Saints 2 Fulham 2 - Post Match Reactions

[The Kraken]

Mark Clattenburg showed again why he considered to be a very average referee.

[Wade Garrett]

Just watching MOTM; Puncheon's disallowed goal was a fecking joke.

 

Terrible decision by a terrible ref.

[pingwing]

We had better ref's in League one. Or at least ones with more common sense.

[The Kraken]

This analysis by Lawro of our defending is spot on; but tough to watch.

 

And Hooiveld had an utter mare. One own goal, got the deflection for the other, and caught napping on a number of other occasions. Didn't realise from the game just how dreadful a performance it was from him.

[maysie]

There are also plenty that think we are just shyte.... And even more so considering the money we spent

 

DD - you seem very pessimistic/cynical these days? Were you expecting more this season?

[LeBenali]

Just watching MOTM; Puncheon's disallowed goal was a fecking joke.

 

Didn't think there was anything wrong with it at the time, and that's from my position by the halfway line. Watching that again confirms it, so I guess it balances the fact we were lucky to get the free kick for our equaliser.

[pingwing]

Yeah pretty much spot on with Jos, can see why its been Maya and Fonte as first 2 choices.

 

Hooiveld has just not been aware of when he is and isn't needed which is terrifying. Was convinced in the car Gazza went the right way for their second and it took a touch from Hoovield to bundle in which MOTD showed. Just frustrating to see as he should be good enough really.

[pap]

Just watching MOTM; Puncheon's disallowed goal was a fecking joke.

 

Indeed. Schwarzer is what's commonly known in the trade as a diver. Not a bad effort for a goalie. Is he the first goalie to belong to the Actor's Guild, or is he performing a fresh interpretation of previous "goalie falling down like a sack of sh!t" efforts?

[pap]

Yeah pretty much spot on with Jos, can see why its been Maya and Fonte as first 2 choices.

 

Hooiveld has just not been aware of when he is and isn't needed which is terrifying. Was convinced in the car Gazza went the right way for their second and it took a touch from Hoovield to bundle in which MOTD showed. Just frustrating to see as he should be good enough really.

 

I was five metres away from both and livid. I admire the honest tweetage afterwards, but Hooiveld has been a liability at times this season. Your comment about not knowing when he is or isn't needed is bang on. Tbh, I did not know the shot was going wide. Even sol other options - such as leave it to Gazza or just throw your body at it. Has not learned that sticking a leg out near the goalmouth is a stupid thing to do?

 

Amazing how things change. People were on Fonte's back a while ago. Immense today. Built like a brick sh!thouse too. Looks super fit.

[shurlock]

Thought we were poor -not just the pinball defending. More worrying was our ball retention - we looked slow in possession, turning the ball over numerous times and, apart from setpieces and Fulham's own laxness at the back, rarely threatened. Can't fault the effort but the quality wasn't there.

[Jonnyboy]

Indeed. Schwarzer is what's commonly known in the trade as a diver. Not a bad effort for a goalie. Is he the first goalie to belong to the Actor's Guild, or is he performing a fresh interpretation of previous "goalie falling down like a sack of sh!t" efforts?

 

Yes he dived but Puncheon didnt have to do that petulant little dig and give him the excuse to go down.

[sandwichsaint]

Didn't think there was anything wrong with it at the time, and that's from my position by the halfway line. Watching that again confirms it, so I guess it balances the fact we were lucky to get the free kick for our equaliser.

 

Not really. it's all about aunts and ******, if we go 2-0 up we win that game. Schitt game, schitt ref.

 

Liked, Gazza, Davis, JRod (up to a point)

 

Can't believe we are playing in the Prem, we have spent near on 30m and we are playing Fox at LB, a left footed CH at RB and one of our main 'creative' outlets is JP! He's been playing 'ok' but how many goals has he got? How many assists?

 

Squad looks hopelessly unbalanced and we are constantly ramming square pegs into round holes, desperately missing Cork who IS a utility player and also missing Lee (Delgado v2?) who looked decent last season.

 

Sympathies to Nige, you can train all week but you can't legislate for Jos's OG, but you can legislate for the wide open spaces from which Fulham produced their two goals.

 

Big three points dropped today.

[pap]

Yes he dived but Puncheon didnt have to do that petulant little dig and give him the excuse to go down.

