BFT ???????????????????????????????????????????

[muirinho]

Fulham's passing was crisp and neat, their movement off the ball excellent, and their niggly fouling and play acting unsurpassed.

Reading were slow, inaccurate, sloppy, weak, disorganised, lethargic, incompetent and naive.

I would include Puscas along with Rafael, Meite and Rihnamota (and maybe Yiadom) as being OK and having nothing to be ashamed of. Ejaria in fits and starts. Cannot think what has happened to Richards and Morrison who were both really poor.

Gomes has a very limited amount of time to turn this around, and Moore's defence of him in his BBRB interview was muted at best.

Very poor evening.

I'd imagine Gomes defence of Moore would be equally muted. What the hell has happened to Moore, he's a shadow of the player he used to be? Is it being captain?

I think Swift's sending off would be used as an excuse, but based on that performance, we'd have lost that game with him still on the pitch. I'd go so far as to say we could have lost it, if they'd had a man sent off instead- that was the gulf. (not that was ever likely to happen with that referee, mind you)

We have decent players - we should not be this bad. And that has to be down to Gomes.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Fulham looked well on course to giving us a hiding prior to the red card.

BUT. That referee performances was embarrassingly one sided in favour of our visitors. There’s no way Swift’s first was a yellow, and was only given off the back of pressure from the Fulham players - lily livered. Not so sure about the second, but from where I was it looked like he slipped. That oxf*rd Woolmer couldn’t wait to get his card out. I counted four yellows Fulham should have had thereafter, and they only got one.

It probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, but it was embarrassing.

[Snowflake Royal]

Cabral - 6 no chance
Yiadom - 5 AWOL
Richards - 5 AWOL
Moore - 2 useless
Morrison - 4 fast losing the quality he looked like he brought
Swift - 4 thick as mince and just as strong. First and second yellows looked a bit harsh, but you can't go flailing in like that on a yellow card obvious he'd gone the second the ref blew.
Ejaria - 3 totally lost, contributed nothing in defence
Rinomhota - 5 totally overrun
Meite - 6 tried
Barrett - 3 been a convert to him but he was one of the first to give up. Didn't do anything to anticipate the obvious backheel from Puscas and then did nothing to chase a ball down to pressure a possible mistake.
Puscas - 5 looked utterly lost

[Hoss]

One great save
One great goal
One nice pint of Good Old Boy.

Not much else,

[Steve_Upper_West]

Followed the club for 18 years - NEVER thought I would be leaving the Madstad at half time - I did today along with dozens of others..... Pathetic, Gomez out !!

[CavershamRoyal]

Miserable performance, especially the utterly inept first half. We looked almost competitive second half, but that’s probably more to do with Fulham having won the game and coasting.

Rafael, Yiadom and Rino played okay. Puscas showed some glimpses of quality but the service was non-existent. Meite tried hard and it was a good finish. The rest were pretty awful. Swift was brainless, the first yellow especially seemed soft, but you shouldn’t give the ref that decision to make. We would still have lost had he not been sent off, but might have had a sliver of hope.

Moore seemed out of his depth again. Would fancy Rafael as captain, seems to be the only one who wants to organise that defence, though not sure how good his English is yet so communication might be harder.

I can’t see past a convincing win for Bristol C on Saturday. Gomes seems a good guy but I’d be very surprised if he’s still here come December if things don’t rapidly - and miraculously - improve.

[leon]

Followed the club for 18 years - NEVER thought I would be leaving the Madstad at half time - I did today along with dozens of others..... Pathetic, Gomez out !!

Half time???

[Snowflake Royal]

Followed the club for 18 years - NEVER thought I would be leaving the Madstad at half time - I did today along with dozens of others..... Pathetic, Gomez out !!

Half time???

Yep. I left at HT too to make it home rather than stay over. Jokes on me as the last fast train was cancelled and the stopping service replaced with a bus from Hitchen.

So I left at 9 and get to get home at 2.

[windermereROYAL]

Thought we would lose before kick off. after the red card it was a certainty, almost surreal sitting there knowing the game was over. left after 85 minutes, even missed our goal, if Carlsberg did miserable evenings.

And its GOMES you gimps not GOMEZ. .

[Snowflake Royal]

More like Gones.

[tmesis]

Before we throw our toys out the pram tonight was one of those weird games. Swift's first red card ever totally screwed up the game. When are we going learn from rugby and introduce a sin bin rather than rendering a game totally pointless?

