First visit to FPR for me this season. Such a lovely place in he sunshine when it came out, makes you almost religious innit. Felt it was strangely quiet though. Both sets of fans seemed to sense their unexpected starts to the season was about to change so it was predictably depressing to see it happen.
Fulham really should have been out of sight by the time Kebano nodded home. He was their MOTM for me, whilst they had plenty to choose from, he did a number on the right side of our defence which completely dictated our impotence.
If Fulham were as good as they thought and threatened to be, they should have murdered us with that back four and looked like they might all game. It reminded me of Barnsley in the first half, the big difference being Mick didn't/couldn't change the system at half time.
Without our full backs able to get forward Garner's isolation completely nullified any hope we had. When Grant Ward did get forward and into that right hand channel he forced Button to flap and a corner or two to great effect. However Fulham's system made him a passenger when we didn't have the ball. It was frustrating to watch.
Cairney was supposedly their missing link all season and he's one of several players you'd love here. Whereas McGoldrick skittles defences with his poise and balance, Cairney drew Skuse out by dropping deep and pinging passes to waiting wingers. It's something that we simply didn't have. As passes cut out 7 or more of our side and landed perfectly for them to attack they were working in units and we weren't up and down and across the pitch.
Macdonald is another one I've liked since his Wolves days, he's as vital for them as Cole is for us, but a totally different proposition. As they swapped Sessegnon and Kebano from wingers that could cut inside onto their stronger foot and test us, they always had full backs right behind them and that overloading on the line kept us narrow and disjointed.
Playing four strikers was effectively what Fulham did, Mick simply named four. That allowed Fulham to drop into a back three with MacDonald acting as a sweeper and a very high line. All their wide players pushing us back. Mick seemed not to be able to deal with this even with the changes.
Garner's usual play meant he took out one defender and himself, with Waghorn and Sears both poor in following up and McGoldrick dropping to get the ball our front line was all over the show. Possession doesn't win games, but the inability to get on the ball at all meant we were never likely to get back at them.
There was some great blocks, body on the line stuff and so many superb from Bart. It was gutting their second felt like it was against the run of play as we started the second half brighter, and even the break looked to be dealt with as Knudsen seemed to put the first shooter of balance and Bart did really well only for it to fall to Fonte. It was a great finish but neither he or AK47 looked the finished article to me, the sub especially just seemed to be a runner and a nuisance.
Downes restored the midfield a little and there was a moment where Skuse dispossessed MacDonald, worked it cleverly to Dids and the ball to Garner was superb. He was so desperate to use it he made a needless touch when just running the channel was a better idea. But Fulham had five or six of those to every similar one for us, which was the difference.
If you look at the league we can be rightly proud so far and I believe with so many to come back it's not the killer blow it would have been last year. As much as they were raving about Slav with that rubbish song of theirs, if Cairney is the reason they've stumbled so far how would he cope with Mick's budget and injury crisis?
Given they had a world class w@nker like Martin around last season it's no surprise he rubbed off on them. The tiara of ref-baiting princesses has passed from Bournemouth to Fulham it seems. A team so expansive/expensive with so many class players shouldn't need to do that, but every year there seems to be at least one. It was maybe tribute to their fragile confidence, or any sense we might be getting at them. I did marvel at a player dribbling into the hoardings today, carrying on back inside and the Lino 15 yards away missing it, it was worth a laugh but we did everything wrong in letting him make decisions it's still something we need to work on when the game's turn against us.
I was really pleased with Knudsen, he's gone from the Danish Baresi to Koeman like switches and almost seemed a little too casual on the ball. He and Kenlock were much better than the defensive wedge of Iorfa, Waghon and Spence who seemed to narrow and assume one of the other two would pick up a man who was allowed to run or shoot far too often.
Contrast that with the options to change it we had such as Celina, and he gives the ball away cheaply far too close to our own box, then minutes later skips through half the team but unable to find something. He's going to do it here, I'm sure but I don't know how long it'll take to show.
Mick got slapped a little by the wealth of riches at Slav's disposal, and I think he got the selection wrong but those he did put out there were a little too tired and slow in their thinking and execution. We looked like a side whose adrenaline had warn off and Fulham were just hitting stride today. Overall I'm loathed to suggest we've been lucky and it's run out, we've got a platform after the break to have a really good season. I hope we build on it this time. |  |
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