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Has Lampard been as excellent as many people suggest?


Sexydadbod

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No I’m not calling for Lampard out. I’m intrigued to see people’s views on Lampard as our manager so far. I keep hearing by many former players and pundits about what an excellent job Lampard has done here so far. I’m really struggling to see what has been so excellent about it? We are up and around the play offs like we have been for the last 5 or so years, yet under some of our previous managers, pundits have said that we should be there anyway with the money we have spent. Are they overrating Lampard? 

At this stage last season under the “defensive Rowett” we had scored:  44 goals, conceded 23,Goal difference of +  21, 52 points

In contast to this season under the “free flowing Lampard” we have scored 38 , conceded 34, goal difference of +4, 43 points, make your own mind up on those stats.

Of Lampard’s permanent signings, in my view, only Marriott(who was recommended by Terry) can be seen to be a success, although Holmes is slowly coming into his own and looks good.

In my opinion the season can be broken down as this(note performances not the actual results):

Some excellent performances: West Brom(a), Chelsea(a), Man Utd(a), Hull(cup a), Middlesbrough(first half a)

Some Good performances: Brentford(H), Norwich(a), Sheff Utd(H), Southampton(H)

A lot of average performances: Ipswich(H), Reading(A), Middlesbrough(h), Bristol City(h), sheff wed(a), Birmingham(h), Hull(a), preston(h), millwall(a).

A few terrible performances: Leeds(h+a), Sheff Utd(a), Stoke(a), Bolton(a), Rotherham(a), Aston villa(h)

 

As you can see, a lot of inconsistently. For me, I struggle to see what direction we are going with our footballing style. Lampard has spoken a lot about liking high intensity, pressing like under McClaren and to be fair, on the odd occasion when we do play that like West Brom away, we are irresistible at times. However, in the vast majority of the games, we often keep possession just for the sake of keeping possession akin to Clement and pass the ball at the back. Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, we resort to a lot of hoof ball to Marriott like in the last few weeks. Last point is that like last season with Vydra, we rely on a lot of individual quality to get goals like Wilson, which isn’t sustainable .

Overall, in my view, Lampard hasn’t been  very good or poor, probably somewhere in the middle but to go as far as excellent for getting us in the play offs so far? I’m struggling to see it.

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I agree he's being overrated by some sections of the media but I think he's been better than average. He inherited a squad who played defensive football and only won games because Vydra scored. The team wasone of the oldest in the championship and he's come in and injected youth and a new playing style (which I like in general) and he's done it with no money so yes he's done a very good job. Imo

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13 minutes ago, McLovin said:

No I’m not calling for Lampard out. I’m intrigued to see people’s views on Lampard as our manager so far. I keep hearing by many former players and pundits about what an excellent job Lampard has done here so far. I’m really struggling to see what has been so excellent about it? We are up and around the play offs like we have been for the last 5 or so years, yet under some of our previous managers, pundits have said that we should be there anyway with the money we have spent. Are they overrating Lampard? 

At this stage last season under the “defensive Rowett” we had scored:  44 goals, conceded 23,Goal difference of +  21, 52 points

In contast to this season under the “free flowing Lampard” we have scored 38 , conceded 34, goal difference of +4, 43 points, make your own mind up on those stats.

Of Lampard’s permanent signings, in my view, only Marriott(who was recommended by Terry) can be seen to be a success, although Holmes is slowly coming into his own and looks good.

In my opinion the season can be broken down as this(note performances not the actual results):

Some excellent performances: West Brom(a), Chelsea(a), Man Utd(a), Hull(cup a), Middlesbrough(first half a)

Some Good performances: Brentford(H), Norwich(a), Sheff Utd(H), Southampton(H)

A lot of average performances: Ipswich(H), Reading(A), Middlesbrough(h), Bristol City(h), sheff wed(a), Birmingham(h), Hull(a), preston(h), millwall(a).