 

Shame. At 2-0, I think it have gone on to be a big win. Gutted.

[Red]

Because otherwise the game wouldn't go well with our post match reactions in here THAT ARE EVEN MORE ****ING DRAMATIC

 

Schneiderlin should have had a second yellow today.

Lallana really is a fantastic player.

Yoshida did a tidy job as RB but it was clear that he was not comfortable with the position. Mostly he played simple passes and while he was very concentrated we missed Clyne or Frazer bombing forwards.

Hooiveld - one of my favourites and an honest workman - lacks pace and confidence. Should be a substitute and a specialist for when we are defending long balls at the end of a game.

Gazza looks promising and with the right coaching and some protection in front of him could be a good PL keeper very soon.

j-Rod worked his socks off today. Goals will come once the whole organisation behind him gets more settled and we get better at keeping possession.

 

Football is a great game. I'm enjoying seeing us in one of the best leagues in the world and I see no reason to give up just because there is a steep learning curve. Get behind Adkins and the team - united we stand or fall. A few good results and we could be on our way up the league...

 

Not sure he was today, or so far this season to be fair. I am a great fan of his, but has he really lived up to his promise so far this season? Part of the reason people think Fox is poor (who had a great game today IMO) is that Lallana does not offer much when defending - Punch was much more effective both defending and attacking today. I had really hoped the PL would bring the very best out of AL - so far that has not happened unfortunately.

 

If he wasn't captain and a role model for "The Southampton Way" I feel sure he would have been dropped by now (at least for a few games). New father, captain, PL - is it too much pressure on one person at a young age?? Odd how some lay in to Jos, Kelv, J Rod, Fox and yet dare not to scrutinize the "untouchables" Maybe AL is an average PL player rather than a superstar - which is fine, but let him know he has to earn his place in the team!

[SaintBobby]

Way too much panic on here.

 

After a very tough start, we're out of the relegation zone.

 

17th or above this season would be amazing. We got into this league two years ahead of schedule.

[LostBoys]

Poor performance against a poor Fulham side on yesterday's performance. I did not understand the substitutions apart from the Richardson one as we lost our shape.

 

There were some individual wretched performances particularly second half.

 

Big improvement needed at West Ham.

[Suomi Saint]

Nigel is becoming the new "Tinkerman," and I'm afraid he's going to end up the same way. Also, his body language was wrong from beginning to end. He hardly clapped when we scored the first, so something is up. Why, oh why, did he take off RL and JP.....again? Saints threw away the easiest 2 points of the season as Fulham were absolute garbage.

[Mowgli]

Not really. it's all about aunts and ******, if we go 2-0 up we win that game. Schitt game, schitt ref.

 

Liked, Gazza, Davis, JRod (up to a point)

 

Can't believe we are playing in the Prem, we have spent near on 30m and we are playing Fox at LB, a left footed CH at RB and one of our main 'creative' outlets is JP! He's been playing 'ok' but how many goals has he got? How many assists?

 

Squad looks hopelessly unbalanced and we are constantly ramming square pegs into round holes, desperately missing Cork who IS a utility player and also missing Lee (Delgado v2?) who looked decent last season.

 

Sympathies to Nige, you can train all week but you can't legislate for Jos's OG, but you can legislate for the wide open spaces from which Fulham produced their two goals.

 

Big three points dropped today.

 

Actually we only dropped 2 points. Disappointing but not a bad result given the makeshift side and given how Fulham dominated possession. Shame on the fans who gave up and left at 1-2.

[CB Fry]

 

. We got into this league two years ahead of schedule.

 

 

 

No we didn't.

[Foxstone]

We worry too much on this board..

 

We will be fine !

[Pilchards]

We worry too much on this board..

 

We will be fine !

 

I too believe we will be fine because the EPL has a lot more Schitt at the bottom with us this season.

We need to learn how to grind some points away from home by playing ugly, if it means humping the ball up the field & chopping down their best player then do it.

Playing open and sometime attractive football is costing us because we open up too much at the back.

 

I only want the club to start getting some luck and the results will slowly come I'm sure.

[Graffito]

Re' the disallowed the "goal". Look at the ref after he's disallowed it. He appears to be looking at Lambert and makes a gesture with his arms as if to say the goal was disallowed for Lambert leaning down on the defender. Irrelevant now but the goal should have stood.

