Started a team for Fulham thread. Thought I'd get slated for starting a match thread Always happy to oblige though!
OK no more post mortems. Let's look forward not back. Line drawn, take the positives etc. Bring on Fulham!
Only good delivery of the game, and Adkins clearly brought him on for that purpose. Maybe he's actually been impressing in training.
I really think he can be a useful player in exactly the situation we had yesterday, despite his flaws. I remember seeing him at Cardiff last season when despite being sucker punched for two route-one goals by them, he came on and we dominated the whole second half. He brought a real directness to our play, taking players on and even scored a goal. I realise it was a division lower but I think his pace can cause problems even at this level. His chances are going to be limited because we normally like to play a more patient game which he isn't really suited to, but in situations where we are pressing for a late equaliser he can certainly do a job. Seems most people think he did all right yesterday, albeit to no avail in the end.
I was surprised to see De Ridder on the bench, let alone come on - but i thought that he did OK when he came on and offered the first decent corners/crosses of the game for us. He offered a little bit of zip to our play which had been missing all afternoon - alas to no avail on this ocassion.
De Ridder's one of those players who plays with his head down and has an idea of what he's going to do before he actually gets the ball. One good thing about this is that he isn't afriad to move the ball forward and to actually take on defenders, would be very useful on the counter attack with his pace.
