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Fulham (A) - Sat 6th Aug 2022 (12:30pm)


Trumo
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Fulham played exactly as you would expect them to.
The concerning thing was that we didn’t seem to be ready for it.

The performance last week against City was how we should have started this game.

We didn’t and they took great confidence from that.

No point in calling out who was at fault as there were that many of ours not at the races today.

We didn’t deserve to win, even though we could have, and we could just as easily have lost, and we couldn’t really have complained.

The game didn’t do anything to suggest that our perceived problems have been addressed, some being a midfield that isn’t injury free enough, mobile enough, creative enough or full backs who find defending a problem, and I don’t think explanations that this could be a “blip” are valid, we should know more than any team after losing the league by a point, that “blips” aren’t acceptable, such is the pressure to take almost every point, and especially those up for grabs against newly promoted teams.

Today was a poor performance after last week, and we just won’t be able to put too many more of these in if we have pretensions of winning the title.

We go again.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

I don't think it will make any difference.

 

We aren't signing a new midfielder this summer unless one of our targets becomes available at short notice which seems unlikely.

Which targets are they?

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Overall, we were awful. It was only after about 65 minutes when we decided the finesse wasnt going to work and had to go toe to toe and match Fulham's workrate to get anything out of the game.

 

Love Jurgen and love Bobby but I dont get why our £68m new striker is sat on the bench for the start of this one. Jurgen's one fault is his immense loyalty to his established players.

 

It's the same with Keita. Been here 4 full seasons(?), still not delivered but Jurgen relies on him when available.

 

Getting back to Darwin, he isnt going to find out how tough the PL can be or forge a partnership up front with Mo and Diaz on the bench. The boy gets thrown on and whether the final touch from him is deliberate or not, he scores and finds the equaliser when up to that point, we were bereft of a threat. He even played a part in Mo's equaliser.

 

I thought the ref was poor especially in the first 20-25 minutes when he seemed to let Fulham dive in with gay abandon. He was conned twice by Mitrovic later in the game as well.

 

I looked closely at the 'pen.' On the stream I was watching Mitrovic is clearly looking for it. I think they said van Dijk's knee made contact with him but he's already dived at that point and goes down holding his ankle so how does that work? You could understand the ref thinking it's a pen from where he is behind the players but VAR had a front on view. How can they not see that?

 

My overriding question if that's a pen is, why doesnt Mo get more pens when there's far clearer contact on him in the box? Yeah, it's really a rhetoric question because we know why he doesnt.

 

All I want to see is consistent decisions yet all we get is inconsistency. If Mitrovic's a pen, Mo should be looking forward to getting an extra 8 or 9 pens awarded this season. 

 

But, you've got alehouse cunts like Garth Crooks and others saying Liverpool getting pens, especially at Anfield has 'been going on too long and has to stop.' I look forward to Mo getting decisions like today and Crooks calling out Mitrovic et al. I wont hold my breath though.

 

Oh and he, Mitrovic, conned the ref late on by the touchline when he gave him a free kick!

 

Once again, Trent was poor on a far post header. Some seem to think that's a foul but in my view, looking at that, there's no foul. Mitrovic doesnt hold him down and he doesnt have two arms over him. I wish he had but he didnt. Trent simply has to work on defending those crosses better and to be honest, I think that was one of his poorest games in a long time.

 

Fabinho looked like he was running in treacle all game and Robbo, please have a bit more composure. He put in a great cross but with just too much on it so even beat Mo. Much as I love Bobby, he was anonymous all game. Thiago looks to have picked up another hamstring injury. Seems some players are just feted to regularly get these.

 

Unfortunately today, we didnt have a winning goal in us despite Hendo clipping the bar with a lovely effort and Diaz being unlucky with a shot coming back off the post.

 

I think at Anfield, we win that game. But away to a newly promoted side playing the opening game of the season who looked up for it even if managed by an ex shite manager, we looked out of sorts and second best most of the game.

 

Most of that game we were second to the ball and out bossed by them. If they play like that all season, they might stay up but we all know they wont put that much effort in for 7 out of 10 games.

 

Disappointing to drop 2 points that might be critical come the end of the season.

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3 minutes ago, VERBAL DIARRHEA said:

You happy with the midfield? Do you think the manager really is mate, really?

On today's performance, no. On last week's performance, yes. I have no idea what the manager thinks but if he wishes to add to our midfield strength then I would hope it would be a defensive midfield addition. Other than that I have nothing more constructive to add.

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8 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Thiago and Fabinho are both class players but they're both so fucking slow. Watching them looks like they're both wading through treacle.

 

Fuck Bellingham off, get 2 top class midfielders in now.

Im trying not to kneejerk that performance but we badly need to buy a midfielder or 2 its clear to everyone

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8 minutes ago, torahboy said:

On today's performance, no. On last week's performance, yes. I have no idea what the manager thinks but if he wishes to add to our midfield strength then I would hope it would be a defensive midfield addition. Other than that I have nothing more constructive to add.

Fair enough.

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38 minutes ago, Moo said:

I don't think it's ideal to start with Nunez at the moment but Firmino is a non-entity in big chunks so he shouldn't start either.  How far is Jota off being fit?

Far enough.

 

Lad has had no pre season at all too.

 

You wouldn't expect him to be any use at all for next 4 weeks i'd say.

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Frustrating opening day performance, especially after last week, against a team that for most of the season we expect to be struggling (it may turn out differently).

 

In the past an opening day draw away to a newly promoted team wouldn't have been seen as a bad result, but the standards and stakes are so high these days with City amassing so many points every year, that such results feel more like a defeat.

 

I honestly, maybe naively, thought we'd win this comfortably. But it's only the first game so no point in overreacting, we just need to improve quickly. It'll be a strange old season with the world cup stuck right in the middle and perhaps that'll shake things up overall with less points needed to win it this time around.

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Fulham sat back, only had 33% possession at home, but they were aggressive in their pressing and closed down space well, they had certainly done their homework.

 

Mo had a quiet game, but he almost got no space at all, but some clever play gave him the space he needed to assist Nunez for his first PL goal, and them he could not avoid to get his mandatory goal in a season opener, when the ball fell for him in the box.

 

Sadly two points dropped, but Fulham surprised me, they made us struggle because of their pressing. 

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1 minute ago, MegadriveMan said:

I don't know, but that's the way we operate now. We won't sign a player for the sake of it. 

No one's talking about for the sake of it.  If we have targets and the money is available we should be trying to sign them.  I'm sure we don't only target those who are readily available.

 

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Agree with Code, Fulham pressed us throughout which looked like surprised our players too. They also used the shiteness of the referee by constantly going down and getting a foul almost everytime.

 

Matip had a poor game, midfield was too slow and whole midfield could have been subbed in the first 30 mins. 

 

Robbo wasn't usual self and on another day would have put the ball on a plate for Diaz to finish instead of hammering the cross. 

 

Shit happens. Roll on the next game.

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8 minutes ago, Code said:

I have not seen Van Dijk touch Mitrovic on the pen, but I have seen this.

 

People are saying he hit him with his knee? Any pics?

 

 

29002DAF-E625-456B-858D-89F228F16126.jpeg

When you see the tv clip from behind you can see there is impact on his knee. No idea if there is a pic of it, but it is clear as day from the bt sport footage that there is impact. 

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41 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

I think the criticism for Trent is a bit unfair.

Not many fullbacks can compete with Mitrovic in the air.  I thought Robertson was much worse defensively today.

Trent was far worse than Robertson today.  If you mean compete by not even attempting a jump well yeah you won't win much in the air.

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