[thefunkygibbons]

Shame Rickie was not on fire as we should have put it away prior to half time

[Pilchards]

Shame Rickie was not on fire as we should have put it away prior to half time

 

Totally agree that Rickie should of put away at least one, the good thing about him is he gets in the right positions.

IMHO if Fonte was not putting that last minute goal away then Rickie would of & it's puzzling how he got taken off again.

[Thedelldays]

Totally agree that Rickie should of put away at least one, the good thing about him is he gets in the right positions.

IMHO if Fonte was not putting that last minute goal away then Rickie would of & it's puzzling how he got taken off again.

 

Just so odd.... Lambert is our best player... Our best forward and probably our 2nd best defender... Even when he is playing out of position... He still posed the best threat up front... He is our talisman etc...

 

Yeah, take him off before 2 weeks without a game

 

Absolutely stupid

[West End Saint]

We dropped 2 points here good first half performance really should have taken more of our chances we had the best chances in the game but Fulham did have more possesion. 2nd half we dropped right off & it was only a matter of when they scored however disapointed with the OG we have to make teams work harder to score against us we do give soft goals away

 

Good to see Morgan back he played well but was lucky not to get sent off Punch very good 1st half Fonte did well all game mental taking Lambo off our main goal threat & a out ball when under the cosh nicking the last gasp equaliser made me feel a little better but that was a game we should have won by half time if we continue making these silly mistakes we will go down

[Saint Garrett]

Lambert was taken off because we needed to harry Fulham. J-Rod was superb at closing down their defenders and has great energy. Lambert was playing in that hole, where Guly gave us a little bit more bite and energy. I can see why Lambert was brought off but at the same time, our team as a whole seems a lot more comfortable when he is on the pitch and he does give us a good outlet as he can hold it up.

[Sour Mash]

Personally I would have kept Lambert on, but did we play so much worse when he went off? The subs weren't the problem yesterday, our ability to retain the ball and control the game in the 2nd half was the issue, but I can't quite put my finger on why that was, especially considering our two central midfielders had decent games.

 

Also, people moaning about the defence, I can't ever remember a back 4 getting so many injuries and so many changes in such a short period of time - back fours are built on understanding, being settled etc, even the best back four in the world would have struggled with so many players being forced to play out of position, missing key members etc. I think a back four of Fox, Yoshida, Fonte and Clyne is half decent on the basis it's given some protection by the midfield.

[kpturner]

Re' the disallowed the "goal". Look at the ref after he's disallowed it. He appears to be looking at Lambert and makes a gesture with his arms as if to say the goal was disallowed for Lambert leaning down on the defender. Irrelevant now but the goal should have stood.

It should have stood if it was disallowed for a foul on the keeper, but since it was actually disallowed for Lambert using the defender to climb for the header, it was allegedly a correct decision. You could argue that Lambert did nothing wrong, but it did look like he had both arms on the defenders shoulders, so no surprise the ref interpreted it that way.

[Pilchards]

Lambert was taken off because we needed to harry Fulham. J-Rod was superb at closing down their defenders and has great energy. Lambert was playing in that hole, where Guly gave us a little bit more bite and energy. I can see why Lambert was brought off but at the same time, our team as a whole seems a lot more comfortable when he is on the pitch and he does give us a good outlet as he can hold it up.

 

If you wanted energy then nobody better than Ward-Prowse coming on the pitch, switch Lallane to the left flank and leave Rickie up front who holds the ball really well.

The unlucky player i would of taken off would be J Rod.

I would go one step further and brought on De Ridder (If on the bench) or the other fast guy as speed helps to break well when under the cosh.

I've never believe in defending what you have as you are most likely to score again if the other team advance further up the field.

[tajjuk]

My overall feeling after that game was that we were a bit unlucky.

 

Firstly the injury didn't help, Yoshida looked awful at full back, Hooiveld looked like a defender who was short of sharpness and wasn't expecting to play, had either Yoshida been there, or a full match fit Jos I think both goals would have been blocked correctly.

 

Having said that I think Fulham basically had 4 or 5 chances all game and only one decent one (were Jos missed a ball over the top and Rodallega missed). I can only remember Gazza have a couple of saves from a corner and the two goals, both of which had huge elements of luck about them. Aside from that we defended very well, if we keep teams to such a limited number of chances we will keep clean sheets.

