella who came on here and started saying he'd be 'loaned out' because he'd missed 3 or 4 games I mean, FFS!!!! People need to get a grip and that includes now if his standards fall significantly. Player's standing in the game only have a shelf life of 3-4 games. If the manager has options to an under performing player, (not always the case, tbh), and he starts playing poorly then, again, he might see the bench. That's just the way it is I'm afraid. My guess is he's won himself some leeway but he needs to keep making it hard for Lamps to drop him, as he did today. Having said that, I'm obviously not saying he needs to score a hattrick every game although... y'know... that would be nice