Horrible in defence; Kelly was particularly miserable. The midfield was non-existent. Throughout too slow; too deliberate . Can't remember the last time we gave the ball away so often or played it so predictably that they could easily close the man down. After 20 minutes I said to my son, "Thank God for Dembele". He added "And the Pog". Indeed they were the onlt two worth their salt today. What more can you say - except, poor team selection; poor tactics; and a miserable afternoon at the Cottage. One good thing was to see Chris Baird. Looked specifically at him when the subs were kicking around at half time and he looked really chirpy.
You know it's bad when the only plus is a player who wasn't even on the pitch! Still it's only Man Utd at Old Trafford next.
Miserable indeed! Pog tried but there was no decent supply! Not a single pass that could give him a chance... Dembele tried but over-engineered things. The final pass never came. Murphy was the obvious absent. The tactic was horrible wrong. Let's put things into perspective. 4-4-2 with Ruiz and Dempsey will never work. None of them two is following to the attacking midfielder to help the defense. Thus both Kelly and Riise were horribly exposed today! And the CBs. The only system that Ruiz fits at the moment is 4-2-3-1. He plays up and the others cover any gaps. I was expecting this to be our approach with Duff instead of AJ. Diarra is not match fit. His legs gave up about 50th minute of the game. Why was not substituted earlier is beyond me. If that is the way he plays in a final. No thanks but no thanks. Before anyone jumps, he said that for him the 12 remaining games are like finals! A poor afternoon in the office for all... Hangeland inclusive.
Didn't think the Pog or MD played that great MD had a lot of the ball but didn't do much with it really. Thought CD was our best player today. I think SCFC could have played without a keeper today. I think MV only made one save. Still we're safe so it's not all doom and gloom
A bad day at thee office today! Mid-table security means that this performance does not give us too much material grief. However, MJ will have learned a lot about Diarra today, not helped by the fact that after 3/4 of a season Ruiz is still giving the ball away. 3 back-to-back wins followed by 2 back-to-back defeats with ManU up next week. Jekyll & Hyde continues. Still, on the upside, it's marginally better than being the draw kings! C O Y W
Even though it was a day where nobody played particularly well, it's at least comforting to know that the worst players were the ones we weren't 100% sure of anyway. Those being Kelly, Senderdross and Ruiz. All of whom have been given enough chances.
We shouldn't single out those 3. Diarra was absent, Hangeland nor very re-assuring. It was an abysmal performance! For me it was wrong tactic rather than players only.
Yes but Hangeland becomes a better player when the right player is beside him, aka Hughes. Diarra hasn't played a lot of football in the past few months, so it was an error from Jol to start him, even if Murphy was injured (not sure he was) Kasami or Gecov should have started (if Jol is even aware they exist anymore) Wrong tactics and wrong players, so we just move on to the next game and hope to avoid a hammering.
Watched much of the game yesterday in stunned silence. First and foremost, full credit to Swansea. It's the first time I've seen them up close and they're a mightily impressive unit and thoroughly deserved their win. As for Fulham, deary, deary me. You really never know what to expect from life on Planet Jol do you? I'm still behind him, but, really, what was he thinking with his team selection? Why was the best passer (Murphy) on the bench for a game when keeping the ball was going to be so important? Why was our best player last week (Duff) dropped? To be fair, I was saying before the match that it could be a chance for Ruiz to shine but he was truly awful. He seemed to have no idea where on the pitch he was meant to be. I've been in the 'keep playing him and he'll come good' camp until now but I'm starting to have my doubts. His confidence is clearly shot, he still takes 2 or 3 touches too many, and both he and Diarra, who looked off the pace, should have been replaced at half-time. All that said, performances from normally dependable players like Hangeland, Schwarzer and Riise were also well below par, Dembele was strangely subdued, and the less said about Senderos and Kelly the better. We probably could have played with the starting 11 PLUS the 3 who came on for 90 minutes and still got turned over. We followed up the the thumping by Man Utd with a good performance at Chelsea over Christmas, so let's hope for a similar response at Old Trafford.
It's strange that quite a few teams have had a "bad day at the office" against us this season. The truth is that teams expect to turn us over and get a nasty surprise. The Swans played Fulham off the park yesterday - the second half was no more than a training session and it could easily have benn 5 or 6 nil.
Wow talk about humility. One decent season in the PL and suddenly you're Barcelona. We were truly woeful yesterday and you played very well. We didn't expect to turn you over but considering our home form and your away form we were rightly expecting to take something from the game. Were we supposed to anticipate an ass whooping? Spend as long in the PL as we have then come back so we can have a conversation.
You were woeful because we outplayed you. Since when has the number of seasons you heve been in a Division been a factor in determining the outcome of a particular match? Humility? Try humble pie.
Yesterday we would have made Stoke look like Barcelona we were that bad. Credit to your team for beating us, but that's equally because we were as bad as you were good.
Kelly should not have started after a poor performance against Villa where he was partially at fault for their winner and Swansea's first goal, Baird should have played instead Senderos should not have played due to Hughes being fit again, was at fault for the third goal Duff should have started over Ruiz who was again woeful and subbed at half time Totally wrong tactics by Jol, Ruiz played in an ineffective position Two of your three goals came directly from errors by Fulham players, actually the only clear cut chance you made that was of your own doing was Sigurdsson's second. The first was poor marking from Stephen Kelly and the third was both Senderos and Schwarzer doing their best impressions of being 'footballers'. The only other clear cut chance came from a Schwarzer poor clearance that he tipped around the post from a Sinclair shot. Certainly sounds more like we were awful than you were astounding.
Depends who you ask mate. As many opinions as the members here. Compared to other games, which you have not watched, we were not just bad. We were AWFUL!!! In addition you played some simple effective football and job done. Congratulations. My main point is that Jol got the tactics wrong together with the formation. It should have been 4-2-3-1 given the players on the pitch. 4-4-2 should have been with Duff instead of Ruiz.
PGFWhite, I think some of my fellow Fulham fans are being a little ungracious. You didn't win because we were bad, you won because you were much better. Did we play so badly because you were so good? Possibly. I disagree with Bandit's comments about us losing because Jol made mistakes in selection. I think past performances this season suggest that Baird for Kelly and Hughes for Senderos wouldn't necessarily have improved us. I think in those positions Jol picked the best available. Ruiz/Duff and Diarra/Murphy are more debatable, but I think Murphy's omission may have been partly down to his facial injury in the previous match. If not, then I agree with Bandy that that was a mistake. Well done for the win and good luck for the rest of the season. I almost signed Sigurdsson for my fantasy football team this week. Wish I had now!
Senderos = squeeky bum time! He keeps playing out of position. Schwarzer didn't play brilliantly. But he has kept us in games in the past, you have to cut some slack I think.
Past performances? Like the previous game where Kelly was at fault for Villa's last minute winner? There is a reason Stephen Kelly's contract as not 'yet' been renewed.