A few terrible performances: Leeds(h+a), Sheff Utd(a), Stoke(a), Bolton(a), Rotherham(a), Aston villa(h)

 

As you can see, a lot of inconsistently. For me, I struggle to see what direction we are going with our footballing style. Lampard has spoken a lot about liking high intensity, pressing like under McClaren and to be fair, on the odd occasion when we do play that like West Brom away, we are irresistible at times. However, in the vast majority of the games, we often keep possession just for the sake of keeping possession akin to Clement and pass the ball at the back. Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, we resort to a lot of hoof ball to Marriott like in the last few weeks. Last point is that like last season with Vydra, we rely on a lot of individual quality to get goals like Wilson, which isn’t sustainable .

Overall, in my view, Lampard hasn’t been  very good or poor, probably somewhere in the middle but to go as far as excellent for getting us in the play offs so far? I’m struggling to see it.

Such a negative nancy

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I like Frank and I hated Rowett this relates to Rowetts demeanor as well as his dire football, although as stated above his points total speaks for itself.

One thing that I do find a bit perplexing I was watching Frank closely as we were just to the right and behind the technical areas on Friday night ,I would expect him to be a lot more animated watching us play like that.Small point but he does seem a little too laid back at times .  

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5 minutes ago, Nookiebear1 said:

I agree he's being overrated by some sections of the media but I think he's been better than average. He inherited a squad who played defensive football and only won games because Vydra scored. The team wasone of the oldest in the championship and he's come in and injected youth and a new playing style (which I like in general) and he's done it with no money so yes he's done a very good job. Imo

I think he is doing a good job and probably learning more about his players and himself every week.I said at the start of the season if we play better football than last season and finish 8th I would be happy,I just think the performances at WBA Boro and our cup run had us all dreaming of more.

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For a new manager he’s done a good job so far. Had some great days, had some bad ones and makes mistakes understandably. But he has by his name alone, raised the profile of the club and our ability to attract top players at this level ( affording them is a different matter).I expect us to finish 6/7/8 th this season. I wonder how much input he had in transfer dealings, if we had kept Vydra and not signed Waghorn, Josepzoon and Evens I feel we would be a far better team. Our problems are nothing to do with Lampard but a succession of managers wasting 30 million on mediocrity. If over the next couple of years he has some funds and the knowledge of this league, he will be a success here. I have my doubts if starved of funds for too long, he will hang around long enough to find out. 

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Looking at the Rowett stats particularly, we had only scored 6 less than Wolves at the same stage, the same team many regard to be the best championship side ever, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.

Also, it highlights what a balls up we made in the second half of last season.

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12 minutes ago, Nookiebear1 said:

I agree he's being overrated by some sections of the media but I think he's been better than average. He inherited a squad who played defensive football and only won games because Vydra scored. The team wasone of the oldest in the championship and he's come in and injected youth and a new playing style (which I like in general) and he's done it with no money so yes he's done a very good job. Imo

No money? Waghorn £5 million, Marriott £3/5 million Josepzoon £2 million  plus Malone Evens and 3 loan fees. 

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He’s a young manager who can only get better in my opinion. I’m happy to have him here and think he’s doing a good job. 

I would rather finish 10th under Lampard than 6th under Rowett. Next season is the one to judge after the summer clear out.

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10 minutes ago, McLovin said:

Looking at the Rowett stats particularly, we had only scored 6 less than Wolves at the same stage, the same team many regard to be the best championship side ever, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.

Also, it highlights what a balls up we made in the second half of last season.

Very true. Hopefully there will be no repeat second half of this season.

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There was certainly a lot of media attention around us when he signed, based on who he is you can hardly blame them. 

I know football it's a points business, but comparing him to Rowett is unfair imo.

Yes, we had more points this time last year, but as has already been mentioned, we won a lot of games where we were very poor but nicked the odd goal from vydra. Our football was dire and if Rowett had stayed this season and we somehow got promoted we would have been properly humped in the prem again. It would have been King billy part 2. 

Nowadays you cannot play defensive football in the prem, you just won't win any games. Mourihno tried installing defensive football into man utd and look how that went, you just cannot do it in the prem.

Frank has come in. It's his 1st job, he's had to lower wages, lower the age of the squad and he's also giving our young uns a go too. He's trying to cut the squad down also and move players on that are almost impossible to sell because of their high wages, other clubs just cannot afford them so they sit here.

