BFTG - Fulham

[Hound]

To be fair, there were three incredibly sh1t bits of play in a row from 3 who should know a lot better

Cr@p pointless pass from Blackett, rubbish touch from Joey and useless hesitant defending from Gunter

Pretty much needed all 3 in unison to concede that goal. It really was an absolutely horrific goal to concede.

[LWJ]

A big error on Stam's part IMHO by not taking off Blackett in the first half and bringing on a proper wide player/ winger.

I agree that we should have replaced a WB. But why do you think we should replace our only naturally left footed player who put the most balls into the box for a right footed winger? Why not Gunter who didn't offer much going forward? Seems like a scapegoat?

For the record I am not Blackett's biggest fan at all, but thought he did well getting forward as much as he did.

[Jagermesiter1871]

Met a decent bunch of Fulham on the way home. They didn't think a lot of us, and felt hard done by the red, but think we're both much weaker this season.

They think Barrow's a real find.

How are they much weaker this year? Correct me if I'm but isn't Malone the only outward transfer of any note whilst they made a couple decent signings?

Sounds to me like you met your standard lot of clueless Fulham fans.

No Chris Martin or Scott Parker. Plus Cairney didn't play today. Norwood looked his usual flatter to deceive self today

From reading the Fulham forums last year they all thought Chris Martin was useless. Scott Parker was hardly playing at his peak last year either.

[3points]

How are they much weaker this year? Correct me if I'm but isn't Malone the only outward transfer of any note whilst they made a couple decent signings?

Sounds to me like you met your standard lot of clueless Fulham fans.

No Chris Martin or Scott Parker. Plus Cairney didn't play today. Norwood looked his usual flatter to deceive self today

From reading the Fulham forums last year they all thought Chris Martin was useless. Scott Parker was hardly playing at his peak last year either.

That may be the case with Martin but I think they seriously lack a focal point up front though.. Three quick winger type forwards isn't the way forward for 46 games

[percy_freeman]

We never score from corners.

[biff]

We never score from corners.

nobody really ever does.

"On average, the data show that a corner is good for (drumroll ....) 0.022 goals. This means that the average EPL team scores 1 goal from a corner about every 10 games. And this helps to explain the lack of a correlation between the number of corners and goal scoring. The infrequency of the goals from corners combined with a lack of dispersion between teams in corners per game lead conspire to make corners mostly, well, useless when it comes to scoring goals."
As an aside,
Piazon spent half of his time with us being blown over by a gust. Utterly galling to see Gunter offer his usual insipid challenge to show him a clear path at goal. He's the footballing equivalent of half a lager shandy.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

It didn't work. At all.

When you are a team with among the worst defensive records in the division, nicking a goal against 10 men any not going for a second is not something to be positive about as a tactic.

I wasn't talking about playing long ball all game, but Fulham absolutely had the measure of how to defend against us. At least changing it up occasionally would have been nice.

At one point towards the end of the game we trying to slowly attack and we had 5 men back. 5. Against a tired 10 man team. If we are showing 10 men that much respect for the counter, we have serious issues

Can't figure out your logic here. We had the lead, and were comfortable. If you have a traditionally bad defensive record, keeping the ball is the best way to defend against a team who are strong on the counter...

Not when your team is absolutely renowned for dropping massive defensive errors in almost every game

[bracksroyal10]

Don't get me wrong Fulham defended well with 10 men for their game and with 11 it would have been an even tougher game.

But as a team who's game is built upon passing football up against 10 men we should have sealed the game by half time but being Reading FC it was never going to pan out that way.

Attacking wise we lacked conviction in the box, it was crying out for someone to do something with a bit of purpose. Barrow looking the most likely and Kelly when he scored. Otherwise everyone was passing on the responsibility.

I like what Mendes has to offer and I'd hope Yann can hit the ground running but you're asking a lot of someone at that age to reproduce the same form again this season. For me if we want to compete at the top we need to match our ambition in the boardroom as was said by someone on BBC Berks after the game. For me that is spending £6 million or so on a striker who is proven at this level (Jerome, Mccormack, Hogan, Hooper etc etc)

Im not asking for £10 mil+ fees but we need experience from this league in order to compete.

[genome]

It didn't work. At all.

When you are a team with among the worst defensive records in the division, nicking a goal against 10 men any not going for a second is not something to be positive about as a tactic.

I wasn't talking about playing long ball all game, but Fulham absolutely had the measure of how to defend against us. At least changing it up occasionally would have been nice.

At one point towards the end of the game we trying to slowly attack and we had 5 men back. 5. Against a tired 10 man team. If we are showing 10 men that much respect for the counter, we have serious issues

Can't figure out your logic here. We had the lead, and were comfortable. If you have a traditionally bad defensive record, keeping the ball is the best way to defend against a team who are strong on the counter...

Not when your team is absolutely renowned for dropping massive defensive errors in almost every game

So you want to risk inviting pressure on our defence to avoid this?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

2 goal cushion >>>>>> holding on to a 1-0 hoping your inevitable defensive error doesn't lose you 2 points*



* it did

[genome]

I get that, I'm just saying I understand Stam wanting to stick to his gameplan. I don't recall that many calamitous defensive errors at home last season?

If we had thrown caution to the wind against 10 men and ended up conceding an equaliser on the counter, you'd bet anything the same people would be on here straight away criticising Stam

[Longhorn1970]

For me buying 'an expensive striker' is not likely for under £5m ? I really hope Stam has a plan B when this tedium is not sufficient to break sides down. I expect it would have been slightly more entertaining if they had 11 on the pitch, but can be droll when teams park the bus ...

Not a terrible performance, one mistake cost us, but not a good performance either. For me buying an expensive striker wouldn't change a lot, we just aren't creating many chances. We need to go back to 4-2-3-1, that was when we were last playing well and ripping teams open. Playing 5-3-2 at the end of last season and start of this, I we have never created a lot of opportunities.

