mrfahaji

I agree with Verlaine above. I think Redmond is a decent outlet for defending corners because he can get the ball under control and keep it, but very much doubt he would be able to knock it past the defenders and beat them for speed. In fact there was one time in the match where Redmond did pick the ball up and had chance to do exactly as you describe but he didn't have the pace for it (it was during the second half, don't think from a corner but generally a 'break' opportunity). Maybe one on one he might be alright but as soon as a second defender is able to cover the angle then he ends up having to cut back for a pass. He's having a great season btw, so this isn't a slight on him - god knows where we'd be without his ability to run at defenders with the ball at his feet - it's just a misconception (in my opinion) that one of his main attributes is straight line speed.

You said "a scary prospect for any defence" rather than "Fulham had a slow back line", so the implication is that Redmond has bags of pace in terms of Premier League players. I reckon Armstrong is quicker (and certainly Long, although even that seems to be waning and he is awful at everything else).

But isn't that exactly the point? Our expectations HAVE sunk, because the general consensus is that we should have signed a striker and that Ings is the only player who looks good enough and he is injured. So we're choosing between Gallagher, Austin and Long. Who knows about Gallagher, I'm surprised he hasn't been given a chance, but given that those are the options, at least Austin did a few things well when he played!

Agree. He was absolutely atrocious at Craven Cottage but he at least got in some dangerous positions in the box on Wednesday.

He seems to have decent acceleration. And yes he does appear one of our quicker players in those situations, but that's also more of an indictment of our team's woeful lack of pace - wish that wasn't the case. Verlaine's comment was in response to "He would be a scary prospect for any defence with his pace if he received the ball early out of defence" - in this situation it doesn't really matter how quick he is in comparison to the rest of our team, what matters is whether he can outsprint the opposing defenders over medium/long distance, and in my opinion he doesn't possess enough pace to do this.

Agree with pretty much all of this. Although, at least Austin was getting in some threatening positions from crosses, and he did well to put Redmond in for the goal. I know that's not much, but at least it was something. Long came on and just did all the frustrating Shane Long things without much of the positives we used to see. Not sure why Gallagher doesn't get a chance, but from Austin & Long I think the former seems the better bet. I know Mitrovic missed a couple of good chances, but I did wonder about how we would fare with him up front.

It seems some people will never understand this. Having quick feet doesn't necessarily equate to straight line speed.

I agree that JWP was excellent and possibly MOTM, but one thing that irks me about him in particular is that he often picks a backwards ball when a forward (or sideways) pass is on. Nothing wrong with keeping things simple/safe, but often the next pass after the 'safe ball back' will just be a hopeful lob forward. It feels a little bit like JWP is passing the buck on making the risky pass. There were a couple of specific examples - one in the second half where Hojbjerg was tucked in and it wasn't a massively risky pass, but JWP played it back to Bednarek, who was then under pressure and had to boot it clear. Similar occasion in 1st half but I can't remember who the other players involved were. I realise that after his excellent display it seems churlish to criticise him, but sometimes it's easier to pick out specific weaknesses when someone has a good game rather than when they are generally awful!

I probably would have taken Redmond off near the end (ie 80 minutes), but only because he was looking shattered and was struggling to keep possession. Having Long up front who is unable to keep the ball didn't help him in that regard.

Fair argument, and a good reason why he wasn’t as much of a threat as Bertrand, and perhaps found it harder to make an impact, but still true that when he did have the opportunity to put a cross in he didn’t deliver (no pun intended). Of course It could be that Bertrand made just as many poor crosses but had so many opportunities that he also had some good ones...!

No love for Vestergaard? Thought he had a very good game, and made one excellent & crucial header from a corner as Mitrovic was closing in. I was hoping for a back 4 but the 5 worked well and all 3 CBs were great (although still concerning that Fulham had a number of good chances despite not being very good).

You’re right that Redmond’s decision making isn’t always the best but in terms of creating chances he’s pretty much our only hope! Not even sure Lemina fits that mould tbh, he’s a bit better on the ball than our current midfield trio but still very much in a similar mould.