We are going to be inconsistent, we are going to be rubbish every now and then but I think most level headed fans will see it's a work in progress. Franks trying to install his mentality on the club and that will take time as I don't think a lot of the players here at the moment have the ability to consistently do what he wants. But, given time I think he will do it and I'd sooner wait a couple of seasons and go into the prem playing consistently good attacking, pressing football than the defensive style Rowett installed on the club. 

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Despite our inconsistency this season, I’ve seen more than enough in games to be very positive about the future of this club under Frank.

It’s easy to draw comparisons between Derby at this point last season and Derby now, but let’s not forget how poor the football was last season and the fact that we won a lot of games by simply hanging in there and relying on Vydra to win us the game. It wasn’t sustainable to say the least, and it showed with our form after January. 

This season we have shown are more than able to compete with the best sides in the division (apart from Leeds) while playing an attractive brand of football, but then looked pretty awful in other games. I think a lot of it comes down to intensity. We are probably still trying to play the same way in the games we have played poorly, but the intensity has lacked. If you look at games like Man Utd, Chelsea, Southampton, Brentford and Norwich, it actually took for us to go behind to start playing well in many of these matches. But once we went behind, got that kick up the backside and upped the intensity of our game, we’ve proved we can compete with the very best. 

I think once Frank has a squad full of his own players we will see a true reflection of what he’s trying to achieve. Let’s not forget, Norwich picked up 60 points last season with 15 wins, 15 draws and 16 defeats under Farke. They then sold their best player and lost a moved on a lot of high earners in place of many unheard of youngsters and are now one of the best sides in the division. I think we could see a similar thing happen here once Lampard gets the chance to sort the team out.

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@McLovin Agree with your match ratings. I do go to the matches expecting to be more entertained than with Rowett. The point you make about hoofing the ball to Marriott is the one that I thing most fans get irate with. They obviously can’t be doing that in training and they sometimes start to do that in the first few minutes. Frank/Jody haven’t been able to address that problem during a game and in between games. It’s explained away after the match by saying the “players need to be braver”. That’s his and Jody’s coaching/management job. 

Living in Leeds is painful (in the football sense) but I do read a few of their match reports. Apparently, a few matches ago, Leeds were struggling to break down a team at home. After about 30 mins, they played a few aimless long balls. Bielsa was off his bucket and screaming and they reverted back to what they had been doing in training. 

I don’t want Frank to sit on a bucket but as another poster pointed out, I wish he’d show a bit more “anger” on the touchline, at his own team for not following instructions. Not just get animated when he thinks something hasn’t gone our way. 

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36 minutes ago, McLovin said:

No I’m not calling for Lampard out. I’m intrigued to see people’s views on Lampard as our manager so far. I keep hearing by many former players and pundits about what an excellent job Lampard has done here so far. I’m really struggling to see what has been so excellent about it? We are up and around the play offs like we have been for the last 5 or so years, yet under some of our previous managers, pundits have said that we should be there anyway with the money we have spent. Are they overrating Lampard? 

 

Bit of inconsistency there - are pundits saying he's doing an excellent job or are they saying he's merely meeting expectations? Or are you talking about the fans also?

Most on here expected a season between 7th & 12th and wanted a side that played more attractive football. They also wanted the average age of the squad lowering. Lampard has achieved all of these despite being an absolute rookie in management & thrown in a decent Cup run & some excellent League results to boot - its a clear 7.5/10 for me. Not excellent but certainly impressive.

Also am pretty sure this thread wouldn't have appeared after we beat Norwich 4-3. Perspective is all important in assessing the season so far, not just one rotten performance.

 

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I wouldn’t want anybody else in charge of Derby right now. I think he’s got the potential to be great. 

Imagine if we were top of the league, we would want to beat 6th in the table by 2 goals to zero. 

Fridays result was about right for league positions and ended what can only be described as the end of a tough period of games. 

If we can maintain top 6 for the rest of the season we should be very happy. 

I do think Lampard will have at least two players that he will bring in before the end of January and they will be two players that will be of high quality and that will cement our play off place. 

Well done Frank and team 

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7 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Bit of inconsistency there - are pundits saying he's doing an excellent job or are they saying he's merely meeting expectations? Or are you talking about the fans also?

