Thoughts v Fulham

hba1 said:
Can't fault the work rate tonight at all. I would like to see their goal again but did zonal marking create the space for their centre half? Despite their pressure we struggled again to manage the last 20 minutes but any away point is good and we are still second.
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Their goal seemed to come about because as we were sitting so deep, they decided to push up their big defender Tosun (who is 6ft 5 according to wiki) and he outjumped Christie - who is obviously considerably smaller than Tosun!

At the time we had vitually every man behind the ball in a line and Cook appeared to be man marking Mitrovic. So why wasn't one of our taller players marking their tall central defender?

I personally don't agree with defending deep to try protect a lead in the way we have been doing but if you are going to do that then surely the very tall opposing players need to be man marked and matched up height wise? A huge tactial error not to do so IMHO.

Hindsight is obviously a wonderful thing but surely this is not rocket science?

Perhaps it might have been better to put Mepham on as soon as it appears to have been decided to move the defensive line back 10 yards to protect the lead? - especially as they were continually getting at us down the flanks, putting in crosses and winning corners?
 
Waz afcb said:
Nice attempt to be clever and patronising. Made yourself look a bit silly though as surely it’s also possible to lose possession when not attempting a pass… ie he gets tackled.
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Far too old to pretend to be clever Waz, I’d get found at far too often. More a reference that I had already mentioned his passing was way off in my initial post on his stats.

All stats have their limitations.
 
Waz afcb said:
Nice attempt to be clever and patronising. Made yourself look a bit silly though as surely it’s also possible to lose possession when not attempting a pass… ie he gets tackled.
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‘silly’? 24 hours ago we were going to have a comfortable defeat and there’s no way we would get anything from the game. Opinions Waz remember.
 
blandford_cherry said:
‘silly’ 24 hours ago we were going to have a comfortable defeat and there’s no way we would get anything from the game. Opinions Waz remember.
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Is at an opinion that there are alternative ways to lose possession other than misplacing a pass? I think it’s probably a reality.
 
boscombe botn said:
Their goal seemed to come about because as we were sitting so deep, they decided to push up their big defender Tosun (who is 6ft 5 according to wiki) and he outjumped Christie - who is obviously considerably smaller than Tosun!

At the time we had vitually every man behind the ball in a line and Cook appeared to be man marking Mitrovic. So why wasn't one of our taller players marking their tall central defender?

I personally don't agree with defending deep to try protect a lead in the way we have been doing but if you are going to do that then surely the very tall opposing players need to be man marked and matched up height wise? A huge tactial error not to do so IMHO.

Hindsight is obviously a wonderful thing but surely this is not rocket science?

Perhaps it might have been better to put Mepham on as soon as it appears to have been decided to move the defensive line back 10 yards to protect the lead? - especially as they were continually getting at us down the flanks, putting in crosses and winning corners?
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Biggest issue with the goal was the fact we had 9 players all standing in defensive line. Nobody was closing down the Fulham players on the edge of the area with nobody closing them down further up the pitch, which allowed them to pick out the perfect cross unchallenged.

I'm a big fan of not bringing everybody back because less space creates more variables. It becomes as much about luck of the bounce as it does about genuine ability to defend.

In hindsight it was probably the wrong move, but 1-1 is still a great result.
 
boscombe botn said:
Their goal seemed to come about because as we were sitting so deep, they decided to push up their big defender Tosun (who is 6ft 5 according to wiki) and he outjumped Christie - who is obviously considerably smaller than Tosun!

At the time we had vitually every man behind the ball in a line and Cook appeared to be man marking Mitrovic. So why wasn't one of our taller players marking their tall central defender?

I personally don't agree with defending deep to try protect a lead in the way we have been doing but if you are going to do that then surely the very tall opposing players need to be man marked and matched up height wise? A huge tactial error not to do so IMHO.

Hindsight is obviously a wonderful thing but surely this is not rocket science?

Perhaps it might have been better to put Mepham on as soon as it appears to have been decided to move the defensive line back 10 yards to protect the lead? - especially as they were continually getting at us down the flanks, putting in crosses and winning corners?
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Easy to say after the game when watching a replay.