 

Positives:-

 

- Fonte: (ignoring the goals), ok he didn't have a huge test and probably would have had a lot more trouble with Berbatov or Petravic, however considering the players either side of him were struggling I thought he was excellent. Clear signs that he might be getting used to this league.

 

- Overall team shape and defence: We looked a lot more solid, whilst Fulham had good spells of possession they barely threatened and resulted to launching aimless long balls, the midfield harried and hassled well (in the first half) and any worrying moments again were created by individual defensive errors.

 

- Set pieces: We looked very threatening from our set pieces, Fox's delivery was excellent and is definitely a plus point for him keeping in the team (I also thought he was a lot more solid defensively than he has been). Set pieces in this league will be very important, (look at Utd v newcastle yesterday) so it's good too see we are threatening.

 

- Davis and Morgan: I thought both were very good, sometimes their passing was a little bit off but they pressed, harries and intercepted very well, especially as they were outnumbered in the middle. They made Ruiz look very ordinary and pushed Sidwell Baird back. They also covered and helped out with both fullbacks.

 

Negatives

 

- Lack of Attacking threat? While we were a lot more solid defensively did it cost us our attacking threat? I'm not sure, we had some good spells of play especially in the first half, the move that ended with Rickie just guiding a shot wide was excellent and the sort of play we have been producing regularly in recent weeks. But it was few and far between, we seemed to go long too often and second half we seemed to run out of ideas. Maybe an off day for our forwards particularly in the absence of Ramirez we were looking to Lallana and Lambert for our creativity and both seemed a bit off. Loosing the full back didn't help, Yoshida looked very uncomfortable going forward and we missed Clyne's driving runs, we had little threat down the right.

 

- Puncheon: Amazed to see people criticise Adkins for tasking him off, I thought he was poor, held onto the ball too long, always went inside, ran into trouble and in the second half was leaving Yoshida exposed. Chaplow was a sensible substitution to help protect Yoshida but as I suspected will offer little in forward threat. It also makes me question whether Mayuka can only play as a central striker, Adkins seems to reluctant to give hima go in Puncheon's spot, his pace should give him the option to go wide as well as inside that Puncheon doesn't offer but Adkins has only ever bought him on up front.

 

- Squad Depth: Not much we can do about the injuries but we looked very much like a Championship team towards the end of the game. I suppose having Clyne, Ramirez, Cork, Boruc, Lee to come in and having Yoshida in his proper position we look a decent first 11, but certainly shows we are short on depth. Would like to see another 2-3 players in January, even if they have to be loans.

 

- Jay Rod: Seems to be getting a bit of stick but have to agree he was poor yesterday, however I think he is struggling for confidence (and pressure of that fee?), touch and control a bit off yesterday but he worked his socks off and his movement was good. I think he needs a goal.

 

Overall considering the injuries and the fact we were a bit unlucky a point is not too bad. I'm also pleased to hear that NA was happy with the performance. We now have a little while off where he can work with most of the squad, get all the players back from injury and have a good next few months.

[Charlie Wayman]

Indeed. Schwarzer is what's commonly known in the trade as a diver. Not a bad effort for a goalie. Is he the first goalie to belong to the Actor's Guild, or is he performing a fresh interpretation of previous "goalie falling down like a sack of sh!t" efforts?

 

We must learn to be champion divers as well if we are to survive. You can't beat this system so we'll have to join it. Give that wincy diva on "Strictly" a contract quick!

[Charlie Wayman]

 

My overall feeling after that game was that we were a bit unlucky.

 

Overall considering the injuries and the fact we were a bit unlucky a point is not too bad. I'm also pleased to hear that NA was happy with the performance. We now have a little while off where he can work with most of the squad, get all the players back from injury and have a good next few months.

 

Bugger me matey, you really must have a superb pair of pink specs to be that complacent. I'll have lots of what you're on.

 

It must be just the other 30,000 of us who thought we looked second rate and prime candidates for the NPL next year if the coaches don't start taking the job seriously

[Saint Garrett]

I'd say it was our worst display of the season yesterday. Just didnt get our game going. Ok Arsenal was prety bad but atleast we passed the ball a lot, despite the incompetant defending. Yesterday we just looked pretty poor all over the pitch.

