I have a lot of doubts regarding Frank - I was in fact never supportive of his appointment in the first place. Most of the time, hiring a club legend is better left as a nice idea, and not something you do in reality. So it is safe to say I am not enjoying much of this season.
Nor have I enjoyed much of our style of play under his tenure. Our forwards seem to have no understanding with each other. The midfield is lacking in creativity, and the only strategy going forward is to whip as many crosses into the box and hope somebody gets on the end of something. There is no vertical passing; much of the build up consists of moving side to side, like some crab trundling up the beach.
But despite this, Frank deserves to be given time to get through this tough period. There are no realistic alternatives out there to replace, and I feel with a lot of these players (particularly the younger ones) a change in manager is the last thing they need halfway through a season. Chances are this is just a tough period, like so many periods experienced with managers.
I would rather revaluate at the end of the season, and find a suitable replacement to build on this platform.
Lampard In (for now)
posted on 4/1/21
comment by Devil (U6522)
posted 6 hours, 54 minutes ago
Good article. Strongly agree with the first paragraph
I can't lie, if Pochettino was available, after watching that I'd be very tempted to make a proactive change now but not out of spite towards Lampard or his work - in a similar vein to when Liverpool replaced Rodgers with Klopp, it's just a clear trade up that perfectly compliments the existing squad, but with that avenue now closed there's no outstanding candidate.
Allegri? No.
Tuchel? Hell no.
Rodgers? Maybe but not enough to hound Lamps out.
Nagelsmann? Hmmm, weary.
Nuno? Good manager but no.
Hasenhutti? Same as Nuno.
Benitez? Great banter but no
Lots of upgrades in theory but all punts in my eyes, or in the case of Allegri doesn't fit the direction we've tried to break away from since hiring Sarri. Speaking of...
Sarri? Hell's yeah but would depress too many people unfortunately
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Out of that list, Tuchel isn't a bad shout. Why the hell no?
Frank Lampard is now in the crosshairs of the media and the twitteratti. Before him it was Arteta. And before Arteta it was Solskjær. If Frank finds form, they'll move on. If he's sacked, they'll rejoice and then move on to the next one.
Sometimes short term pain is needed to achieve long term plans. Winning titles and changing your style of play will take time. Especially when Liverpool and City are as strong as they are right now.
posted on 4/1/21
There are some good managers out of work at the moment, Allegri and Tuchel are pretty good options. Lucian Favre, previously at Dortmund, would be an outside shout although probably unlikely to get the job.
posted on 4/1/21
A good article Black Hawk,especially I agree with the final two paragraphs.
Also I like, "a crab trundling up the beach", I couldn't have put it better myself !
posted on 4/1/21
I find a lot of the reasoning of football fans funny.
Take the typical saying, "Great players rarely make great managers."
Well, quite a lot of great managers were previously great players. I dare say that the proportion is far greater than the proportion of average players that make great managers, given that there are thousands of average players for every great one.
On to the idea of making a club legend your manager. It's worked countless times for other clubs, why couldn't it work for you? How were Ajax, Barcelona or Madrid to know Cruyff, Guardiola or Zidane would achieve what they did when they appointed them with no prior top flight experience? Or Germany that Beckenbaeur would lead them to two World Cup finals, winning one, in his first managerial gig? It's fairly likely that for every managerial Maradona, there are hundreds of failed Mourinhos. So why don't we hear fans say average footballers rarely make great managers?
Not that I'd class them as club legends, but the most recent former players who you've given a permanent contract as managers -Gullit, Vialli, Di Matteo- have all won honours for you.
Similar to Oscar on his article yesterday saying he doesn't want a foreign manager with no prior PL experience because of the time it takes them to adapt. Ffs, arguably your most successful seasons in living memory and beyond have come under precisely those conditions!
posted on 4/1/21
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 4/1/21
Out of that list, Tuchel isn't a bad shout. Why the hell no?
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Not a good enough manager to justify how big a pain in the @rse he is. Conte was a nightmare but he was also as good as leader as anyone when he wanted to be.
Kind of like Allegri & dull football, we've had the best versions of these types of guys already so they'd be tremendously underwhelming by comparison.
posted on 4/1/21
Tuchel would be a ticking time-bomb. He's fallen out with the club hierarchy at every club he's been.
posted on 4/1/21
comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 2 minutes ago
Tuchel would be a ticking time-bomb. He's fallen out with the club hierarchy at every club he's been.
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He sounds absolutely perfect for us then
posted on 4/1/21
Hopefully we can get some morale boosting wins against Morecambe and Fulham in our next two games and build on that for the Leicester game which will be a very tough one.
Our midfield is very unbalanced and we have good players but quite not the right players. Billy Gilmour should start a few games as he could be key for Lamps.
posted on 5/1/21
In, out, in, out, shake it all about.