Most on here expected a season between 7th & 12th and wanted a side that played more attractive football. They also wanted the average age of the squad lowering. Lampard has achieved all of these despite being an absolute rookie in management & thrown in a decent Cup run & some excellent League results to boot - its a clear 7.5/10 for me. Not excellent but certainly impressive.

Also am pretty sure this thread wouldn't have appeared after we beat Norwich 4-3. Perspective is all important in assessing the season so far, not just one rotten performance.

 

Agree with all of this. This thread wouldn't have been started if we had won or drew Friday night.

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49 minutes ago, McLovin said:

No I’m not calling for Lampard out. I’m intrigued to see people’s views on Lampard as our manager so far. I keep hearing by many former players and pundits about what an excellent job Lampard has done here so far. I’m really struggling to see what has been so excellent about it? We are up and around the play offs like we have been for the last 5 or so years, yet under some of our previous managers, pundits have said that we should be there anyway with the money we have spent. Are they overrating Lampard? 

At this stage last season under the “defensive Rowett” we had scored:  44 goals, conceded 23,Goal difference of +  21, 52 points

In contast to this season under the “free flowing Lampard” we have scored 38 , conceded 34, goal difference of +4, 43 points, make your own mind up on those stats.

Of Lampard’s permanent signings, in my view, only Marriott(who was recommended by Terry) can be seen to be a success, although Holmes is slowly coming into his own and looks good.

In my opinion the season can be broken down as this(note performances not the actual results):

Some excellent performances: West Brom(a), Chelsea(a), Man Utd(a), Hull(cup a), Middlesbrough(first half a)

Some Good performances: Brentford(H), Norwich(a), Sheff Utd(H), Southampton(H)

A lot of average performances: Ipswich(H), Reading(A), Middlesbrough(h), Bristol City(h), sheff wed(a), Birmingham(h), Hull(a), preston(h), millwall(a).

A few terrible performances: Leeds(h+a), Sheff Utd(a), Stoke(a), Bolton(a), Rotherham(a), Aston villa(h)

 

As you can see, a lot of inconsistently. For me, I struggle to see what direction we are going with our footballing style. Lampard has spoken a lot about liking high intensity, pressing like under McClaren and to be fair, on the odd occasion when we do play that like West Brom away, we are irresistible at times. However, in the vast majority of the games, we often keep possession just for the sake of keeping possession akin to Clement and pass the ball at the back. Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, we resort to a lot of hoof ball to Marriott like in the last few weeks. Last point is that like last season with Vydra, we rely on a lot of individual quality to get goals like Wilson, which isn’t sustainable .

Overall, in my view, Lampard hasn’t been  very good or poor, probably somewhere in the middle but to go as far as excellent for getting us in the play offs so far? I’m struggling to see it.

Let’s see at the end of the season, last season was boring to watch and I have watched the last 35 seasons and without doubt Rowett would have sold Vydra as well and purchased James Mc Clean for £6 million with it! 

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38 minutes ago, Doodle said:

For a new manager he’s done a good job so far. Had some great days, had some bad ones and makes mistakes understandably. But he has by his name alone, raised the profile of the club and our ability to attract top players at this level ( affording them is a different matter).I expect us to finish 6/7/8 th this season. I wonder how much input he had in transfer dealings, if we had kept Vydra and not signed Waghorn, Josepzoon and Evens I feel we would be a far better team. Our problems are nothing to do with Lampard but a succession of managers wasting 30 million on mediocrity. If over the next couple of years he has some funds and the knowledge of this league, he will be a success here. I have my doubts if starved of funds for too long, he will hang around long enough to find out. 

I completely agree with your post mate 

just something that made we think that u put

a succession of managers wasting millions 

tbf and if one was being critical, Frank has spent 7-7.5m quid on two players u mentioned in there, waghorn and Jozefzoon.

both in their late 20’s, while I like both and have been left wandering why waghorn especially hasn’t been given more of a run, u could argue that’s a hell of a lot of money on two players that I’m sure frank will admit are not having the impact he might have hoped for and add to the pile of “indifferent “ buys from our club 

lol overall I’m happy with things and will back him and his policies but managers are judged by their signings as well as results obviously 

You could argue his signings have been meh overall  

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