saintant

Ivan Juric strikes me as very much a man who will make his own judgements and not be swayed by outside influences on things which happened when he wasn't here. So my expectation is that he'll recognise that ABK has played for Germany and believe there must be something there. He'll probably sit him down for a chat then, if he likes what he hears, he'll get ABK training with the squad and judge him on what he sees with his own eyes and knowledge of the game. I suspect the opportunity will be presented to ABK and whether he decides to knuckle down and work his nuts off to get into the team will be entirely down to how he conducts himself - he starts with a clean sheet.

A point at Fulham is a start and I'm sure we were more pleased with the result than they were - I bet Marco Silva was fuming that we came away with a clean sheet and a point.

I think he will be demanding this because it's his preferred way of playing and he'll put in a double pivot as cover for when the wing backs raid down the wings. I thought we started to do this a bit more once Big Les came on to partner Downes and I think it's likely the way Juric will be setting us up. Of course it'll need a lot of drilling to get it working properly but we'll be better for it.

Can certainly see Big Les starting but not sure about Sulemana. Ramsadale Wood Bednarek THB Sugawara KWP Downes Big Les Lallana Fernandes Archer

Not sure Juric will be picking Dibling after seeing him today - he looks set for a spell on the bench which is fair enough at his young age with much still to learn. I didn't think Dibling and Fernandes worked as the pair of attacking midfielders today.

Watching Liverpool nearly all their players look six feet or more and they're all athletes. Not sure why we always seem to build a team full of small weaklings - it's no surprise we get bullied so much. I think this is something Juric will want to do something about as far as possible in the transfer window.

Told you 🙂

The club should be appealing that.

I wonder what he made of that. Guess he'll be pleased with the clean sheet but not much else.

Good game for the neutrals now we have to suffer Liverpool Spurs which is not likely to be as exciting.

Now we are going long from the back teams will have to reconsider how they press us. This will potentially lead to us finding we have more opportunities to play from the back so will be able to mix things up. RM was clear that he would not tolerate playing any other way which allowed teams to press us and draw mistakes - play long for a bit and we'll benefit.

A plus for me was Big Les but last I heard he wanted to return to Chelsea. Criminal misuse of him by Russell.

Well it was either a free kick to us or a goal kick because KWP clearly toed the ball over the line so, whichever way you cut it, the ref got it wrong.

We could but we'd probably be sat on one less point.

Maybe our U21 manager had more idea than the bloke who was being paid millions just to carry out his own vanity project.

Big Les clearly wasted by RM. Should have played him in the double pivot with Downes.

Clean sheet. Good if unspectacular point. Would have liked us to have more of a go as I don't think Fulham were that good. Amazing how few chances we give up when we ditch Russball.

Deliberate elbow that.

RM obviously didn't realise Big Les could play if used in the correct role.

Better

What the fuck are we afraid of? Try to win the game.

Why are we so afraid of losing this?

We aren't likely to avoid relegation so I can't see why we aren't having a go at winning this game. If we lose trying what difference does it make - let's go for 3 points rather than protecting one point which'll make little difference to us.

To be fair Downes was unlucky and the club should be appealing that - it was a good tackle and not dangerous.

That's the big positive from that first half. Previously we'd have gifted Fulham at least one goal by now.