Fulham (A) - Sun 21st Apr 2024 (4:30pm)

[DaveT]

Nice to have a referee who didn’t apply a different set of rules to us and penalise our every challenge. Maybe that’s why he’s only reffed us a couple of times and not the 5 or 6 times the Manc refs have had us. 

[Barrington Womble]

2 minutes ago, DaveT said:

Nice to have a referee who didn’t apply a different set of rules to us and penalise our every challenge. Maybe that’s why he’s only reffed us a couple of times and not the 5 or 6 times the Manc refs have had us. 

 

[No2]

Solid 3 points, we were fairly ordinary in the most part, Quansah was good, as we're Cody and Diaz, Ali and Virgil very comfortable. 

 

I thought Harvey done exceptionally well to stay on the shit, he was pure muck.

[Ronnie Whelan]

Not perfect but nice that we look like a proper team again.

 

I thought Gakpo was good and Diogo was Diogo.

 

If we win all of our remaining games, we have a decent chance. 

[redinblack]

5 minutes ago, No2 said:

Solid 3 points, we were fairly ordinary in the most part, Quansah was good, as we're Cody and Diaz, Ali and Virgil very comfortable. 

 

I thought Harvey done exceptionally well to stay on the shit, he was pure muck.

Wha?

[Rushies tash]

It's quite telling that there was decidedly less fannying about with the ball between the two centre backs today. We looked like we wanted to get the ball forward alot more quickly. It wasn't perfect, but a vast improvement on recent games.

[No2]

Just now, redinblack said:

Wha?

I need a shit, meant to say pitch.

[redinblack]

4 minutes ago, No2 said:

I need a shit, meant to say pitch.

You need a No2?

 

Hope it was good

[Trumo]

Not a great performance by any means, but much much better than what we've seen of late. If we can start to become ruthless going forward and cut out the sloppiness at the back, that will help us see out games with the minimum of fuss.

[johnsusername]

Three points, now let's go and batter those toffee sucking quegs.

[Barrington Womble]

31 minutes ago, Rushies tash said:

It's quite telling that there was decidedly less fannying about with the ball between the two centre backs today. We looked like we wanted to get the ball forward alot more quickly. It wasn't perfect, but a vast improvement on recent games.

I thought there was way to much of that stuff, it's just Trent was in the middle of them. For me, it was absolutely the worst aspect of our play, how happy we were to play 5 yard side ways passed just inside our own half. 

[coachpotato]

We put a mid-table team to bed, relatively easily, which is what we should be doing.

It was noticeable that we moved the ball forwards more quickly and pressed better.

We also had a referee who wasn’t overly influenced by Fulham’s simulation, and who at least appeared neutral in his calls.

The selection of the players was what many have been calling for, Salah and Nunez (our most profligate players recently) both benched and Mac Allister rested after appearing to be burned out.

Whatever, it worked and worked well.

Long may it continue

[Rushies tash]

12 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I thought there was way to much of that stuff, it's just Trent was in the middle of them. For me, it was absolutely the worst aspect of our play, how happy we were to play 5 yard side ways passed just inside our own half. 

 

They didn't do it as much as recent games, but yeah, still enough for Neville to point it out at half time. I can't believe it's part of the game plan because it slows us down ridiculously. Klopp must be seething watching it.

[Barrington Womble]

2 minutes ago, Rushies tash said:

 

They didn't do it as much as recent games, but yeah, still enough for Neville to point it out at half time. I can't believe it's part of the game plan because it slows us down ridiculously. Klopp must be seething watching it.

 

 

I don't think we've been getting the ball forward well all season. We look like we are, a team that hasn't yet gelled. We're brilliant until recently at keeping things quick and winning turnovers of possession, but I don't think we've passed forward too cleanly all season. I think what we've struggled with before today was the whole man marking thing with Atalanta, so we didn't know where to pass and the game in Salford where they effectively played dead, we can't make the pressing/chaos thing happen if the other team plays dead. Palace I didn't think we fucked about too much.

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens on Wednesday. They'll (fans at least) want to battle for everything, but what I've seen of Everton this season, they've been very passive without the ball and are happy to get in position and try to make it hard to play through. I think that's the worst for us. Fulham did a lot of that today. 

[Smell The Glove]

34 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I thought there was way to much of that stuff, it's just Trent was in the middle of them. For me, it was absolutely the worst aspect of our play, how happy we were to play 5 yard side ways passed just inside our own half. 

Did you not like Trent in the back 3 type role? For me it's got a lot of upside. You could get Bradley in the lineup, he moves so easily into midfield from there with little disruption if Bradley is right. It's almost like a sweeper and similar to how Man City have changed with Stones.

[Barrington Womble]

2 minutes ago, Smell The Glove said:

Did you not like Trent in the back 3 type role? For me it's got a lot of upside. You could get Bradley in the lineup, he moves so easily into midfield from there with little disruption if Bradley is right. It's almost like a sweeper and similar to how Man City have changed with Stones.

