2022/23 Frank Lampard

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Had a few days to think on it, and read a lot of good analysis, here and elsewhere.

It really is FL's misuse of the midfield for me.

There were memes of three lions prowling for an Onana/Gueye/Iwobi midfield but for the most part it's been poor.

--The structure has been all wrong. It's been beaten to death, here and elsewhere, that it only works with Gueye and Onana deeper and Iwobi forward. Sending Onana forward with a vague attacking mission leaves a chasm in front of the back four.

--With a slow pair of CBs we can't play a high line. But our forwards are up pressing (poorly). What is the midfield supposed to do - get up and press, which Iwobi and Onana were doing? Or sit back in front of the dads? A bit of both, but really neither, so again it's thirty yards of open space in the middle.

--Gueye individually has not been great. He may not be the same player. It's hard to tell because he's being asked to do far too much.

--Onana is raw. He's making individual errors. His job needs to be simplified, his focus narrowed, his strengths played to, so he can focus and learn. Whatever chaotic thing he's doing now is the opposite of that.

--Any deviation from what Iwobi has done well is a gigantic mistake since Iwobi as a catalyst centrally is the only thing that has been not-crap in Frank's attack.

--As poor as the squad is, it's not being used well.

-----Davies. Go back to the derby. With Gueye just having arrived and not yet fit for 90, Davies started in the 6. Recall that our midfield was solid. We controlled the middle of the park. Granted we rode our luck with Pickford (although so did the RS), but here's from royalbluemersey's recap: "Lampard sending on Idrissa Gueye to make his second debut for an excellent Davies who ran his heart out." Excellent might be a bit much but he was effective. We know he's a limited footballer but he's shown that if asked to stay in front of the back four, collect the ball, make a turn, and get forward, he can do that, well enough, for a time, even if he can't do much else. More of Davies for Gueye over the past few weeks might have settled things. Instead he got thrown into the 11 for 11 swap in the cup game and tasked to play with Doucoure in front of a back three which we have seen not work.

-----Garner. Simply not enough of him. If what's out there is dross, then get someone else out there.

What's troubling is Lampard's inability, neglect, refusal to do what works when faced with ample evidence, for the good and the bad. Palace setup worked. He went away from it. It failed vs Leicester and it was a catastrophe at Bournemouth.

I said of Lampard last season that I was reminded of Churchill's quip about the Americans, that we will do the right thing, after we have exhausted all the alternatives. Now, I'm not so sure.

FFS I don't want to swap *again*. Certainly not for Bielsa who is such an outlier stylistically, we end up with another Franken-squad. But - come on Frank. It's staring you in the face.
 

Had a few days to think on it, and read a lot of good analysis, here and elsewhere.

It really is FL's misuse of the midfield for me.

There were memes of three lions prowling for an Onana/Gueye/Iwobi midfield but for the most part it's been poor.

--The structure has been all wrong. It's been beaten to death, here and elsewhere, that it only works with Gueye and Onana deeper and Iwobi forward. Sending Onana forward with a vague attacking mission leaves a chasm in front of the back four.

--With a slow pair of CBs we can't play a high line. But our forwards are up pressing (poorly). What is the midfield supposed to do - get up and press, which Iwobi and Onana were doing? Or sit back in front of the dads? A bit of both, but really neither, so again it's thirty yards of open space in the middle.

--Gueye individually has not been great. He may not be the same player. It's hard to tell because he's being asked to do far too much.

--Onana is raw. He's making individual errors. His job needs to be simplified, his focus narrowed, his strengths played to, so he can focus and learn. Whatever chaotic thing he's doing now is the opposite of that.

--Any deviation from what Iwobi has done well is a gigantic mistake since Iwobi as a catalyst centrally is the only thing that has been not-crap in Frank's attack.

--As poor as the squad is, it's not being used well.

-----Davies. Go back to the derby. With Gueye just having arrived and not yet fit for 90, Davies started in the 6. Recall that our midfield was solid. We controlled the middle of the park. Granted we rode our luck with Pickford (although so did the RS), but here's from royalbluemersey's recap: "Lampard sending on Idrissa Gueye to make his second debut for an excellent Davies who ran his heart out." Excellent might be a bit much but he was effective. We know he's a limited footballer but he's shown that if asked to stay in front of the back four, collect the ball, make a turn, and get forward, he can do that, well enough, for a time, even if he can't do much else. More of Davies for Gueye over the past few weeks might have settled things. Instead he got thrown into the 11 for 11 swap in the cup game and tasked to play with Doucoure in front of a back three which we have seen not work.

-----Garner. Simply not enough of him. If what's out there is dross, then get someone else out there.

What's troubling is Lampard's inability, neglect, refusal to do what works when faced with ample evidence, for the good and the bad. Palace setup worked. He went away from it. It failed vs Leicester and it was a catastrophe at Bournemouth.

I said of Lampard last season that I was reminded of Churchill's quip about the Americans, that we will do the right thing, after we have exhausted all the alternatives. Now, I'm not so sure.