Having a player sent off makes it harder, but it definitely shouldn't be a foregone conclusion that a team will lose. I even hoped that a sense of injustice would galvanise the team, but no. Instead they threw in the towel. They look a team with no stomach for a battle.

I left at half time too, as did loads of others. Yes, miracles do happen sometimes, but only with a team who you feel will fight to the end. That just isn't this squad, and I couldn't see any way we could get back into the game, so what's the point of wasting another hour of my life by staying?

[sandman]

Thought we would lose before kick off. after the red card it was a certainty, almost surreal sitting there knowing the game was over. left after 85 minutes, even missed our goal, if Carlsberg did miserable evenings.

And its GOMES you gimps not GOMEZ. .

Not sure you can blame people for their predictive text changing a name but you do you.

[Jackson Corner]

Yes being down to ten did not help and we were outplayed. But we were outplayed by Sheffield, Charlton and Blackburn with eleven on the pitch. We have been lucky to stay up the last two seasons it won’t happen again. Jones has left Stoke Huddersfield and Birmingham will improve. After spending 20 million on a relegation team the owners may well pull the plug and who can blame them. Worrying times.

[Ranty McRantface]

I haven't done one of these for a while but I will resume my normal format of each half analysis followed by player ratings.

1st Half. Fulhams runs from deep combined with their wide players cutting in were causing absolute havoc for us. As good as Swift and Ejaria are they are not defensively good enough to help Rino. I honestly would like to see Rino and Pele in the middle with one of Swift or Ejaria further up. It would provide more steel in the middle and allow Swift or Ejaria to fully focus on their attacking and pressing duties.

The red card was deserved for Swift. I don't like hearing people say he went for the ball when that is bloody fecking obvious. He was too wild for the first yellow and his studs were up for the second. His poor first touch caused him to react for the ball without any proper control and that's how he caught the player for the second yellow. End of.

Apart from that we were not able to string more than 3 or 4 passes together and were deservedly down at half time.

How bad was the 1st goal we conceded I saw 4 players ball watching the guy who crossed the ball across the outer box, and no one getting close to the 2 players hovering on the outer edge of the box. Of course, it reaches Cairney and he scores a good goal there.

2nd Half Better. Rino was driving forward again like the player we saw last season. Albeit not always successfully but better. Every player seemed to roll their sleeves up and get into the game alot more too. The passing was a little better, bar Liam Moore, and we actually looked dangerous going forward. However, you could argue Fulham had eased off so it was inevitable we would look better later in the game. The goal they scored just summed up Liam Moore this season. He needs to be dropped and taken out of the spotlight for a few games. We have plenty of options who can do a better job.

Player ratings

Rafael 5 - Should have taken control of his area for one of the goals but did pull off 1 top save. I know he sold short for the 4th goal but he would have been better off running back

Yiadom 4 - a lot of Fulhams attacks were coming down his side in the 1st half. I thought that was one of his worst defensive performances I've seen from him.

Moore 3 - Drop him. Give him 2 weeks leave and go again.

Morrison 4 - Not great either. Was partly at fault for one of their goals.

Richards 6 - I actually thought he had a decent game. He wasn't helped by having a shit Liam Moore next to him and no one tracking back in the first half. He did get more help with Boye and Olise second half but he held his own.

Rino 6 - 1st Goal he should have closed down Cairney but was ball watching. However, as I said earlier he was trying to do the defensive duty of 3 players against a team that like to drive runs in from deep. We should have played both him and Pele to cope with that. He got better second half.

Ejaria 5 not a great performance. Lost the ball a few times but tbf he was also fouled a lot with his trickery.

Swift 4 - idiot. I don't know what was said to him earlier in the game but something clearly wound him up. He won't do that again.

Puscas 5 - Worked hard. When we went down to 10 men he single handily started off a couple of attacks through sheer effort of the press. Should have hit the target in the seond half after that surging run. I really want him to score soon as I think he will burst to life after.

Barrett 4 - He started off as one of our best players then just got worse and more anonymous. Gomes could have taken anyone off at halftime to be fair but you know he takes off the youngest players first!

Meite 5 - Goal aside. How many times did he win the ball and lose it by thinking he can just batter his way past people? We can't keep talking about his potential now. He should have dinked the ball over the keeper in the first half rather than go for power. If that was any other striker I think they would have scored.

