2022/23 Frank Lampard

[MikeH72]

Newcastle destroyed us with a front 3 of Wilson, Murphy and Almiron (I know he can't stop scoring suddenly but still). It isn't all about the players.

Wilson and Almiron are absolutely miles and miles ahead of anything we have in attack. Wilson is a fantastic centre forward and only injuries have stopped him from being at a top club.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Wilson and Almiron are absolutely miles and miles ahead of anything we have in attack. Wilson is a fantastic centre forward and only injuries have stopped him from being at a top club.

Who has scored more goals in a PL season him or DCL? Miles is a reach.

And Almiron finding form after the team started playing better as a whole is one of those things I wouldn't put down as a coincidence. I truly believe if we were better tactically the wide players would be better individually as well. They wouldn't turn into Robben and Ribery but they'd be better than this.

 

[MikeH72]

Who has scored more goals in a PL season him or Dominic Calvert-Lewin? Miles is a reach.

And Almiron finding form after the team started playing better as a whole is one of those things I wouldn't put down as a coincidence. I truly believe if we were better tactically the wide players would be better individually as well. They wouldn't turn into Robben and Ribery but they'd be better than this.

Wilson very rarely plays over 30 games because his fitness record is so poor, but he scored 14 in 30 for a terrible Bournemouth team in a season in which real football was played in front of supporters. This season he’s already scored more than DCL did last season. He is far more than just numbers on a spreadsheet anyway, just watch him play, he is so many levels above Calvert-Lewin it’s ridiculous. First touch, strength, intelligent movement, reading of the game, they’re not even comparable.

 

[coollino]

Think I'd rather lose 8-0 than have another 0-0, there will probably be less moaning. bloody hell

 

[TheBigIguana]

Wilson very rarely plays over 30 games because his fitness record is so poor, but he scored 14 in 30 for a terrible Bournemouth team in a season in which real football was played in front of supporters. This season he’s already scored more than Dominic Calvert-Lewin did last season. He is far more than just numbers on a spreadsheet anyway, just watch him play, he is so many levels above Calvert-Lewin it’s ridiculous. First touch, strength, intelligent movement, reading of the game, they’re not even comparable.

DCL adds in areas outside of goals as well. Look I just don't see it like that, when you decide you can't compete because a team has Wilson up top you might as well just request relegation.

The point being "there isn't enough talent" isn't the excuse people want it to be. It is true, Gordon in particular has been rancid in recent weeks, but they're being done no favors.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Think I'd rather lose 8-0 than have another 0-0, there will probably be less moaning. bloody hell

We're honestly due a game where we concede 3 or 4. The defending hasn't been all bad but at the same time we're probably going to regress to the mean at some point and the mean is that a team conceding 16 shots a game isn't going to concede less than one goal a game. While I appreciate that we're doing a solid job of making sure most of those are lower quality shots it is still just way too many shots at our goal and at some point a few of them are going to end up in the net.

 

[MikeH72]

Dominic Calvert-Lewin adds in areas outside of goals as well. Look I just don't see it like that, when you decide you can't compete because a team has Wilson up top you might as well just request relegation.

The point being "there isn't enough talent" isn't the excuse people want it to be. It is true, Gordon in particular has been rancid in recent weeks, but they're being done no favors.

Why? Wilson is one of the best centre forwards in the league?

 

[TheBigIguana]

Why? Wilson is one of the best centre forwards in the league?

Because he's not Haaland or Lewandowski or Ronaldo in 1998. He's good, you have to play well or he'll beat you and you should absolutely expect to go into a game when he's in the team and be able to play with his side. If you don't think you can do that there is no point.

 

[TheBigIguana]

I don't agree. There may be the occasion where the players aren't up to it, I think United at home falls into that category, but we get outplayed in matches where the talent level of the opponents isn't overwhelming. Those times you can start to see the cracks in what Lampard is doing.
What a very strange proposition, you don’t think we’ll improve going forward when we upgrade the extremely poor forward players we currently have? Bizarre! I’ll bet you we don’t get worse, that’s for sure.

David Moyes didn’t evelove his style much over his tenure but we played much better football when we had the likes of Baines, Piennar, Arteta, Osman, Fellaini etc in the team compared to the team with Kilbane, Carsely, Gravsen etc.

It's not that we won't improve, it's that there are other issues that aren't going to go away. Lampard did better at Chelsea with better players and he'd do better with us with better players. His management wouldn't be better and that's the issue.

 

[brieverton]

I'm also of the view that the season is going more or less on expected lines.

Our forward options are desperately poor.

The right thing was done in re-building from the back line first.

On the evidence available, Lampard is doing a satisfactory job.

I would have a more longer-term concern that he isn't going to progress to doing anything beyond "acceptable".

There are bad managers, average managers, good managers, and great ones.

The better ones to a degree find ways to get that little extra, tactically and from individual players, to improve results and league placings.

Ultimately I think he clearly needs a few more windows to get the squad to a position where he/we would be happier with it.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Wilson very rarely plays over 30 games because his fitness record is so poor, but he scored 14 in 30 for a terrible Bournemouth team in a season in which real football was played in front of supporters. This season he’s already scored more than Dominic Calvert-Lewin did last season. He is far more than just numbers on a spreadsheet anyway, just watch him play, he is so many levels above Calvert-Lewin it’s ridiculous. First touch, strength, intelligent movement, reading of the game, they’re not even comparable.

Didn't Wilson get a horrific knee injury just as he got an England call up whilst at Bournemouth?

 

[MikeH72]

Because he's not Haaland or Lewandowski or Ronaldo in 1998. He's good, you have to play well or he'll beat you and you should absolutely expect to go into a game when he's in the team and be able to play with his side. If you don't think you can do that there is no point.

You were comparing our forward options with that of Newcastle though, as if theirs are no better and we should be able to get a similar return out of ours.

 

[MikeH72]

Didn't Wilson get a horrific knee injury just as he got an England call up whilst at Bournemouth?

Yes he’s had several serious knee injuries throughout his career.

 

[TheBigIguana]

You were comparing our forward options with that of Newcastle though, as if theirs are no better and we should be able to get a similar return out of ours.

A month ago Almiron had a worse goal record than Gray and Gordon and DCL still has had better seasons than Wilson so yes I still believe there is way more we could be doing

 

[MikeH72]

A month ago Almiron had a worse goal record than Gray and Gordon and Dominic Calvert-Lewin still has had better seasons than Wilson so yes I still believe there is way more we could be doing

Jesus Christ I give up.