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2021/22 Frank Lampard

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Hang on a minute. Benitez wasn't defensive?! There's wrong and then there's that.

If he was defensive we wouldn't have been getting snotted 3 goals a game.

It's an utter myth we played defensively under cos we were that disorganised and wide open in most games especially with his constant 2 man midifield. We'd concede possession just to get overran in midfield.

He was completely the opposite to what people think a Bentiez side was/is.
 
Howe had a club with plenty of time to spare to get things going this season...he also had time to plan a transfer window.
We still have 36 points to play for and the management have seen most of the players on the field by now.

There is still plenty of points we can win and in our position winning would be wonderful but not losing would be acceptable.
 
If he was defensive we wouldn't have been getting snotted 3 goals a game.

It's an utter myth we played defensively under cos we were that disorganised and wide open in most games especially with his constant 2 man midifield. We'd concede possession just to get overran in midfield.

He was completely the opposite to what people think a Bentiez side was/is.
No I watched every game under him, i'm not judging it on a preconceived idea, he set us up exactly like I would expect him to. You're just making the mistake of conflating a defensive gameplan with being good defensively, they aren't the same thing. He set us up defensively but not well enough to prevent us from conceding, in the same way that most people would say we were too attacking/aggressive/open in the Spurs game even though we didn't actually have a shot. The outcome does not the negate the process.
 

No disrespect to Carlo at all, but he sought out the move to Madrid. It was his people that informed Madrid about the release clause when the job came up. From around this time last year, Carlo turned on the players and started throwing them under the bus in post match interviews. It was clear something was up. What went on behind the scenes we will never know, but he was clearly unhappy with the players in the months before he quit. I'd speculate that he had also been made aware of what the transfer kitty was going to be in summer and thought balls to that. And I don't blame him at all.

That's a great point. I thought he was a bit of a traitor when he left us.

But if all he got was Gray and Townsend over the summer, its no wonder why he left us.

That said I don't buy the fact that Digne left because of financial issues, because we bought mykolenko and patterson. Digne had a spat and was sold by Rafael.
 
No I watched every game under him, i'm not judging it on a preconceived idea, he set us up exactly like I would expect him to. You're just making the mistake of conflating a defensive gameplan with being good defensively, they aren't the same thing. He set us up defensively but not well enough to prevent us from conceding, in the same way that most people would say we were too attacking/aggressive/open in the Spurs game even though we didn't actually have a shot. The outcome does not the negate the process.

Yes, maybe I wasn't clear enough but you're right to some degree. The implementation didn't work but it was also some weird counter attacking set up that never countered. He had 4 attacking players with pace on the wings. Man for man, Lampard has us doing the same (4 attackers, 2 man midifield), but wants the ball rather than concede.

I'm being comparative to how Carlo had us set up defensively which had an extra body in midfield and were more compact. Bentiez never had us compact or even if he did, they never did it.

I just won't accept we were "defensive" under Benitez when we conceded almost as many goals as the bottom sides for a large chunk of the season and have 4 attacking players on the pitch. Id say it was a terrible counter attacking set up.

Also reconfirms he's done as a manager when he was poor at Newcastle, China, and us doing the same rubbish
 
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Yes, maybe I wasn't clear enough but you're right to some degree. The implementation didn't work but it was also some weird counter attacking set up that never countered. He had 4 attacking players with pace on the wings. Man for man, Lampard has us doing the same (4 attackers, 2 man midifield), but wants the ball rather than concede.

I'm being comparative to how Carlo had us set up defensively which had an extra body in midfield and were more compact. Bentiez never had us compact or even if he did, they never did it.

I just won't accept we were "defensive" under Benitez when we conceded almost as many goals as the bottom sides for a large chunk of the season and have 4 attacking players on the pitch. Id say it was a terrible counter attacking set up.

Also reconfirms he's done as a manager when he was poor at Newcastle, China, and us doing the same rubbish
I think it's just semantics really. We absolutely were defensive and negative, but we weren't well drilled or organised, and so no matter how defensive the set up was it wasn't able to withstand the pressure we put on it by gifting the ball to the opposition every time we got it, because we were being negative and had no intention of keeping the ball.
 

Completely ignored the question then.

Why is Benitez to blame for the players having exactly the same form before and after he left?

28 points from the 2nd half of last season mate. Ancelotti's worst run was 3 losses in a row, then 3 draws afterwards - followed by wins against Arsenal & West Ham. Not even remotely close to 1 win and 3 draws in 15 is it?

Ancelotti's Everton and Benitez's Everton are chalk and cheese. If we are to replicate Ancelotti's POOR FINISH of a season, we will need to get another 19 points - win 6 and draw 1 out of our remaining 10 fixtures. We complain about finishing 10th (same points as 9th place) under Ancelotti, yet we were 3 points off Europe. 3 points. 1 win. Only 8 points off Champion's League spots.

Whichever way you slice it, Benitez has gotten us into this mess. Yes Moshiri signed him, and he has partial blame on his shoulders, so does Brands/Koeman/Walsh/Allardyce blah blah blah.

Ancelotti showed that you can make a purse out of a sow's ear - Benitez however could not. His arrogance/ego/lack of talent permitted it. Our players are better than what they are showing on the pitch, regardless of what the Media and cry-arses on here say - they just lack the fight and confidence, thanks to being told for 2/3rd's of a season that the football is made from Asbestos so keep away from it.
 
Also reconfirms he's done as a manager when he was poor at Newcastle, China, and us doing the same rubbish

He did what was asked of him at Newcastle and plenty of people think he did a good job, he did what was asked of him in China and had plenty of offers afterwards. This will go down as the fault of the owners and Rafael will get a bye. He will go straight in to another to p job in the summer. No doubt about it.
 

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