Fulham

[Hafnia]

I said before this that we would miss the shit Joe Allen. In many ways we did, when they had the ball we were nowhere near as effective.

 

Gutted about gerry, hope it's a strain but think it's a tear.

[thoward18]

Poor 45-65 or so. Really, really poor. However, we have to acknowledge that it's a 38 game season and you're not going to play brilliantly for 90 minutes in all 38. Credit to the team for not getting demotivated and instead rallying to get the lead back in convincing fashion. If a "poor" performance for us is a 4-1 win against a decent side like Fulham then we'll be just fine. Obviously, though, what happened today is not going to work against a top side.

[Hafnia]

We have a few old tendencies but how good was it to see Roberto kick arse in a tactical manner. When Gerry got injured he gave Barry his brief.

[markjazzbassist]

We have a few old tendencies but how good was it to see Roberto kick arse in a tactical manner. When Gerry got injured he gave Barry his brief.

 

yeah i saw that too he yelled at him to come over and have a chat, and looks to have worked. i really hope we can get barry in the offseason. he is terrific.

[Cornish Steve]

Had an amazingly vivid dream we won a game 5-2. Opposition wasn't Fulham, couldn't tell who it was to be honest. Just remember we were 4-1 up, then Barry scoring at each end to make it 5-2. We'll see I guess....

 

That was next year's Champions League final against Bayern.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

Absolutely awful performance today but thankfully Fulham were even worse then we were

[Blue 250]

Had an amazingly vivid dream we won a game 5-2. Opposition wasn't Fulham, couldn't tell who it was to be honest. Just remember we were 4-1 up, then Barry scoring at each end to make it 5-2. We'll see I guess....

 

Not quite how you saw it, Fulhams away strip could have thrown you, Barry had a hand in goals at both ends (tackle for the penalty certainly helped).....so I'd say, eat more cheese!

 

Great result, above the rs, unbeaten at home still, decent day I'd say.

 

If Pienaar can keep that level up and renew his link with Baines then we will have a lethal left and if Coleman keeps improving at this rate the right wont be too shabby.

[Shukes]

Absolutely awful performance today but thankfully Fulham were even worse then we were

I actually thought we had a sloppy 20 Mob spell and our second half passing was poor. But I also thought at times we played some scintillating stuff! First half we deserved more goals and over all we deserved the win comfortably.

[Vranny]

We just completely lacked a decent final ball for most of the second half, which made us look atrocious at times. That inconsistency in the final third won't change until we can get some real world class talent in our attacking positions. Hopefully Barkley can develop into such a player for us.

[Pearso]

4-2 scoreline was very flattering. Still, I'm glad we bounced back so ruthlessly from that penalt. We had no momentum and it put them on the front foot, I even thought we were a chance of losing,but the way we bounced back is something I wouldn't expect off any team besides maybe man city.

 

A bit of chat around about us pushing a bit higher than just champions league qualification... Obviously it's earlydays and important to not get ahead of ourselves, but if we can play so poorly for a period like we did and still get away with a 4-1 victory, that kind of consistency suggests to me there's no reason we couldn't put pressure on Arsenal and City at the top of the table. We just need to find that consistency against poorer sides that we've lacked in recent years.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Pearso

[Romey 1878]

I actually thought we had a sloppy 20 Mob spell and our second half passing was poor. But I also thought at times we played some scintillating stuff! First half we deserved more goals and over all we deserved the win comfortably.

 

 

Were you at the game, Shukes? I'm not making this an "I'm better than you because I was at the game" thing, btw. It's just I was at the game and I assume Dunc was (he usually is) and I saw it the same way he did, we were horrible and way off our game, so I was wondering if maybe that had played a role.

[Guest rusty747]

We were crap for the majority of the game. Too many mis placed passes, no urgency and a lack of understanding made us look truly awful at times. However, we still found a way to win and never gave up. What was good enough to beat Fulham at home will not be good enough to beat Swansea away though.