FFS I don't want to swap *again*. Certainly not for Bielsa who is such an outlier stylistically, we end up with another Franken-squad. But - come on Frank. It's staring you in the face.
This is one thing I never get about footy managers. If we can see it, and we don't have access to all the info they do, how on EARTH do managers not see what the issue is? I guess maybe "seeing the issue" and "fixing the issue" are 2 different things but it just seems Lampard keeps on throwing the same thing out there thinking it'll work eventually but doesn't seem to fix any of the actual issues.
 
Had a few days to think on it, and read a lot of good analysis, here and elsewhere.

It really is FL's misuse of the midfield for me.

There were memes of three lions prowling for an Onana/Gueye/Iwobi midfield but for the most part it's been poor.


--The structure has been all wrong. It's been beaten to death, here and elsewhere, that it only works with Gueye and Onana deeper and Iwobi forward. Sending Onana forward with a vague attacking mission leaves a chasm in front of the back four.

--With a slow pair of CBs we can't play a high line. But our forwards are up pressing (poorly). What is the midfield supposed to do - get up and press, which Iwobi and Onana were doing? Or sit back in front of the dads? A bit of both, but really neither, so again it's thirty yards of open space in the middle.

--Gueye individually has not been great. He may not be the same player. It's hard to tell because he's being asked to do far too much.

--Onana is raw. He's making individual errors. His job needs to be simplified, his focus narrowed, his strengths played to, so he can focus and learn. Whatever chaotic thing he's doing now is the opposite of that.

--Any deviation from what Iwobi has done well is a gigantic mistake since Iwobi as a catalyst centrally is the only thing that has been not-crap in Frank's attack.

--As poor as the squad is, it's not being used well.

-----Davies. Go back to the derby. With Gueye just having arrived and not yet fit for 90, Davies started in the 6. Recall that our midfield was solid. We controlled the middle of the park. Granted we rode our luck with Pickford (although so did the RS), but here's from royalbluemersey's recap: "Lampard sending on Idrissa Gueye to make his second debut for an excellent Davies who ran his heart out." Excellent might be a bit much but he was effective. We know he's a limited footballer but he's shown that if asked to stay in front of the back four, collect the ball, make a turn, and get forward, he can do that, well enough, for a time, even if he can't do much else. More of Davies for Gueye over the past few weeks might have settled things. Instead he got thrown into the 11 for 11 swap in the cup game and tasked to play with Doucoure in front of a back three which we have seen not work.

-----Garner. Simply not enough of him. If what's out there is dross, then get someone else out there.

What's troubling is Lampard's inability, neglect, refusal to do what works when faced with ample evidence, for the good and the bad. Palace setup worked. He went away from it. It failed vs Leicester and it was a catastrophe at Bournemouth.

I said of Lampard last season that I was reminded of Churchill's quip about the Americans, that we will do the right thing, after we have exhausted all the alternatives. Now, I'm not so sure.

FFS I don't want to swap *again*. Certainly not for Bielsa who is such an outlier stylistically, we end up with another Franken-squad. But - come on Frank. It's staring you in the face.
100%

That midfield trio should be used as our biggest tool

They have the legs and that ability off the ball to be a thorn in the side of any opposition we play, especially at Goodison

Any manager capable of co-ordinating an organised press would love to have a trio like that

Our attacking players like Gordon / Gray / McNeil have taken the brunt of the criticism for our underperformance this season but we have shown in almost every single game that we sorely lack the ability to get them the ball in threatening areas

If anyone thinks a new attacker is magically going to fix Lampard's woes you have absolutely no idea just how dysfunctional he has this side playing at the moment

Our attacking gameplan has been, for the most part, give the ball to Gray / Gordon, wherever they may be on the pitch, and just hope they can beat two or three men and grab us a goal - that is a gameplan that is not sustainable even if we had someone like a Salah / Son / Foden etc.

This squad may not be a top-8 quality side but if we went out and got a manager who knows how to properly coach pressing and our shape when we are in possession we would be nowhere near another relegation battle

I'm baffled by the apathy towards getting rid of Lampard, he has had enough time and enough players bought in under him to have shown the fans something on the pitch to give us an idea of what we're working towards - he has completely failed in that regard
 

Don't disagree but their wkngbacks are exceptionally creative almost like wingers and their forwards make their own chances or for each other. We don't have one forward that does that they're all reliant on service bar the odd bit of luck from Gray/Gordon

Thats why we need 3 top forwards
 
This is one thing I never get about footy managers. If we can see it, and we don't have access to all the info they do, how on EARTH do managers not see what the issue is? I guess maybe "seeing the issue" and "fixing the issue" are 2 different things but it just seems Lampard keeps on throwing the same thing out there thinking it'll work eventually but doesn't seem to fix any of the actual issues.
Like gray on corners I know the options are thin but after he blasts the ball to the first defender the 10th time in a row you would think he would be weighing up an alternative like iwobi but he just persists with him.
 

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