Isn't there a declining birth rate in Germany or did I just make that up?Don't like it. We should try stealing German kids in return.
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Isn't there a declining birth rate in Germany or did I just make that up?Don't like it. We should try stealing German kids in return.
Don't like it. We should try stealing German kids in return.
:mourpoint:
Are blue racists going for Declan rice?
Hope so.
Any bright spark they have systematically gets replaced at considerable expense.... The saga continues:
Abraham / Werner
Hudson-Odoi / Ziyech
Gilmour / Rice (?)
Mount / Havertz (?)
.....So much for the "Yay! Lampard promoting youth" narrative.
Bollocks!
Their hand was forced; now normal business resumes.
To be honest, this might not be Lampard’s doing, this might be Granovskaia. We'll see next season I guess.
Sure.... But it was Fatty getting all the plaudits this season and lets face it a similar pattern has been going on for years.
But to be fair to him, that's because he has been giving the kids a crack - Mount, Abraham, both played over 2000 minutes PL, James, Tomori over 1200 PL, CHO 800, Gilmore 200, and two 18yo's have made tiny minute debuts.
...Yeh, but he had little-to-no choice given the trf ban and the loss of Hazard. Which is very much part of my point from the off.
He had plenty of other choices for various positions. Let’s not pretend Chelsea were down to their bare bones squad wise just because they lost Hazard. He was happy to cut some senior players loose like Luis, Cahill, let Batshuayi go on loan and he still had players like Pedro around who he benched to play Mount more.
I’m unconvinced by Lampard, and I don’t think we can properly judge him until next season when the (positive) remnants of Sarri’s coaching have properly worn off. And if he doesn’t make CL then whatever he’s done this season won’t exactly be seen as a roaring success.
But either way, we can’t say he hasn’t been pretty brave where trusting the young players is concerned - and they’ve played better football than we have most of the season.
Surely though that's just as likely the flipside to your earlier counterpoint about the Chav hierarchy being behind the their transfer strategy? Fair's fair as they say....
I'm certainly not prepared to suggest cutting Cahill & Luiz lose as brave as it was more likely necessitated by their respective contract situations.
Batshuayi has proven a waste of space and is hardly that justifies portrayal as having a track record worth clinging to or that letting him go was a risk... (Again, I suspect a strategy there of getting some 'make or break' minutes into his legs before they took a punt on another ST - Which they have subsequently done.)
Pedro: Was starting games in the earlier stages of the season.
....But I think we can dispute this (as indeed I have).
Don't get me wrong, I'm prepared to attribute credit to Lampard on the simple basis that bagging top 4 and an FA cup final is a job well done for any inexperienced manager's first season in the top flight. However, as i've maintained all along, rather than "brave", he was obliged by circumstance to rely upon youth and fortunately for him the Chav kiddy farm had a nice crop sat waiting for him.
Take some of the young lads out of the squad and it'd have been a piss-weak group likely boasting a strongest front 6 of:
Kovacic / Kante / Barclay...That's well 'Triffic (c) Redknapp.
Willian / Giroud / Pedro
You can add Jorginho to that midfield as well, and Barclay can play AM too.
That piss weak group (plus Hazard) finished above us and won the Europa League last season.
I don't think in terms of letting those players go that would have been forced on Lampard, especially with the transfer ban and him being unable to bring in replacements immediately.
Even ignoring those, they lost one regular first team player - Hazard.
He's not just one kid in Hazard's position, he's used a few for a good amount of minutes, when he clearly he didn't have to, he had senior pros with bags of PL and European experience that they'd paid good money for he also could have used more.
I think most managers would have gone with that line up you've picked rather than chuck in Abraham, Mount, James for example. And I think he would have used CHO much more if not for the injuries.
The proof is in what previous Chelsea managers have done and what most other PL managers have done.
I can't remember too many seasons where PL managers have chucked in so many non PL experienced kids minutes in one season. SAF maybe ?