Edited December 15, 2013 by rusty747

[Brett Angel]

its funny how supporters did not have expectations at the beginning of the season. As soon as we go on a run, some people are moaning about a 4-1 win against a team that would have ended up 1-1 in moyes time...get a grip will ya's!

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

its funny how supporters did not have expectations at the beginning of the season. As soon as we go on a run, some people are moaning about a 4-1 win against a team that would have ended up 1-1 in moyes time...get a grip will ya's!

 

 

Im not moaning abourt the result at all, at the end of the day grinding out results and taking 3 points when your not playing well ia always a good sign

 

But we were very poor throughout the game. I just thought it was a very flat performance and I lost count of the number of times we needlessly gave the ball away. It was a very sloppy performance and there is absolutely no way we deserved to run out 4-1 winners. I also think that you have to expect the form to dip a bit at this time of year with the games coming thick and fast so Im not overly concerned about it

 

Hopefully its just a blip and we will be back at it again next week

[Hafnia]

Gotta say at 70 minutes, 1-1 and Gerry off I feared them getting a winner or it staying a draw.

 

McCarthy was a big miss, purely from a tempo perspective.

[Bailey]

I have only watched Football First but from what they showed on there 4-1 did not flatter us in the slightest.

 

We had so many opportunities in the first half and we could have scored half a dozen in the first half alone. Bar the last 5 mins, we completely snuffed out any chances they had with ease. I thought that some of our passing and movement, especially on the counter was excellent.

 

Second half we did start slowly and I can understand if that is where the comments are coming from and despite giving them a couple of good chances and a soft penalty, it gave us a real kick up the arse, we made some changes (including moving Barkley deeper which gave us the most impetus IMO) and then we went again. Even after Berbatov had his chance at the back post, we went up the other end and Osman had probably a better chance if he could have jumped hgher than an inch! After that we controlled the game again and I dont remember them having any meaningful attempts.

 

Its never going to be easy breaking down these types of teams home or away and it was almost as if that goal gave them the hope that they could go on and win allowing us more space to exploit.

 

Good solid all round performance, 3 points and 4 goals. Roll on Swansea, which could be a cracking game!

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

I have only watched Football First but from what they showed on there 4-1 did not flatter us in the slightest.

 

We had so many opportunities in the first half and we could have scored half a dozen in the first half alone. Bar the last 5 mins, we completely snuffed out any chances they had with ease. I thought that some of our passing and movement, especially on the counter was excellent.

 

Second half we did start slowly and I can understand if that is where the comments are coming from and despite giving them a couple of good chances and a soft penalty, it gave us a real kick up the arse, we made some changes (including moving Barkley deeper which gave us the most impetus IMO) and then we went again. Even after Berbatov had his chance at the back post, we went up the other end and Osman had probably a better chance if he could have jumped hgher than an inch! After that we controlled the game again and I dont remember them having any meaningful attempts.

 

Its never going to be easy breaking down these types of teams home or away and it was almost as if that goal gave them the hope that they could go on and win allowing us more space to exploit.

 

Good solid all round performance, 3 points and 4 goals. Roll on Swansea, which could be a cracking game!

I dint watch Football First but if they made it look like we put in a good solid all round performance then hats off to the editor because it was anything but that

 

It was more of a sloppy,, flat, tired, never got out of second gear type performane. but the important thing is we still took the 3 points

[MikeO]

I dint watch Football First but if they made it look like we put in a good solid all round performance then hats off to the editor because it was anything but that

 

It was more of a sloppy,, flat, tired, never got out of second gear type performane. but the important thing is we still took the 3 points

 

I just deleted my post .

 

Anyway, agree with you Dunc. We were abject up 'til the first goal (MOTD first highlight was the goal), improved a bit after that and should have got another goal or two before half time. Second half we were very poor and I really didn't see us winning it when they equalised. Fact that we did is obviously a good sign, the old "winning even when you play poorly = good side" cliche works for me.

