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It's very disappointing to see the almost militant way in which some fans have reacted to other Chelsea fans questioning Frank's continued tenure as manager.
Liam Twomey has conveniently drawn a line in the sand claiming that the "real" Chelsea fans who attend matches at the Bridge wouldn't have turned on Frank, as opposed to all of the fans around the UK and the world who can't fit into a 42k seater stadium.
How dare we question the manager? It's an affront to these "real" fans - they can boo Sarri and Jorg if they want to - but you can't ask questions on social media on why Frank doesn't yet have a clue about his playing ideology.
Let's take a look at some of the most common reasons being given for why Frank is still the best man at the job.
He's a legend. Ofcourse he is. I love the man, he's the epitome of Chelsea's fighting spirit. But that was Frank the player, not Frank the manager.
He got us 4th place and into an FA Cup final. We got 4th place because Leicester spectacularly imploded post the lockdown. Would we have made 4th place if the season had continued as it is? And we lost the FA Cup final to a team with a new manager and an inferior squad.
He introduced academy players into the first team. Credit where it's due - he did. And we are all very glad to see Tammy, Mason, Billy, Fik and Reece. They broke into the first team based on extraordinary talent.
But have they progressed since then? Don't they need a manager who can coach them up? I've seen all of those players stagnate under Frank which is very disappointing. I want them to succced. Forget La Masia and Ajax's famed academy - we can produce equally good players!
Now coming to the core of why so many Chelsea fans are sick of watching ponderous football with dearth of any sort of meaningful ideology.
Manner of defeats. We aren't turning on Frank based on "5 games this season", he's had a year and half to develop his style of football. Buying your way out of trouble isn't the answer. He seems to have no idea how to use Kai and Werner yet.
We didn't suffer a "blip" in games, we have been outplayed by West Brom and were able to salvage a draw due to individual talent alone. What was the style of play in the second half of that game? Throw the kitchen sink at WBA?
Style of play. Just what is Frank's core idea of football? Is it a gegenpressing game like Klopp lite? We should be able to implement it regularly with the players at our disposal. Have we been able to? Are we pressing players? passing channels? press high up or in midfield?
Individual mistakes. This ties into the previous point of lack of coherent playing style leading to one too many mistakes. Certainly far more than the same set of players made under Sarri or Conte. Have they suddenly all gone cuckoo cuckoo?
Let's take 2 examples here from the WBA game. First, Alonso loses the ball near the halfway line but there were still 4 Chelsea players vs 2 WBA attackers. Why then can't we defend?
Second, Silva spends too much time on the ball and fucks it up. I've read the whole "he's used to playing RCB not LCB". That still doesn't explain why he didn't know where to pass. No passing lanes were open, no plan on how to move the ball forward which led to the mistake.
Comparision to other managers. They all came with an idea - Klopp, Pep, Arteta (he's won 2 trophies already in 6 months!). Can any Chelsea fan honestly claim they know what his core ideology is? Frank took Derby from 6th in the championship to a lofty 6th.
In closing, I wanted Frank to do well. He's a Chelsea legend and nobody can take it away from him, but he's not shown the same quality to be the manager of football club who have lofty ambitions. Certainly more than just "we have youth players and a former legend as coach"