Theres 20 fit players running around at a million miles an hour.

Matching the 'tall one'.....if only it was so simple.
 
dragonm8 said:
Easy to say after the game when watching a replay.

Theres 20 fit players running around at a million miles an hour.

Matching the 'tall one'.....if only it was so simple.
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IIRC Billing was about 2 yards to the left of Christie in the build up to the goal and IMHO they had plenty of time to swap over!
 
Very good point for us but poor displays by Antony and Stacey again and what has happened to Billing? Steve Cook mom for me, closely followed by Solankie.
 
bog_standard said:
Very good point for us but poor displays by Antony and Stacey again and what has happened to Billing? Steve Cook mom for me, closely followed by Solankie.
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Billing and Anthony suffering from the absences of Kelly and Zemura down our left
the majority of attacks early season came down that side with good passing combinations between the four of them

Stacey is a different matter
 
With Smith and Cahill back last night, appearances from Pearson and Brady, a clear week to work on them plus anyone else nearing fitness, and Lerma to return - hopefully the squad starts to look strong again. We can start to put the recent period of scratching around for players behind us.

Interesting new formation, Parker throwing a curve-ball and like the back 3 from Coventry it's another system we might keep up our sleeve for another day.

We must look after the ball better in midfield. Killkenny, L.Cook, Anthony and Christie all guilty at various points of getting bullied off it or misplacing it. Obviously take the quality opposition into account here. But a touch more composure would go a long way.
 
Great result like a lot of others would have taken that before kick off.

A bit of rest for the players until next week now

Blackburn won't be easy
 
Once again a good team performance. Gone are the days when Akê and then Danjuma were MOTM. It is often hard to pin that on one player this season. (Last night was the exception for me Cook by a mile).

Billing is Billing. He will never be a regular 7 or 8 score. He does bring something, just not as consistently as we'd like.

Biggest puzzle for me is why Mepham is preferred to Cook. Maybe that will change. Cook's double block was both extraordinary and typical of him. Just magnificent.
 
fritter said:
Biggest puzzle for me is why Mepham is preferred to Cook. Maybe that will change. Cook's double block was both extraordinary and typical of him. Just magnificent.
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But always a possibility that Parker would say his tactic of leaving Cook out of the squad has worked as he's now looking like a player reborn.
 
For all the negativity about Stacey, he did make a fantastic tackle in our 6yd box to prevent a possible goal. He needs help to build up his confidence as at the moment he has too many mistakes in him. Hopefully rest him for a couple of games when we get other players back. Interestingly the Sky commentators were saying that we were looking to go on and score again. If only Dom's second header had gone in, maybe his injury affected him. Sorry but Mepham worries me more than Stacey.
 
Getting ready to Zoom with the Riverside Rocketeers soon, and just starting to watch the rerun of last night!
 
A special mention in despatches for Robbie Brady. In the warm up unleashed a shot over the netting and the ball obviously hit someone. Made the effort to come into the stand to personally check the person was ok, to the concern of the hovering minder, and looked back again as they went off. Well deserved applause for him.
 
Yes thanks, it was a good view. Even people standing didn't obscure the goalmouth view. Making a video now.

Couple of other points:
I agree with waz that the forum is for discussing opinions, but I am baffled that after such a great game and good result, that most posts seem to pick holes in various players performances.

And I know that there were plenty of ugly chants back when I started going to football way back when but, if I heard that one about Ryan Fraser correctly, we seemed to be sinking to new lows.
 
RobTrent said:
Yes thanks, it was a good view. Even people standing didn't obscure the goalmouth view. Making a video now.

Couple of other points:
I agree with waz that the forum is for discussing opinions, but I am baffled that after such a great game and good result, that most posts seem to pick holes in various players performances.
The Ryan Fraser one was awful. Absolutely will not get into singing that one.

And I know that there were plenty of ugly chants back when I started going to football way back when but, if I heard that one about Ryan Fraser correctly, we seemed to be sinking to new lows.
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