 

Was bound to be a bit of a come-down after the last two games, even if it's just subconscious the players have to believe "...we're going to twat these..." just like the fans did. Hopefully a bit of a wake-up call and we can be a bit more ruthless over Christmas. Twelve points from the next four games isn't impossible but I'd take ten, would put us in a brilliant position heading into 2014!

[Romey 1878]

Well that wasn't a game that will live long in the memory, so there isn’t an awful lot to say about the game really.

 

After the performances we put in against United and Arsenal I expected there to be a drop in our play, and there was quite a significant drop. First half we really struggled to get going. In fact, it took us quite a while just to have an extended period of possession. Some of that was down to Fulham keeping the ball well but the majority of it was down to us not being able to string two passes together! It was incredibly frustrating. We also lacked tempo and energy in midfield. I feel that was down to the James McCarthy sized holed in our midfield. It really was noticeable just what we were missing without him. There wasn’t really any one hustling the Fulham players and keeping things ticking over for us. Osman may have come in for him and he had a steady game but he in no way replaced him. Between poor passing and a lack of tempo we really struggled to get any fluency going. However, on the few occasions we did manage to up the tempo we opened them up and created a number of opportunities. One being when we took the lead through great work down the left between Oviedo and Pienaar, which led to Osman slotting the ball home. We hadn’t played well but we had mostly controlled the game and went in at half time one up.

 

In the second half I thought we were absolutely atrocious tbh. Our passing was even worse so Fulham were the ones that had a lot of control in the game. They may have got a bit of fortune in the way their equaliser came but they did deserve it on the balance of play at that time. The equaliser seemed to give us a kick up the bum and we did play better and we did go on to score another three goals but it still wasn’t great, IMO. I think we played much better in the first half but the difference was that we were more clinical in front of goal.

 

The positives to take out of the game are that we spread the goals around the team and that we won; and by a big margin, when playing one of our worst games of the season.

 

 

Howard – Another game with not a lot to do but also made a couple of outstanding saves.

 

 

Coleman – Continued with the improvement he showed against Arsenal. His attacking play was great; he got up and down his flank all afternoon. When his final ball was along the ground it was fine but when it was a cross… well, it was shite. And of course, he was in the right place to put the ball in the back of the net for our second. His defensive work was also pretty good. I was particularly impressed with that aspect when he had Mirallas in front of him. I say in front him very loosely because Mirallas was rarely out there helping out.

 

Jagielka and Distin – I thought the pair of them had great games and dealt well with what was thrown at them. My MOTM vote had to come from one of these two and Jagielka made it an easy decision after his mistake that so very nearly led to a Fulham goal. So Distin got my MOTM vote. He was cool, calm and collected all game long and defended extremely well at all times.

 

Oviedo – Another fine attacking display from him. He was always available for the ball and wanting to bring it forward. And he linked up extremely well with Pienaar; playing a role in two of our goals through this.

 

 

Deulofeu – A very frustrating game from him. Time after time he did all the hard work to create an opening and then blew it with his final ball.

 

Osman – He scored a beautiful goal; it was a quality finish. But other than that I just thought he was a steady Eddie who didn’t contribute anything more than his goal.

 

Barry – Easily his worst game for us. His passing, which is usually exemplary, was way off and he gave the ball away a fair bit. He also gave the penalty away, whether it should have been one or not. But he did make up for it somewhat by getting our third goal which effectively killed the game off.

 

Pienaar – Attacking-wise I thought he played very well. As usual he was finding the pockets of space and exploiting that to great effect. You only have to look at the Osman and Coleman goals to see that – he assisted both of them because of his movement and the space he found himself in. At the same time I also thought he looked a little jaded when asked to fulfil his defensive duties – he really struggled at times to get over and help Oviedo. It’s no wonder though; he puts a lot of effort into every game and he’s in his thirties now and this was his third game in quick succession. I wouldn’t rest him against Swansea but I’d think about benching him for the Sunderland game.

 

 

Barkley – I thought he had a very poor game. His radar for his passing was terrible – at least twice he passed the ball directly to an opposing player who couldn’t have been more than 3 yards in front of him. When he dropped into a deeper position in the second half he looked much better though; his passing was still a bit off but he was getting things going a lot better.

