We keep playing in the same way we did last season and teams have seen that if they don’t take the bait and just sit deep in front of us, we pass it around without threatening anything and eventually cough up a howler or two at the other end.
I expect many more teams will follow that pretty simple formula and Lampard will stubbornly keep it as it is.
You're jumping to a conclusion, it's been 2 games and we set up differently between the Hull and Luton games. Discounting the League Cup, if most of our games pan out as it did v Hull, I'm pretty optimistic. It was a disappointing result but we controlled the game well and it's something to build on. The way we played v Luton was encouraging but it was a glorified preseason friendly so you can't read too much into it.
We're working on a strategy to play 4-4-2 so there's evidence that Lampard's approach is evolving and perhaps we just need to see how the transfer window and the next few games pan out.
We have Norwich, Leicester and Blues in September so there's no shortage of difficult games to use as a barometer for progress.
With the team as it currently is I think we’ll finish 8-10th, we need a ST and CB
We could do with a CB but Thomas and Kitching as a partnership have done well over 2 seasons. There's room for improvement but it's a good enough pairing to finish in the playoffs.
As for striker, the depth is going to be strong compared to most teams in the league. It is out wide where we lack depth, goals and assists. Rapha probably isn't the answer this season, but the way he unlocked Luton's defence on Tuesday is something we've been missing for a long time and is something that we need.