[tajjuk]

Bugger me matey, you really must have a superb pair of pink specs to be that complacent. I'll have lots of what you're on.

 

It must be just the other 30,000 of us who thought we looked second rate and prime candidates for the NPL next year if the coaches don't start taking the job seriously

 

 

Why exactly?

 

We were by far the better team in the first half, had a goal ruled out and put together some good moves. We were worse in the second half granted and NA is rightly concerned with this as the team were below par. However considering we were missing some good players and had a defensive re-shuffle, we restricted a Fulham side that before this game were amongst the highest scorers in the league to a handful of half chances. Kind of makes this statement "It must be just the other 30,000 of us who thought we looked second rate and prime candidates for the NPL next year if the coaches don't start taking the job seriously" Look a bit silly in my opinion.

[Window Cleaner]

Why exactly?

 

We were by far the better team in the first half, had a goal ruled out and put together some good moves. We were worse in the second half granted and NA is rightly concerned with this as the team were below par. However considering we were missing some good players and had a defensive re-shuffle, we restricted a Fulham side that before this game were amongst the highest scorers in the league to a handful of half chances. Kind of makes this statement "It must be just the other 30,000 of us who thought we looked second rate and prime candidates for the NPL next year if the coaches don't start taking the job seriously" Look a bit silly in my opinion.

 

 

Indeed that defensive reshuffle really caused us problems. Jose and Yosh is a decent pairing, for all his tweeting and cardboard box on the head organising Jos is in fact a woefully bad defender at this level. If we'd had another solution at hand to have replaced Frazer at RB and left the middle 2 as it was we'd have probably got an easyish win. Jos is far, far too clumsy to be decent at this level and too slow in his reactions as well.

[pingwing]

I would go one step further and brought on De Ridder (If on the bench) or the other fast guy as speed helps to break well when under the cosh.

 

Urgh no De Ridder! Would have been the exact same problem as Puncheon on the pitch, ran a lot but their defenders looked surprised how easy it was to win the ball off of him. De Ridder has the touch of a 13 year old rapist and would have made it even simpler for Fulham to win the ball and basically be playing against 10 men. We just needed people who could just keep the ball sensibly away from their attacking midfield 3 (Ruis, KKK bloke and Duff) as they were the only sort of good players Fulham had going forward.

[Window Cleaner]

Urgh no De Ridder! Would have been the exact same problem as Puncheon on the pitch, ran a lot but their defenders looked surprised how easy it was to win the ball off of him. De Ridder has the touch of a 13 year old rapist and would have made it even simpler for Fulham to win the ball and basically be playing against 10 men. We just needed people who could just keep the ball sensibly away from their attacking midfield 3 (Ruis, KKK bloke and Duff) as they were the only sort of good players Fulham had going forward.

 

 

I see on whoscored.com that they think that AL's only weakness is his lack of ability to hold on to the ball.

As for De ridder those that think that he'll get any game time this season barring a major outbreak of berri-berri or green monkey disease in our ranks are seriously deluded.

[Special K]

We don't have a leader on the pitch. AL is not skipper material and the job should be given to SD or someone who has a voice.

The decision making of forward players needs to be worked on, especially the wide players. RL apart, there are too many incorrect decisions being made.

Substitutions are not working, but that can easily be rectified, although i guess NA hates to be told what to do!

JF starting to look better all round & I like Yoshi's attitude and willingness to adapt - will be very important in the winter months. DF played better but will still get hammered by the likes of Lennon in future games. Unfortunate with injuries yesterday, but i sense the defence (when fully fit and first choice) is starting to find their feet. I know majority won't agree, but we have faced some quality opposition so far and I sense their positioning yesterday was better than it has been.

For me, the midfield revolves around MS. SD is tidy, but nothing special. MS is some player in this league and we will do well to hold onto him in January. AL is too ineffective at the mo' and needs a bit of a lift and not the burden of captaincy.

Up front we don't know our best formation. RL needs to be central to what's going on. His partnership with GR is crucial to how we perform this season. JR needs to either adapt to wide play or get stronger, but he doesn't suit the current formation. JP has been good this season and gives defences plenty to think about. If he can just evaluate a little better and sort out his final ball, he will be very useful this season.