 

 

Lukaku – Suffered from a lack of service and he looked to be frustrated by it throughout the game.

[zequist]

Performance scores from Squawka for yesterday's match

 

Coleman: 100

Osman: 76

Barkley: 55

Pienaar: 40

Distin: 28

Barry: 25

Oviedo: 24

Lukaku: 24

Jagielka: 5

Howard: 0

Deulofeu: -32

 

Bench:

Mirallas: 49

Stones: 5

 

Not an absolute, but a good tool for relative comparisons I think. Scoring a goal is worth about 40 points in their formula, so with goals subtracted their top 5 would be Coleman 60, Barkley 55, Pienaar 40, Osman 36, Distin 28, which is pretty close to how I saw it. I put up a long post on the other thread about why Seamus was my MOTM. Squawka also provides separate scores for each player in attack, defense, and possession; Coleman and Barkley were the only players to earn 10+ scores in all three phases. Gerry was a negative in all three phases.

 

Defense performance scores for the back six: Barkley 29, Coleman 22, Distin 17, Jagielka 3, Oviedo -3, Barry -16 (big neg for giving up the penalty of course)

Possession performance scores for the fullbacks and midfielders: Pienaar 27, Coleman 22, Barkley 16, Barry 9, Oviedo 7, Osman 6, Deulofeu -12

Edited December 15, 2013 by JD in DC

[weebittight]

Great dummy from Pienaar. Standard Coleman goal from the back post, hopefully kick on and bag another.

Thing of beauty isn't it? ie us emerging from the dark ages when defenders just kicked it out that is.

 

Shame about the kid. Play wthin ourselves and win 4-1. Weebittight likes this.

Edited December 16, 2013 by weebittight

[Guest Nikica]

Watched your game - you played well first half but were quite average second, I felt. To win 4-1 despite that is a very positive sign. Lukaku with a third fluky assist in as many games but my fantasy team is not complaining.

 

In the other games, I'm not surprised that Man City hammered Arsenal. I like Arsenal and do rate them highly, but I did say they'd been playing above themselves.

 

Brilliant by Suarez too.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Nikica

[Bailey]

I dint watch Football First but if they made it look like we put in a good solid all round performance then hats off to the editor because it was anything but that

 

It was more of a sloppy,, flat, tired, never got out of second gear type performane. but the important thing is we still took the 3 points

 

Fair enough Dunc, the first half we looked like we created plenty of chances or at the very least opportunities that we could have exploited with a final pass or shot. Second half we didnt do much until they scored and whilst we didnt seem to create an awful lot apart from the goals, although Barkley looked to step up and control the midfield much better. Fulham themselves didnt really offer much of a threat other than the open goal and a half chance for Berbatov. Must admit I was surprised to see them have as many shots as they did when I looked at the stats!

[Shukes]

 

 

Were you at the game, Shukes? I'm not making this an "I'm better than you because I was at the game" thing, btw. It's just I was at the game and I assume Dunc was (he usually is) and I saw it the same way he did, we were horrible and way off our game, so I was wondering if maybe that had played a role.

No i wasnt at the game Romey.

 

your right it may have played a part. I didnt think we played great or anything but i thought we were very good in spells and sloppy in others, but addmitedly i was sitting at home watching a dodgy US channel!

It didnt look like we played awful... not good but not awful either. And even watching the highlights again it looked like we should have had more in the first half.

 

but i do agree that it looks a lot different live. You get to hear the players and see from a different angle.

[Romey 1878]

No i wasnt at the game Romey.

 

your right it may have played a part. I didnt think we played great or anything but i thought we were very good in spells and sloppy in others, but addmitedly i was sitting at home watching a dodgy US channel!

It didnt look like we played awful... not good but not awful either. And even watching the highlights again it looked like we should have had more in the first half.

 

but i do agree that it looks a lot different live. You get to hear the players and see from a different angle.

Plus, I had the cold wind making me grumpy .