What an absolutely dross game, no invention, no ambition, no attacking intent just thump it long and hope its sticks to Rondon (who wasn't as good as Mitro today in the exact same formation). Would the fans have put up with this **** under Allardyce, Bruce, Pardew, Pulis etc? No they wouldn't have, they would have booed the team off the pitch today and rightly so.
Ranieri set his team up well they played on the counter and thwarted our own counter attacking system.
You could almost say that game was match fixing. Both teams shook hands and said lets just take a point each.
@JH stand Thought you guys played your game plan well today, sit it, soak up pressure and try and hit on the counter, could have easily nicked a goal today and being honest think you probably had the better chances (well of course you did - at least you could get a shot on target) My issue is with Rafa, can't complain about one of the players today. No one was garbage just straight 6's across the board. Rafa though gets a -1. Playing 5-4-1 at home to bottom of the league when you need to win and then sticking rigidly to it for 95 mins is pathetic. Used 2 subs neither of which affected the game, didn't try to go for it. Bring Muto or Joselu on and go for it, get Hayden in the midfield for some extra legs/extra man in the midfield, don't just replace Atsu - who shouldn't be starting for us EVER and then bring a straight switch on ar RB with 6 mins to go where the **** did he get the idea Yedlin was going to make the difference in the last 6 mins? FFS we had a natural back 4 on the pitch and could have easily gone 442 or 433 to try and get something. The midfield is where we could have won it today Diame and Ki vs Chambers and Seri. You don't even need to make a sub man, just switch to 4 at the back and push Ayoze into the hole to try and find the pockets of space and play off Rondon if you do need to go long but for the life of me can't believe we just stuck at it plugging away to no avail. Also anyone who doesn't think Rafa dropped a bollock switching Mitro for Rondon can't have watched the game today, better hold up play, fantastic in his own box, hada shot saved by Dubruvka, one cleared by Lacselles, nearly caught out Dub's chasing through, thought he was class today compared to Rondon who proved to be a cheap mans (Ashley) version of Mitro.
The execution playing from the back was shambolic. Midfield didn’t link the play, front three looked like strangers. Ritchie isn’t a left wing back in any circumstance and his crossing was ****. Manquillo is a bang average right back. Rafa is just trying to get a tune out of a very very average squad. You talk about Joselu or Muto changing the game, or Perez dropping into pockets - none of this stuff could happen, it never has, these are shoestring players! When they all play at 100%, rafas game plans pick up wins. When they’re all performing at their usual level, we drop points. I thought Ranieri had the better plan, but it’s easier to play against us at home because we simply cannot take the game to the opposition. We are better on the road being attacked. When we get more than 50% possession we just **** ourselves and end up throwing points away. But let’s not forget only Liverpool had a bigger net spend than Fulham in the summer.
I'm sorry but if you were happy watching that bollocks for 95 mins then I don't know what to tell you. Rafa didn't try and change it, for that - today is his fault. There is a reason you have a squad and a reason you can make 3 subs. Like I say didn't even need to make a change to try and effect the game just move players to their natural positions... How often do you see a sub come on a nick a goal for a team? If we'd gone for it and lost I wouldn't have cared as much but watching that rubbish was unbelievably soul destroying. AT LEAST HAVE A GO MAN!
Mitro has worked his socks off this season and deserves better reward for his efforts. This is the player that has variously been described as ill disciplined and lazy,and I have to say that I was disappointed that sections of the crowd saw fit to boo him - it is hardly his fault that Rafa was unable to integrate him into your side. On your point regarding a change of system I am not sure it would have worked,both mid-fields cancelled each other out. You need the creativity of Shelvey and we should be playing Vietto - four of Mitro's goals have come from his assists. Both sides need investment in January as on today's evidence we are lacking quality in key positions. Perhaps Santa Ashley will see the light.
I loved Mitro and still do tbh. I don't want Fulham to go down and if we ever get to a position of safety this season I'll be hoping you guys do too. How's Sess doing by the way, not seen much of him?
Thought this performance was nothing to do with defensive tactics and everything to do with a lack of quality. Thought the onlyplayers that ahowed any were Ki and Perez and thought Lascelles had a much better game than last week. Schar and Ritchie were woeful - the former with his distribution and the latter tries but really doesnt do much.
We couldn’t afford to lose the game and didn’t. The players are so crap they couldn’t manage a shot against the worst defence in the division. I’m pretty sure Rafa didn’t set us up to do that.
Without being bothered to actually look up the values i'm going to comfortably suggest that the team we put out on the pitch today cost us comfortably less than half the amount of money Fulham spent this summer. That is the situation we are in. That we are still above some teams in the league despite years of chronic under-funding; that anyone is expecting anything other than a relegation dogfight we that just goes to show how good a job Benitez is doing. I actually said to my brother-in-law before the match (a Liverpool fan) that i didn't think we'd win as our home form, especially when we are expected to take the game to the opposition, is woeful. Win and I'd have been confident of staying up, lose and I'd be very concerned we were going down. I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't think we're getting relegated but it's not going to be pretty. The thing with Benitez though is that in 'playing it safe' and eeking out a point here and there we don't actually put anywhere near enough distance between us and the bottom few so when we get a horror run of games we're right back in the ****. It's a fine line between the likes of us and West HamWolves/Bournemouth but it's also a fine line between us and Fulham/Cardiff/Huddersfield. Oh well.
Unfortunately Rafa did, same as every other game. It's all about defence and getting a point. For me Rafa in American Football would be a defensive coach and someone else like Shearer teaching them how to be strikers. How much longer is he going to give us the same rubbish in home games,unless he changes his habits of a lifetime then I fear the worst for us. Somehow can't see us beating Man Un and lets remember Ki is now gone for a month.