[NewCorkSeth]

For me buying 'an expensive striker' is not likely for under £5m ? I really hope Stam has a plan B when this tedium is not sufficient to break sides down. I expect it would have been slightly more entertaining if they had 11 on the pitch, but can be droll when teams park the bus ...

Not a terrible performance, one mistake cost us, but not a good performance either. For me buying an expensive striker wouldn't change a lot, we just aren't creating many chances. We need to go back to 4-2-3-1, that was when we were last playing well and ripping teams open. Playing 5-3-2 at the end of last season and start of this, I we have never created a lot of opportunities.

Can you please quote the other way around. It's throwing me off.

[West Stand Man]

For me buying 'an expensive striker' is not likely for under £5m ? I really hope Stam has a plan B when this tedium is not sufficient to break sides down. I expect it would have been slightly more entertaining if they had 11 on the pitch, but can be droll when teams park the bus ...

Not a terrible performance, one mistake cost us, but not a good performance either. For me buying an expensive striker wouldn't change a lot, we just aren't creating many chances. We need to go back to 4-2-3-1, that was when we were last playing well and ripping teams open. Playing 5-3-2 at the end of last season and start of this, I we have never created a lot of opportunities.

I assume you meant 'dull' rather than 'droll'? Droll jeans dryly amusing. That certainly doesn't describe our current performances.

[NewCorkSeth]

For me buying 'an expensive striker' is not likely for under £5m ? I really hope Stam has a plan B when this tedium is not sufficient to break sides down. I expect it would have been slightly more entertaining if they had 11 on the pitch, but can be droll when teams park the bus ...

Not a terrible performance, one mistake cost us, but not a good performance either. For me buying an expensive striker wouldn't change a lot, we just aren't creating many chances. We need to go back to 4-2-3-1, that was when we were last playing well and ripping teams open. Playing 5-3-2 at the end of last season and start of this, I we have never created a lot of opportunities.

I assume you meant 'dull' rather than 'droll'? Droll jeans dryly amusing. That certainly doesn't describe our current performances.

I assume you meant 'means' rather than 'jeans'?

[West Stand Man]

For me buying 'an expensive striker' is not likely for under £5m ? I really hope Stam has a plan B when this tedium is not sufficient to break sides down. I expect it would have been slightly more entertaining if they had 11 on the pitch, but can be droll when teams park the bus ...

I assume you meant 'dull' rather than 'droll'? Droll jeans dryly amusing. That certainly doesn't describe our current performances.

I assume you meant 'means' rather than 'jeans'?

I guess I did! Mind you, one is obviously a typo (autocorrected) the other is a probable misuse of a word.

[NewCorkSeth]

I assume you meant 'dull' rather than 'droll'? Droll jeans dryly amusing. That certainly doesn't describe our current performances.

I assume you meant 'means' rather than 'jeans'?

I guess I did! Mind you, one is obviously a typo (autocorrected) the other is a probable misuse of a word.

"Droll jeans dryly amusing" is poetic. Roll with it.

[Snowflake Royal]

Don't get me wrong Fulham defended well with 10 men for their game and with 11 it would have been an even tougher game.

But as a team who's game is built upon passing football up against 10 men we should have sealed the game by half time but being Reading FC it was never going to pan out that way.

Attacking wise we lacked conviction in the box, it was crying out for someone to do something with a bit of purpose. Barrow looking the most likely and Kelly when he scored. Otherwise everyone was passing on the responsibility.

I like what Mendes has to offer and I'd hope Yann can hit the ground running but you're asking a lot of someone at that age to reproduce the same form again this season. For me if we want to compete at the top we need to match our ambition in the boardroom as was said by someone on BBC Berks after the game. For me that is spending £6 million or so on a striker who is proven at this level (Jerome, Mccormack, Hogan, Hooper etc etc)

Im not asking for £10 mil+ fees but we need experience from this league in order to compete.

Isn't Jerome's scoring record poor these days? And McCormack has moved twice for much more than £6m already I think.

[bracksroyal10]

Don't get me wrong Fulham defended well with 10 men for their game and with 11 it would have been an even tougher game.

But as a team who's game is built upon passing football up against 10 men we should have sealed the game by half time but being Reading FC it was never going to pan out that way.

Attacking wise we lacked conviction in the box, it was crying out for someone to do something with a bit of purpose. Barrow looking the most likely and Kelly when he scored. Otherwise everyone was passing on the responsibility.

I like what Mendes has to offer and I'd hope Yann can hit the ground running but you're asking a lot of someone at that age to reproduce the same form again this season. For me if we want to compete at the top we need to match our ambition in the boardroom as was said by someone on BBC Berks after the game. For me that is spending £6 million or so on a striker who is proven at this level (Jerome, Mccormack, Hogan, Hooper etc etc)

Im not asking for £10 mil+ fees but we need experience from this league in order to compete.

Isn't Jerome's scoring record poor these days? And McCormack has moved twice for much more than £6m already I think.

Possibly I haven't looked at his recent stats, for me he has the physique, pace and strength we need up front for the lone striker role. It could work well with him Barrow and G Mac as a pacy front 3

[Stranded]

So watched most of the game and watched the highlights again and on another day we would have had that sewn up by half time and certainly by the time they scored. Button made at least 3 or 4 decent saves to keep them in it before we scored - Kelly really should have done a lot better with the one on one.

If the keeper nobody on here wanted, hadn't had a decent game, that would have been a comfortable 2 or 3-0 win. As is, we made a mistake and they scored.

That was the real difference between 3pts and 1pt - their defender made a mistake, Kelly missed a great chance - our player made a mistake and they scored.