Overall not too disappointed. Some good signs and some things to work on. I think some simple changes will make a lot of difference. All imho of course.

[Appy]

Personally I would have kept Lambert on, but did we play so much worse when he went off? The subs weren't the problem yesterday, our ability to retain the ball and control the game in the 2nd half was the issue, but I can't quite put my finger on why that was, especially considering our two central midfielders had decent games.

 

Also, people moaning about the defence, I can't ever remember a back 4 getting so many injuries and so many changes in such a short period of time - back fours are built on understanding, being settled etc, even the best back four in the world would have struggled with so many players being forced to play out of position, missing key members etc. I think a back four of Fox, Yoshida, Fonte and Clyne is half decent on the basis it's given some protection by the midfield.

 

Pretty much agree with all of this, losing Richardson early on was a massive blow.

 

We were poor the whole second half, even with Lambert on the pitch.

[jasoneuelllfanclub]

We don't have a leader on the pitch. AL is not skipper material and the job should be given to SD or someone who has a voice.

The decision making of forward players needs to be worked on, especially the wide players. RL apart, there are too many incorrect decisions being made.

Substitutions are not working, but that can easily be rectified, although i guess NA hates to be told what to do!

JF starting to look better all round & I like Yoshi's attitude and willingness to adapt - will be very important in the winter months. DF played better but will still get hammered by the likes of Lennon in future games. Unfortunate with injuries yesterday, but i sense the defence (when fully fit and first choice) is starting to find their feet. I know majority won't agree, but we have faced some quality opposition so far and I sense their positioning yesterday was better than it has been.

For me, the midfield revolves around MS. SD is tidy, but nothing special. MS is some player in this league and we will do well to hold onto him in January. AL is too ineffective at the mo' and needs a bit of a lift and not the burden of captaincy.

Up front we don't know our best formation. RL needs to be central to what's going on. His partnership with GR is crucial to how we perform this season. JR needs to either adapt to wide play or get stronger, but he doesn't suit the current formation. JP has been good this season and gives defences plenty to think about. If he can just evaluate a little better and sort out his final ball, he will be very useful this season.

Overall not too disappointed. Some good signs and some things to work on. I think some simple changes will make a lot of difference. All imho of course.

 

good assessment. injuries are taking its toll currently so the two week break is a blessing. i think team will improve once we have key players such as ramirez, clyne, and cork fit. our bench will look a lot stronger for it as well with lee and boruc also to come into the fold.

 

i think lallana needs to step up to the plate especially in the absence of ramirez which could be the next few games if his injury is as severe as we fear it is.

 

I do think we need a box to box midfielder like a yaya toure type player who not only has a great engine but also others that much needed steel in the middle of the park.

[The Cat]

Just like the England team, it matters not a jot who is captain. It's not like certain players will stop shouting and communicating with their team mates just because they aren't wearing the armband. It's largely a symbolic role and I have no problem with our longest serving player wearing it.

 

As for the game we were good first half by allowed Fulham to gain momentum in the second and an equaliser always looked on the cards. Good to see us fighting until the end to grab a point. We could easily have gone 2-0 up; Puncheon hitting the post from 3 yards didn't help, nor did Lambert missing a couple of chances you'd back him to stick in the net.

[tajjuk]

Puncheon hitting the post from 3 yards didn't help,

 

Forgot abut that although i'm pretty sure it was cleared off the line, thing is if he had actually got a decent connection it would have been a goal but it just hit him.

[S-Clarke]

Forgot abut that although i'm pretty sure it was cleared off the line, thing is if he had actually got a decent connection it would have been a goal but it just hit him.

 

Yeah it was cleared off the line, but you're right - a cleaner connection and that was a goal. (but it did come to him at a fairly odd angle to be fair)

[Whitey Grandad]

Terrible decision by a terrible ref.

He disallowed it for Lambert climbing, not for anything on the goalkeeper. That's what he was indicating.

[RedAndWhite91]

Adkins has been great for us, and was unlucky to lose Ramirez and Clyne today, but taking off your best two attacking players at home against a side there for the taking is a direct route to a P45 if it doesn't come off. Davis and Schneiderlin were both hopeless today, both of them have the first touch of a camel and repeatedly gave the ball away. We have to sort out the pub defending too. Hooiveld is becoming a liability.