Boye 5 - Lots of effort, a few nice touches. Still lost the ball needlessly too.
Olise - 4 no impact
Joao 3 - Um. Yeah no thanks.

Gomes - The team were off the pace at the start and it was only when we were riled we looked better. I think Gomes has 1 last throw of the dice before he is fired or leaves himself. Play Pele and Rino together (Box to Box and a DM) for more steel and balance. Drop Moore and hopefully get a win on the weekend. If we lose our next 2 games he will be gone and we will no doubt be hearing the ancients of this forum calling for Brain McDoughnut to come out of his scouting duties to relive his glory days here again. Please god no.

[Zip]

Sick and tired of this. We constantly pass into trouble. We mark space not players giving our opponents oceans of space. We make no attempt to press the opposition. They press us. This happens every time and we never learn.

Rafael. 6 One fantastic safe. One idiotic pass out early on
Yiadom 4 Pretty awful. Dreadful ball control. Poor defensively
Richards 4 All over the place giving his opponent far too much space
Moore 4 Dreadful for the fourth goal and no cohesion with Morrison
Morrison 2 Appalling. Totally at fault for the second goal and easily beaten far too often
Rinomhota 4 Totally lost in the first half. A bit better in the second
Ejaria 4 See Rinomhota
Swift 1 On a yellow and goes and lunges in. A complete idiot
Barrett 3 Looked totally lost and out of his depth
Meite 6 Worked hard, some nice touches, won some headers, lovely finish for his goal
Puscas 6 Worked really hard but finishing poor again
Boye 4 Offered very little
Olise 5 Nice pass to Meite for the goal
Joao 4 Meh

This ridiculous way of playing has to change. It is not working.

[NewCorkSeth]

Just want to say props to Scott Parker. When Knockaert went down in the second half after fouling Boye, Parker was so unmoved and genuinely looked a little like he was saying "C'mon. You're going a bit far"

[St Pauli]

Had no idea there was a game last night until one of my year 9s told me.

Didn't got to the game and instead went to the Hop Leaf for a few pints and a chat with a mate I'd not seen in a while.

Walked home in the chilly autumnal air which I much prefer to the damp humidity of last week, and was in bed by 1030.

All round lovely evening.

[Millsy]

Before we throw our toys out the pram tonight was one of those weird games. Swift's first red card ever totally screwed up the game. When are we going learn from rugby and introduce a sin bin rather than rendering a game totally pointless?

Having a player sent off makes it harder, but it definitely shouldn't be a foregone conclusion that a team will lose. I even hoped that a sense of injustice would galvanise the team, but no. Instead they threw in the towel. They look a team with no stomach for a battle.

I left at half time too, as did loads of others. Yes, miracles do happen sometimes, but only with a team who you feel will fight to the end. That just isn't this squad, and I couldn't see any way we could get back into the game, so what's the point of wasting another hour of my life by staying?

I hear you. I was a bit torn in my post because on the one hand a sending off of a clear midfield player makes it very unfair to judge Gomes, but on the other hand the total capitulation and letting in a goal at home before the sending off makes you wonder.

Yeah the saying "sometimes it's harder to play against ten men" did spring to mind. We weren't *bad* before the goal and actually I think had the better chances but our goal leak was inexcusable. Had we started 5-3-2 we'd have probably pulled off a defender and gone 4-3-2 after the sending off and try our luck, so we were lucky enough to be in that position anyway without needing to sub.

At home, sense of injustice as you say, plenty of talent on the pitch, we should have been able to keep it tight, frustrate them, try the odd counter, go in at 1-0 down and regroup. But no, we totally capitulated in the weirdest way with exactly the poor defending that made us concede before we lost Swift.

I know I keep harping on about the Gomes lottery (i.e. the starting 11 and formation he seems to pick out a hat before every game), but I put it down exactly to that. Had we had a set 5-3-2 (for example) that we played week in week out, we'd have a plan for what to do if down to 10. Lose a man, go to 4-3-2 etc.. Trouble is we're trying all sorts of things and even with 11 on the pitch before the sending off we were'nt totally in tune with what we were doing and so going a man down jsut confused things further. I know I keep saying this but Gomes needs to pick a system, pick his players, and allow it to flourish.

[Hound]

Yes spot on ^^

[NewCorkSeth]

Yes spot on ^^

Yeah. +1. I know I am reactionary as a poster and desperately want to see our 4-3-3 from last season but stability is really what we need.