I thought Trent did well there, for the first 40 mins at least..I just don't think often enough there were passes on to him, so he's forced to play a little too slowly. I also thought we lacked width, so he didn't have too many passes into wide areas available to him. For Trent to excel there, I think we need to make the pitch as wide as we can, that enables both the passes out there, but also the space between for him to exploit. 

[VladimirIlyich]

4 minutes ago, Smell The Glove said:

Did you not like Trent in the back 3 type role? For me it's got a lot of upside. You could get Bradley in the lineup, he moves so easily into midfield from there with little disruption if Bradley is right. It's almost like a sweeper and similar to how Man City have changed with Stones.

Trent will not always have it that easy. I also wish he'd stop those stupid swinging of his leg where the ball just spins up into the air and goes nowhere.

[Smell The Glove]

1 minute ago, Barrington Womble said:

I thought Trent did well there, for the first 40 mins at least..I just don't think often enough there were passes on to him, so he's forced to play a little too slowly. I also thought we lacked width, so he didn't have too many passes into wide areas available to him. For Trent to excel there, I think we need to make the pitch as wide as we can, that enables both the passes out there, but also the space between for him to exploit. 

Yeah I thought we lacked width but I think Elliott was supposed to provide it. I saw him move wide a few times. I think Bradley could make it work but it would mean losing a midfielder. From the brief look we had today it looks an interesting fit for Trent and possibly the new manager if it's Amorim.

[Barrington Womble]

27 minutes ago, Smell The Glove said:

Yeah I thought we lacked width but I think Elliott was supposed to provide it. I saw him move wide a few times. I think Bradley could make it work but it would mean losing a midfielder. From the brief look we had today it looks an interesting fit for Trent and possibly the new manager if it's Amorim.

To be honest, I'm not thinking about amorim or anyone else. When klopp arrived, he did so with a background of 4231, landed with 442 here and aimed for 433, which took him 18 months to get to. When Amorim has gone for his 343, I'm sure it's because it was something different to disrupt rather than it being some type of way style he'll never move from. If/when he comes here, he's hopefully got new plans and if they don't work with the squad we have, he'll evolve to it and make something else work till he does. He might stick with similar to what we're doing now.

 

But the reality is before all that shit of a new manager, we have 5 to win and I'm not looking beyond that. Trent is one we've got back into some form. Jota has got a goal, so hopefully more stems from there. Macca will have had a bit of a breather today, so I expect to see him bounce back. Get one of Nunez, Dom or Salah back into form and we might actually win the 5 games. 

[Red Shift]

8 hours ago, Smell The Glove said:

Here and now. Seriously though it's six games. We are in no position to take risks. If it comes off great but I wouldn't make that call.

It’s not just 2 games in 3 days though, its a 2nd game carrying the wear & tear and downright assault of the previous game that upsets the players rhythm.

 

Mo in particular is a victim of so much assault because of his skillset.

[Harry Squatter]

[Smell The Glove]

15 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

To be honest, I'm not thinking about amorim or anyone else. When klopp arrived, he did so with a background of 4231, landed with 442 here and aimed for 433, which took him 18 months to get to. When Amorim has gone for his 343, I'm sure it's because it was something different to disrupt rather than it being some type of way style he'll never move from. If/when he comes here, he's hopefully got new plans and if they don't work with the squad we have, he'll evolve to it and make something else work till he does. He might stick with similar to what we're doing now.

 

But the reality is before all that shit of a new manager, we have 5 to win and I'm not looking beyond that. Trent is one we've got back into some form. Jota has got a goal, so hopefully more stems from there. Macca will have had a bit of a breather today, so I expect to see him bounce back. Get one of Nunez, Dom or Salah back into form and we might actually win the 5 games. 

Couldn't agree more on it's 5 to win nothing else is of interest. I suppose what I'm trying to get across is that I was surprised to see something like that at this stage, though judging by our last few results possibly not. I mean I was surprised just by the lineup but alls well. 

[bossy]

6 hours ago, bossy said:

Fuck Fulham, 3-1 to us.

Oh yeah 

[Barrington Womble]

20 minutes ago, Smell The Glove said:

Couldn't agree more on it's 5 to win nothing else is of interest. I suppose what I'm trying to get across is that I was surprised to see something like that at this stage, though judging by our last few results possibly not. I mean I was surprised just by the lineup but alls well. 

 

I think Trent has had a few games where he was splitting the centre backs like that and wanders off to find space from there before his injury. It's just when Gomez has been playing that role, he does it like I think most players who do it, just a full back who kind of comes inside, rather than outside in the traditional way as the ball progresses, so it's really noticeable just how different Trent is. Trent is showing he can play an almost Alonso style role from full back. When you consider Trent played this role for the first time against arsenal a year ago with just one days training and did it well, with the time he's had out, he's probably had plenty of time to think about how he can improve what he's done before and really take his game on. 

 

I wasn't too shocked by the lineup, although I don't like so much the gakpo/grav/Elliot combo as I think they're all a bit too easily dominated physically. But it worked out. I expect more changes in the front 6 on Wednesday..

[Reckoner]

1 hour ago, Harry Squatter said:

“Why do birds suddenly appear “