 

Honestly, what game were you watching?

[Window Cleaner]

Honestly, what game were you watching?

 

 

Evidently not one where Cliff Huxford and Docker Walker kick the opposition over the East Stand in the first 10 minutes and the ref just smiles and raises his thumb in admiration.

[mitch01]

That was a funny old match. We were pretty decent defensively in the first half and limited their chances while creating a few ourselves, but in the second we seemed more than a little pedestrian and allowed Fulham to take control pretty much without a fight.

 

Gazzaniga - Good performance. He can kick well and made one excellent save.

 

Yoshida - Very poor at RB with the ball at his feet, but he didn't get caught out too much positionally so essentially did his job OK.

Fonte - Has looked better ever since that Man Utd game for me, even vs Arsenal he was our best defender. Two good goals, good committed display.

Hooiveld - He is a much better defender than he is showing at the moment. There is no excuse for an own goal like that, his body position was poor and it really cost us.

Fox - Better than he has been defensively, although he was caught out somewhat for their second. Delivery was excellent.

 

Schneiderlin - Very good performance, although guilty of giving the ball away a few times in the first half and close to being sent off in the second after another mistimed tackle. He is standing up to be counted, though.

Davis - One of his best games for us so far, though I'm still not 100% sure he is the midfielder we need him to be. He was busy and combative, but not much else.

Lallana - Ran very hard for the first sixty or so minutes, but was positioned badly for their first goal - leaving a Fulham player completely free on the touchline. Perhaps his hard work caught up with him, but in the second half he struggled to make an impact.

Puncheon - Great work defensively in the first half, and picked out Lambert for a chance, but failed to capitalise on good opportunities a few times in the second period. Once or twice he seemed reluctant to cross when Lambert hadn't quite made it into the box and eventually lost the ball.

 

Lambert - We looked dangerous whenever he had the ball in front of their back four, but that was quite rare. He also struggled to make up the ground to get into the box as attacks built. One or two half chances sent off-target, but he is allowed one or two off days.

Rodriguez - I thought he looked sharp and full of energy, often nipping in behind their back four. Struggled when he was isolated in the second half, but that had more to do with the rest of the team for me.

[simondo]

god there are some bed wetters on here..!

 

yesterday we looked preety good first half could easily been 4 up (but weren't) i thought the attack cut through them at will...

 

Jos was the Boss last season and every thought Fonte wasn't up to it - how f**cking fickle are some of you...

 

yes Jos scored an own goal, but would you rather he didn't throw his body in front of shots? where I sit was perfectly in line with Ressie? and the far post. the ball was definately going past - but not by much, believe me... so i would hope the defender does throw their body in the way - it was just tough luck...

 

imho the reason for the late Fulham pressure was more to do with Morgan being on a final warning and therefore unable to put the tackles in than anything else. if you watched him he didn't have the same effect as up to 70 minutes. and at that stage we had made three subs...the manager shoulf have swapped chaplow and him around to have a better cenral mid fied effect.

 

in summary - imho poor management rather than not enough quality cost us yesterday - but like all the players, Adkins is having to learn as well...

[S-Clarke]

god there are some bed wetters on here..!

 

yesterday we looked preety good first half could easily been 4 up (but weren't) i thought the attack cut through them at will...

 

Jos was the Boss last season and every thought Fonte wasn't up to it - how f**cking fickle are some of you...

 

yes Jos scored an own goal, but would you rather he didn't throw his body in front of shots? where I sit was perfectly in line with Ressie? and the far post. the ball was definately going past - but not by much, believe me... so i would hope the defender does throw their body in the way - it was just tough luck...

 

imho the reason for the late Fulham pressure was more to do with Morgan being on a final warning and therefore unable to put the tackles in than anything else. if you watched him he didn't have the same effect as up to 70 minutes. and at that stage we had made three subs...the manager shoulf have swapped chaplow and him around to have a better cenral mid fied effect.

 

in summary - imho poor management rather than not enough quality cost us yesterday - but like all the players, Adkins is having to learn as well...

 

Jos got himself in a bad position. and look at Gazzaniga's reaction, he knew it was going wide as he signaled that before Jos put his foot out - only to look at Jos with disbelief.

 

Own goals can be unlucky, but they can also come from bad positioning. Which was the case yesterday.