Appreciate the reply. By contrast I only get to a handful of games and this was one I made the trip down for, and think you get a better feel for some things when you’re actually there. No doubt the players worked hard throughout, so tiring is to be expected, but the concern was how early it kicked in. That is down to preseason unfortunately, hard to get that back half way through. Watched MOTD yesterday and they didn’t show the disallowed goal. Found it strange that they didn’t show that, or any of Mitrovic’s chances yet showed Bertrand’s FK which was just a bit ‘meh’...!

It’s not about giving him a break. He did ok today, certainly solid defensively. But as a wing back you are an important attacking outlet, and he didn’t really do anything of note going forward. He made himself available, and was trying to do the right things, but his crossing needs work and not much else came off for him. You’re right in what you say - and against Cardiff he did defend and attack well in the same game - but some people are claiming he was one of our best 3 players yesterday. Seems like if you disagree then people label you clueless or a WUM. Surely you can be happy with his development without having to hail every performance?

Not at all, why would you say that? Could you not see that our players were getting sloppy and kept losing the ball in the last 15 minutes? That despite being against a team who weren’t exactly lifting their game in that time. My comment wasn’t on the overall performance, which I thought was decent enough, just on our lack of fitness. Fulham also had a couple of clear cut chances - probably better than any we had. I respect that you are usually positive even in the face of a defeat and appreciate reading your post match comments while everyone is busy consigning us to relegation, so I’d have thought you might also appreciate when people point out specific concerns following an otherwise encouraging performance/result, rather than dismissing them as trolls or imbeciles.

To be honest most of our team looked finished by 70-75 minutes. That was a big concern for me, and shows why we concede so many late goals. Players didn’t have the energy to keep hold of the ball, Redmond in particular should have been subbed for Armstrong near the end. Obviously good to see the team putting in the effort, and no doubt we did a lot of pressing, but in tighter games against better opposition that lack of fitness will (and has) cost us. If Babel’s effort creeps under the bar then we probably wouldn’t have withstood a late fightback from a team with their tails up (appreciate that is conjecture on my part, but I found it alarming).

Sims was in the crowd this evening, he walked up the steps in Itchen North about 5 minutes into the game. Agree that he has to be a better option than Elyounoussi. Agree about Valery. Thought he was good defensively but going forward he had absolutely no end product. Thought he was MOM against Cardiff, but today he didn’t do much of note. Other things are coming with confidence but crossing still very much in the ‘needs work’ category.

Ha, I actually turned to my Dad and said “they should probably just get rid of HT entertainment” during this. I prefer to talk about the game.

I'd go with this except maybe Bednarek instead of Vestergaard. I know Mitrovic is an aerial threat but Vestergaard isn't actually that combative, he's just tall. I worry that with 4 at the back Vestergaard is vulnerable due to his lack of pace. As for striker, I'd start with Gallagher if he's available and bring Austin on later. I'd love to have more faith in Austin as a starter but nothing I have seen in recent months suggests he is going to be a threat for more than about 20 minutes of the game, and that's put to better use if the defenders are also tiring.

It's a question more than a theory, and there isn't a flaw in it because at 0-1 or even 0-0 we may have had a different game plan which would have been more successful. At 1-0 and certainly 2-0 you have to try and score so of course are going to be more open at the back. I'm not saying that Arsenal wouldn't have managed to blow us away regardless, but it's clearly a different scenario if we score first or keep it tight for longer than six minutes.

He also wasn't to blame for the Cardiff winner because he wasn't marking Zohore

The result was not a huge surprise, but when you throw away wins against Cardiff and Burnley, you can't afford to have many of those matches where you almost accept losing. Especially as the argument for not winning those six pointers is that we struggle against teams who defend deep. Soon we will be accepting losses in every match on the basis that we struggle against sides who play professional football. The most frustrating thing is how quickly individual mistakes ruin any possibility of implementing a game plan. The Tenerife trip looks totally pointless, but who knows how we would have set up throughout the match if either Redmond scores with that first opportunity or Stephens wasn't playing. But of course the latter comes down to the manager's team selection.

Looks like we really learnt a lot from that time in Tenerife.

While I agree on Stephens, which players is he freezing out? Yoshida and Bertrand have been away/injured and he could be saving them for Wednesday.

Jack Stephens showing once again why he is first name on the teamsheet.