Gutted for the youngsters tonight but we seem to have a perennial problem that has been an issue for some years now: playing 2 halves of football in one game. Frequently we do not play 90 mins of good football. Kit has been doing wonderful things recently I just hope that this does not detract from all the good work he has done. It was going to hard to beat a very good Derby team, especially with such a changed team, but as a club we have to have the mentality of keeping the pressure on for the whole 90 mins. A good learning exercise for some very good young talented players, although they will be disappointed they will take a lot from this result.
Disappointed with the result, but I didn't expect much given the startin XI. Sounds like Kiraly was absolute pony. Kit's still our man, IMO. COYW
Don't know what to make of it tonight... This game might have cost Kit his job. Too slow to re-act when Detby went 3-2 up and we were torn apart. Good lesson for the boys tonight. Both Williams and Roberts were taken apart.
I was very nervous before the start, this is a team in the top 5 , who seemed to spend 45m summing us up, saw our weaknesses, and played on them, then the next 45 tore us apart. Our problem no goalkeeper to speak of, their fullbacks dominated our wingers, and we lacked a confident defence. ~ said before say again Jan window a quality full back and midfielder.. And someone tell our lads that most matches last for about 95min. Lets hope that we have not lost the momentum and confidence of the last month.
The players chosen, played to their ability/experience in general. Hoogland had a poor game (but not a killer); Zverotic was average. Williams (and to a lesser extent Roberts) did well for first 40 mins, but were no use at all defensively in the second half. Ruiz was poor in second half. Whilst I believe we should appoint Kit, this was HIS weaknesses exposed. Either he should have responded earlier (50-55 mins) and brought on vim, vigour and experience - eg McCormack for Ruiz and Parker/Stafilydis for Zverotic/Hoogland; or he should have accepted defeat and stayed with the kids. I still want Kit, but this was a strong case for a mentor/DoF
Well the blitz was on the other foot tonight. And fair play to a very good Derby side, although we contributed to our own downfall with some fundamental errors. Might as well start with the boss. Kit made two bad mistakes and both were appointing Ruiz as captain. Firstly, Bryan demonstrated no leadership whatsoever and I’d go so far as to suggest his only emotion was disinterest. Secondly, it meant delaying his substitution. Elsewhere we continually lost players, and not only in the second half. That half however highlighted another major problem - backing off, backing off… Defensively we just didn’t work as a unit. And here I’d single out another player, Hoogland. His attempts at defending bordered on the ridiculous. There’s no real point in going on. It was a side thrown together and lacking experience in key positions; hence we got our comeuppance. Two positives though. One was Moussa Dembele getting his two goals. Okay both were from Derby errors but he showed great awareness and coolness (the latter being especially pleasing following his earlier miss when through one-on-one with the keeper). And the second positive was being able to buy “Fulham: a Century of Memorable Matches” for only £2.99 in the Club shop and having a free set of earphones thrown in. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to plug them into and drown out the Derby fans’ singing.
Woeful defending tonight, how can you allow a player to go past you along the goal line, not once but 3 times. Hoogland had a nightmare of a game same with Kavanagh. I'm still trying to fathom why Zverotic played in DM and Hoogland at Fullback. Both Zverotic and Hyndman were ineffectual, but I thought Roberts and Williams did well going forward but not in helping the fullbacks. Hutchinson still hasn't had a good game. I was really surprised with the back 5 Kit selected, in all the games I've seen Kiraly play he doesn't build me with confidence, he so reminds me of Tony Warner. Thought Arthurworrey did well in the first half against a strong powerful Martin, but 2nd half he too was taken apart as the fullbacks collapsed. Kit got his tactics and his selection wrong and agree he was slow to react to the 3-2 score. I don't like it when managers don't respect the cup matches and play weakened teams. May be we fans should not bother to go to cup games if that is the attitude of clubs to winning trophies.
Very disappointed with Kit tonight though I thought I my eat my words at half time. Derby are a good strong side and seemed to have a near full strength squad out, and wanted to win. We were building momentum and to put out that team selection was disappointing. We were gifted our two goals so it could have been a lot worse. Substitutions were far too late, it was naive judgement and tactically poor. Lessons have to be learnt. It was a mess.
There is a big truth there... The penalty in the last minute brought them back. But they have a very good manager. What ever he has done in the past is done. MacLaren reads the game. It's not a surprise this happened twice this season... And there lies my only doubt on Kit. He will need help to make the step...
Everyone had a poor game including Kit. To be 2 nil up against Derby was fantastic although it was deep down a position that I didn't honestly think we could hold on to but you can't judge Kit by this game. He will be the first person to say he got it wrong but he picked his side according to the schedule of games that have been played and we will be playing in the league, IMO. I dare say I would have done the same and hand on heart I would want my side concentrating on the league. One bad result and we're back in the bottom 3. It was shame but hopefully everyone learns from this. One other note, listening to Jim on the radio, all I could hear was the Derby followers. Non stop all game. Fair play to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2o8c8Vft_8 The two minutes from yesterday is out. Have no idea why Kiraly was on the pitch...
